Thoughts

I identify as a heterosexual female, but I never thought about how I came to identify in this way. In "Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality," Anne Fausto-Sterling discusses the topic of to what extent is sexuality shaped by social forces. When I think of my own sexuality in terms of sexual identity, I automatically attribute my sexual preference to biology. I don't even consider that maybe I'm heterosexual because the society around me shaped me in that way. Because of this, I found it hard to understand Fausto-Sterling's discussion about the possibility that the social constructs sexuality. I do believe that society can influence sexuality in terms  of how I think about my sex, sexual preferences, and sexual desires, but I really can't understand how society could construct my heterosexuality. I think of sexual preference as a quality that one is born with. Maybe part of it is shaped by society, but I don't think it is entirely constructed by society.

Due to my thinking that sexual preference is inherent, I found myself agreeing with Boswell rather than Halperin when Fausto-Sterling discusses their two competing ideas. I do think that someone that was heterosexual in a past century would still be heterosexual today. Perhaps the way in which that person viewed his or her heterosexuality would have changed because of how the new society views heterosexuality, but the essential qualities of heterosexuality would still be there.

 What I really found interesting is Fausto-Sterling's description of the "wild children" that never developed a sexual drive. If sexuality really is a social construct, this makes complete sense, but after they were taken out of the wild, would they find themselves physically attracted to someone? In this case, the lack of sex drive could be due to the children not being exposed to people that they are attracted to rather than the lack of sex drive being due to society determining their sexuality for them.

Also, I don't think people should necessarily have to pick a sex. If someone is intersexual, why can't he or she be intersexual? Sure it blurs the line between male and female, but is that such a bad thing? And even if the intersexual individual wants to choose, who says that the doctor can make that decision for him or her? In the case of intersexual and homosexuality, acceptance is key. It's a shame that people either aren't allowed to be who they are naturally or are made to feel afraid to express their nature.