Mal: Hell, this job I would pull for free. Zoe: Can I have your share? Mal: No. Zoe: If you die, can I have your share? Mal: Yes.

'The Train Job'


We're Literary 2: To Read Makes Our Speaking English Good  

There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."


Nutty - Nov 05, 2004 11:20:03 am PST #6275 of 10002
"Mister Spock is on his fanny, sir. Reports heavy damage."

ita, you're interested in phenotypically intersex people? Some sources:

Dreger, A. (2003). Notes on the Treatment of Intersex. Intersex Society of North America. [link] This is an article about the surgery-centered model (pick a sex, make the kid as much like that sex as possible) and the patient-centered model (hey, when you're ready, decide what sex you want to be) of treatment of intersex children (all types).

Sax, Leonard. (2002) How Common is Intersex? A Response to Anne Fausto-Sterling. Journal of Sex Research. [link] Sax, Fausto-Sterling, and Blackless are the big three names in current intersex research right now.

And here's a law approach: Hermer, Laura. (2001). Surgical Revision of Intersex Children. [link]

There's also an interesting film called "First Do No Harm", put out by ISNA, involving interviews with adults who were assigned to sexes in childhood, and a rountable of psychologists, parents, and intersex adults. It's a strongly editorial film (as you might guess), but it addresses psychological outcome directly (which a lot of surgical approaches seem to fail to do).


§ ita § - Nov 05, 2004 11:49:37 am PST #6276 of 10002
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

Thanks.

Do those dwell on the psychological aspects?

eta: Because I'm finding lots of stuff from a phenotypical angle, and am interested now in people who feel they're the wrong gender.


Nutty - Nov 05, 2004 11:50:42 am PST #6277 of 10002
"Mister Spock is on his fanny, sir. Reports heavy damage."

#1 and #3, yes, (#1 moreso). The video most of all.

ETA: Discovery Health also has an hour-long video segment about congenital adrenal hyperplasia (girl with boyish sex-parts), which you might be able to find at a library. It follows a family that ends up going for the surgical approach, and shows the decision-making that goes into it all, and the parents' angst about choosing.


Dani - Nov 05, 2004 3:07:50 pm PST #6278 of 10002
I believe vampires are the world's greatest golfers

ita, one book I've heard a lot about is As Nature Made Him. It's a very sad story, not least of all b/c the subject of the bio recently killed himself.

[ETA but I just realized it's not what you're looking for, since David Reimer was born with unambigous male genitalia that were damaged during circumcision.]


§ ita § - Nov 05, 2004 3:10:08 pm PST #6279 of 10002
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

Thanks Nutty and Dani.

The surreal thing about Middlesex was that there was no gender dysmorphia at all -- just a change in clothes, hair and walking, switch up some language, but he wasn't a girly boy or a boyish girl. Okay, maybe not the surreal thing, but one that made me wonder about the reality of it all.


§ ita § - Nov 05, 2004 3:11:24 pm PST #6280 of 10002
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

Actually, Dani, that is precisely what I'm interested in -- what makes a boy feel like a boy, and a girl like a girl. How did he know he was wrong?

I think I've seen a TV show on that case, and had forgotten the name of the book.


Angus G - Nov 05, 2004 7:19:09 pm PST #6281 of 10002
Roguish Laird

ita, I'd recommend Anne Fausto-Sterling's Sexing the Body as an introduction to both the biological and the psychic/cultural sides of this whole area; the author is trained in both biology and (iirc) sociology, so she's one of the rare people who's able to talk across the usual disciplinary boundaries.


Jesse - Nov 06, 2004 4:33:51 pm PST #6282 of 10002
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.

ita, have you read Trans-sister Radio? I can't remember if I got it from you or Kat (?).


Megan E. - Nov 08, 2004 8:54:53 am PST #6283 of 10002

I finished reading The Time Traveller's Wife yesterday and I was a mess of tears by the end. I agree with a former poster that it is probably a book with massive b.org appeal.


Wolfram - Nov 08, 2004 9:53:24 am PST #6284 of 10002
Visilurking

So put in on the rec list for book club, Megan.