Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality. - Review - book review

Journal of Sex Research, Feb, 2001 by William B. Stanley

The development of new medical technologies usually requires (or helps to construct) a scientific/cultural basis for their use. Such an influential rationale for contemporary surgical technology was provided by the work of the Hampsons, Money, and Ehrhardt. These scholars claimed that human sexuality was highly malleable. Money and his colleagues acknowledged that biological factors influenced the course of human sexual development, but they claimed that social learning had a more powerful effect. In essence, all children could be raised as either a boy or a girl, provided the sexual assignment was done within the first two years and adequate genitals could be constructed surgically. This research has provided the epistemic basis for the guidelines used by the American Association of Pediatricians over the past four decades.

The theory of psychosexual neutrality has not gone unchallenged. Research claiming a biological basis for human sexuality had begun in earnest during the second decade of the twentieth century and was well established during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1965, Diamond, Money's most persistent and perceptive critic, published an article that raised serious questions regarding Money's research. However, it took more than thirty years to discredit Money's central ideas.

Perhaps the single most important event in this shift from Money's ideas was Reimer's (Money's subject in the John/Joan case) decision to go public and refute Money's fraudulent claims regarding the success of his case (Colapinto, 2000). Nevertheless, the American Association of Pediatricians still recommends surgical intervention and sex reassignment for infants born with ambiguous genitalia. Fausto-Sterling has joined with intersexual activists (e.g., Chase) in calling for an end to all such unnecessary infant surgery.

The impact of culture and politics on the production of scientific knowledge is well documented throughout Fausto-Sterling's book. In chapter five, she provides a detailed account of the scientific attempt to verify the differences between males and females with regard to the section of the brain called the corpus callosum. Close examination of this research reveals an alarming number of methodological problems. Consequently, according to Fausto-Sterling, the representations of the corpus callosum found in the current research literature are literary fictions (p. 127). She is not opposed to this sort of research in principle but argues that we should be more sensitive regarding the extent to which such research has been inconclusive and shaped by prevailing cultural assumptions. She believes we would make more progress if we were to focus on individual differences and how "the brain develops as part of a social system" (p. 145).

In chapters six, seven, and eight, Fausto-Sterling traces the history of our conception of "sex hormones" and how this concept was applied to research on sex. By 1940, scientists had identified, named, and reached a general consensus on how to measure sex hormones and their effects. The new science of hormones, endocrinology, became enormously influential in the construction of the modern discourse on sexuality. As this research progressed, it became apparent that what were called sex hormones in fact played multiple roles and affected many areas of the body including the brain, liver, gall bladder, kidneys, blood cell formation, the circulatory system, lipid and carbohydrate metabolism, and muscle activities. However, the assumption that the sex hormones were gendered was deeply ingrained and difficult to abandon. Indeed, the etymology of the terms androgen (to build a man) and estrogen (to create estrus) illustrate the role played by sexual ideology.