Follow Up: Responding to Michele

I definitely agree with Michele on her main arguments in the blog post. It is amazing what technology has allowed us to do. Sterling discusses the advancement of medical technology and the impact it has on our society. We can now discover early on in pregnancy if a baby is likely to be born with down syndrome and other genetic issues. The medical technology has brought up a heated debate about creating perfect baby. It seems that as we advance in genetic science, the "designer baby" gets closer to becoming a reality. We cannot escape the fact that science is moving forward, but are we going too far?

This reflects the idea of deciding on a sex of an intersex baby. The choice it seems has been put in the doctor's hand. I agree with Michele that it is important for doctors to disclose important medical information to patients as they become older. Also, I think it is important that they don’t lie in hopes to alter as Michele writes, “the patient’s psychological health.” An intersex baby is “seen as deviation from the norm who needs to be fixed in order to preserve a two-gender system” (74). When the doctor is the one to decide, the transfiguration by others can be drastic. As Sterling discusses, one must take into account psychological health which reflects what Cal in Middlesex went through.

I think that intersex people should be left to make their own choices about their sexuality, physiology, and gender identity. In agreement with Michele, doctors should be up-front and honest with parents of newborns. Why not acknowledge the third option? I believe that encouraging self-love will contribute far more to a well-balanced, contented individual than insisting upon conformity with limited and limiting social constructs. We need to be open to new possibilities, even for people who exist on the outside, or who exist within constructs that don't really fit. We as a society need to stop pretending that there are only two genders and welcome the alternatives with an open mind.

As I read the book I was intrigued by the taboos that exist among different cultures and societies. I can’t help but think as I read the book that the main thing we should come back with from it is that there is a longing to belong and feel loved despite circumstances that are beyond our control. I think Cal is trying to indicate to his readers that a person is more than a gender—for instance “he’s a daughter, a grandchild, an awkward teen, a girl in love”... As he is experiencing the transformation, like when he starts growing hair in odd places, he is trying to show that despite his changes, everyone goes though one transformation or another from birth to adulthood as different as they may be. Cal, or Calliope, is Greek and American, man and woman, but above all human. Like the author in Listen Up, I think Cal would agree with her that one should look at a person as a person and not as a gender.