Easier Said Than Done

     Of Gender and Genitals and Should There Be Only Two Sexes? left me conflicted. Anne Fausto-Sterling presented very clear and well-structured information and arguments, but I found that I could not completely agree with her. I wanted to say that she was absolutely correct and that everything she said made perfect sense, but I could not do that. I felt as though there were too many complications that accompany this topic, which made it hard for me to have my own clearly define view.
     I never knew how prevalent the birth of intersex children was. I thought it was a rare occurrence...maybe one in one-hundred thousand babies were born intersex. However, reading Fausto-Sterling, I realized that I only thought this because parents "fix" their children. I only assumed that intersex people were super rare because the issue is kept on the down-low. Fausto-Sterling discusses parents and doctors who "fix" intersex people and treats them as though they are monsters for doing so. In a way, I can see this. The parents are not accepting that their child is not fully a boy or fully a girl. Parents should love their child no matter what. Parents should not dictate who their child is.
     Because these parents are changing their child, they are horrible people, right? Wrong. Think about any child who is not "perfect." A parent has a child who has something different about them, and they know that that child will have a hard life. So, they try to help them by making them as normal as possible. I do not think this is wrong. I think this is a loving choice. People can say that being normal does not matter. But there are too many outside factors that make being normal (in regards to sex) matter. The parents of intersex children are "fixing" them to be a boy or a girl so that they can have a good life, so they can relate to the other kids, so they can grow up feeling normal.
     Parents "fix" their intersex children so they can grow up feeling normal. This is one of the many complications I found which made it hard for me to have a distinct opinion about this subject. Fausto-Sterling discusses Cheryl Chase, founder of Intersex Society of North America. Chase's parents tried to raise her as male, then thought that was a bad idea, so began raising her as female. They had Cheryl undergo surgery and told her it was for a hernia so that she would not feel like something was wrong with her. But, Chase always felt like something was wrong. Despite the attempts of her parents to have her grow up and feel just like every other kid, Chase did not.
     Based on Fausto-Sterling's writings, I understand that intersex people must deal with a lot during their lives. I really feel bad for them, and I think that they should be accepted as they are. But our society has made it such that intersex people are not accepted; you must be a male or a female. It is so easy to say that there ought to be more than two sexes, but it is very hard to do.