From Confusion to Affirmation
Written by Blogging // Home Based Business // ArticlePros.com on August 11, 2010My difficulties coping with hypostasis were partially allayed by two important events that occurred in my 20s. My experiences may be instructive for teachers willing to learn more about intersex and for helping students understand it. Swiss Rolex Replica Watches
The first experience had to do with the fact that after many reconstructive surgeries, so much scar tissue developed in my urinary tract that it was going to endlessly generate strictures, requiring more surgeries. I consulted one doctor who said to me, “You know, we don’t have to rebuild your urethra, we can just leave it the way it is, which is essentially the way it was when you were born. This would allow you to largely avoid the recurrence of strictures in the future. I’ve worked on bikers who’ve been injured in crashes and they often ask me to just leave the urethra the way it is.” I was stunned and elated by this seemingly casual revelation. My urethra didn’t need to travel all the way out to the end of my penis? I could just leave it the way it is (near the base of the penis, close to where it was when I was born) and avoid all of those painful and seemingly endless surgeries? This option¡ªnever before presented to me¡ª felt obvious and profoundly life-affirming. What slowly began to dawn on me, however, as I did some research on the subject, was that all the other surgeries I had gone through were unnecessary; they were the consequence of the scar tissue produced by the first surgery I underwent. Worse, that first surgery was fundamentally cosmetic. It was not presented as a cosmetic option, however, but rather as a necessary correction¡ªa surgical fixing of gender, and of a sexed body, that might otherwise remain ambiguous, and thus disturbing, at least to some. The assumption was that it would be more traumatic to leave the body unchanged than it would be to endure the surgeries and scarring. Replica Tag Heuer Carrera Watches
The second event took place when I was a graduate student at the University of California, Santa Cruz. I was a teaching assistant for a class on masculinity studies. The class was amazing, addressing the ways in which issues of masculinity intersected with questions of race, gender, sexuality, class, and embodiment. In the section on embodiment, we read a chapter from Anne Fausto-Sterling’s Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality, in which she discussed intersex bodies. Included in her definition was hypostasis, a term that I’d heard my whole life but was, until this moment, nothing more than a rather obscure medical designation for what kept me returning to the hospital bed. I felt the possibility of community; I was not alone in going through what I had experienced.
My difficulties coping with hypostasis were partially allayed by two important events that occurred in my 20s. My experiences may be instructive for teachers willing to learn more about intersex and for helping students understand it. <a href="http://www.top-watches-brand.com/B-Swiss-Rolex-Replica-Watches-2.html">Swiss Rolex Replica Watches</a>
The first experience had to do with the fact that after many reconstructive surgeries, so much scar tissue developed in my urinary tract that it was going to endlessly generate strictures, requiring more surgeries. I consulted one doctor who said to me, "You know, we don't have to rebuild your urethra, we can just leave it the way it is, which is essentially the way it was when you were born. This would allow you to largely avoid the recurrence of strictures in the future. I've worked on bikers who've been injured in crashes and they often ask me to just leave the urethra the way it is." I was stunned and elated by this seemingly casual revelation. My urethra didn't need to travel all the way out to the end of my penis? I could just leave it the way it is (near the base of the penis, close to where it was when I was born) and avoid all of those painful and seemingly endless surgeries? This option¡ªnever before presented to me¡ª felt obvious and profoundly life-affirming. What slowly began to dawn on me, however, as I did some research on the subject, was that all the other surgeries I had gone through were unnecessary; they were the consequence of the scar tissue produced by the first surgery I underwent. Worse, that first surgery was fundamentally cosmetic. It was not presented as a cosmetic option, however, but rather as a necessary correction¡ªa surgical fixing of gender, and of a sexed body, that might otherwise remain ambiguous, and thus disturbing, at least to some. The assumption was that it would be more traumatic to leave the body unchanged than it would be to endure the surgeries and scarring. <a href="http://www.watchescat.com/S-Replica-Tag-Heuer-Carrera-Watches-383,3.html">Replica Tag Heuer Carrera Watches</a>
The second event took place when I was a graduate student at the University of California, Santa Cruz. I was a teaching assistant for a class on masculinity studies. The class was amazing, addressing the ways in which issues of masculinity intersected with questions of race, gender, sexuality, class, and embodiment. In the section on embodiment, we read a chapter from Anne Fausto-Sterling's Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality, in which she discussed intersex bodies. Included in her definition was hypostasis, a term that I'd heard my whole life but was, until this moment, nothing more than a rather obscure medical designation for what kept me returning to the hospital bed. I felt the possibility of community; I was not alone in going through what I had experienced.