Summertime Reading of Eugenides

[ptrinkl108]

For the last couple of weeks, I have been relaxing by reading Jeffrey Eugenides book "Middlesex". In the past, I had scanned it for intersex passages, but now I decided to read it from cover to cover.

The book got glowing reviews. The Times (London) said "Not since Michel Foucault's "Herculine Barbin" two decades ago has there been such a sustained first person narration about the coming of age of a hermaphrodite".

To me there seems to be a big difference between the two books. Herculine Barbin was a real intersex person. In the case of Eugenides, I am somewhat skeptical of his "first person narration" as it is fictional and written by a non-intersex person. I know that, as Jules once said to me, you don't have to be a whale to understand marine biology. Thanks Jules, I try to keep that in mind, but sometimes it can be difficult.

Reading the book in full gave me a greater appreciation of the work. I think that Eugenides did a pretty good job. I really identified with the chapter on the visits to the "Sexual Disorders and Gender Identity Clinic". Personally, I remember going through a very similar evaluation at a children's hospital when I was twelve. During one psychological test, I remember a woman showing me a whole series of Ink Blots, and I associated every one of them with animals (in line with my general alienation from the human species.)

There are major differences between my experience and the Eugenide's story of Callie/Cal. For instance, I had infant genital surgery. Once I was assigned a sex there was no transition later in life. Also, my alienation from everyday life was much greater than for the Callie/Cal character. I was a real space cadet. Anyway, I am curious as to what other "Bodies" members might think about the book "Middlesex". Any thoughts?

Peter

[Betsy]

I bought a copy of it myself recently thanks to the same B&N gift card I got the dead book with (which btw was given for a speaking engagement and was a super nice gesture). Like you, I skipped right to the intersex narrative by Callie/Cal.

Betsy

[ptrinkl108]

This evening I had dinner with my parents, and they mentioned in passing that they had both recently read "Middlesex". It's not that surprising as I confronted them in the past about my situation. Although, I know that many people don't really like the book, and I myself find it problematic, I think that it is a step in the right direction that my parents read the book. My mother is from Detroit, so she could really relate to the overall story. She said that back in the early 1930's that my grandmother would take my mother and her sister to sit outside the Ford Motor plant to watch the doors of the blast furnaces open and close at night. My mother does not remember Grosse Point, as that was outside of her world as it was for most people in Detroit. When I asked my mother about the Cal/Callie character she shutdown again. But I can tell that my parents are thinking things over and trying to grow in their own way. They are so defensive. I appreciate that they are starting to make an effort to consider the possibility of being more open about the past. I know that is a long twisted sentence, but my parents have a long way to go. There are so many layers of shame and secrecy that I doubt that they will make much progress. But at least in the last 12 years with the growth of organizations like ISNA, Bodies Like Ours, and the Intersex Initiative there are increased opportunities for educating parents like mine.

Peter

[Rudy]

Hey there all i've rea Middlesex as well, had to snag a copy for myself when i heard the reviews.

I personally thought the book a little hard to get into. The first half of the book is very twisted. As it concerns insest? I don't know if i spelled that right. Anyways, i didn't much approve of all the brother/sister relationship stuff. I did however, Really like the character's "Cal" personal thought processes. Hehe that may be hard to comprehend. How can one understand a made up characters thought processes? Well i think that the author Eugenides did a great job expressing what Cal was going threw.
Makes me wonder if perhaps the author knows a friend whos gone threw similar things and used it for the book. Thats probably what i liked best about the book. "Cal" has/had great incite into what he is and not what other people Like the doctors and family told her he was. Reminds me alot of myself. in a way. I m very adamant about not being a man. However, i also acknowledge the fact that imnot truly a woman either. I know i look like a man. But i sure dont feel like one. And well at least i know my hormones and my anatomy are fairly unique. So i cope by accepting that.
The book welll over all id give a thumbs up. Its good, But there are some difficult concepts in that arent all that appealing.
Rudy A. Alaniz
P.S. Does anyone know of any other good Books about intersexuals? I've been able to find several on transgendered people but not on nonfiction/biograph's on intersexuals.

[ptrinkl108]

Hi Rudy,

I just wrote you a very long response which evaporated into cyber-space when I pushed the wrong button.

For books, I recommend the following by Alice Dreger.

"Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex", which I am now reading. It is a very good discussion of the rise of the medical interpretation and treatment of intersex conditions in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is a very well researched book, and I recommend it highly.

"Intersex in an Age of Ethics" - I am still trying to get my own copies of her books, but I have read part of this book on loan from a friend. This book includes essays written by intersex people about our lives in the contemporary world. I really liked the parts that I have read.

I agree with you that the "Middlesex" incest theme related to Cal/Callie's 5-ARD conditon is controversial. Although there are small groups in the Dominican Republic and Turkey where there is a high incidence of 5-ARD, that does not mean that the high incidence is due to incest. In my case, my father's side of the family is Austro-Hungarian and my mother's side Russian, so there is not a small population involved.

I can relate to your looking like a man, but not really feeling like one inside. I think it is a common feeling. For people born with a body that is sexually different, it would seem very natural to start questioning the gender assumptions of the larger society at a young age. I know that the intersex movement objects to the idea of a third gender, and I personally have a hard time imagining what a third gender would look like. However, I do feel that I did grow up "different" being intersex. I know that Dana often posts her objections to prevaling gender assumptions on this forum. While I am not as eloquent as Dana, I agree with most of her thoughts on the relationship between intersex and gender issues.

Peter

[c j]

Peter

Such a gender (third gender) exists and is officially recognized here in Australia

Canice.

[ptrinkl108]

Hi Canice,

It's interesting that apparently the government of Australia recognizes a third gender. What is the name of the third gender, and how does one qualify for membership?

I am not against a third gender, and sometimes think that one is emerging among forward thinking FTM transexual people who have top surgery but not bottom surgery.

Peter

[Shodan]

Teehee,

I'd think it cute if I actually FIT into a category for once in my life, Lol

I think I've read that law on an Aussie site, the wording was pretty general (not necesarily a bad thing) but I'll see if I can find it,
Probly post it in like... a week, not as much time for the net no more...

[c j]

Hi Peter

Intersex is the name of the Third Gender and at present to qualify one must be xxy,although this will change to include an array of intersex conditions as it makes its way into mainstream society.

Canice.

It's interesting that apparently the government of Australia recognizes a third gender. What is the name of the third gender, and how does one qualify for membership?

[c j]

I am not sure if this is the link you were referring to http://www.bodieslikeours.org/intersexalex.html

Canice.

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I think I've read that law on an Aussie site, the wording was pretty general (not necesarily a bad thing) but I'll see if I can find it,
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[Shodan]

I can't find it, I think the websites a dead site, but basically it said that people who are born intersex can not be legally recognised as exclusively male or exclusively female.

So uh, yeah...

Did I write this already???

I'm having a blonde day again...

[Sophie338]

Hi All

I read a bit of Eugenides book but put it down. I have 5aRD, and yet I cannot relate to any of it.

that aside how is everyone :)

Hugs

Sophie :)

[Betsy]

I read a bit of Eugenides book but put it down. I have 5aRD, and yet I cannot relate to any of it.

Ya think maybe that has anything to do with the fact that he never actually talked to any people living with intersex conditions in writing it? :cartman:

Anyways, glad to see you around these parts again :grouphug0

Betsy

[Sophie338]

Hi Betsy

Love the new website :) :ARMS1:


d Ya think maybe that has anything to do with the fact that he never actually talked to any people living with intersex conditions in writing it?


Yes. What got to me was the number of people telling me about the book and that it was about my condition. But when I read it is seemed as if the writer had extrapolated the tory from Imperatio "Felt Pens" Mc Ginleys
research. I started to read it because some book club or something asked me about it. I just had to tell them that it was something I could neither relate to or even understand.


Anyways, glad to see you around these parts again

Have to say I am rather stunned by the new look of the website. :ARMS1:

Big Hug :grouphug0

Sophie :)

[ptrinkl108]

Those darned book clubs. My original reading of the book was based upon an invitation to discuss the book as a guest of an informal book club. I read the book, but never heard back from the club. I guess that in the end, they chose something else to read.

I have heard that the book was based, in part, upon the life of a real person, who is now very upset that the author used her/his lifestory without permission. To me, the story almost enters the realm of "kiddy porn". Eugenides is not alone in writing about the "changes" that intersex children sometimes go through when hitting puberty. I have seen another book on the same subject that has a disclaimer that the book is not representative of the experiences of most intersex people. And what about the "dyke novel" aspect of the book? I guess that one of the characters being intersex gives the author in his own mind, expertise to write about the topic. The book was informally mentioned at a recent San Francisco Human Rights Commission intersex task force meeting, and the main descriptive word I remember from the conversation was "creepy".

Peter

[Sophie338]

Hi Peter.

Well that explains a lot. Actually the book did me a backhanded favour because the endo I now see was someone I encountered when he was reviewing the book for some acedemic publication. It explains a lot because the little I read of it was all Mc Ginley, But having not read it through meant that I had not read the salacious bits. My Endo had, and when I saw him as a patient he was asking some bizarre questions. Thankfully he was pretty cool and I was able to explain to him that a lot of things he had read about 5aRD (Not fully realising that Eugenides had contributed a large part of it) were wrong.

There is someone going around the UK who has got this "thing" about 5aRD, calling themselves Del La Grace Volcano, who has come out with pretty much the same creepy sort of thing as Eugenides. Aparrently they do slide shows of peoples genitalia described as "Dicklets". Not the sort of thing I myself feel comfortable about at all really.

Perhaps 5aRD is regarded as some curious condition about which there is a lot of urban myth. Something I find very unsettling actually.

All the best

Hugs

Sophie.