Imagine living a life as lie. Always feeling as if there was something wrong with you, feelings of not belonging. Then you find out that as a child your parents were forced to make the decision of raising you as either a boy or a girl. Cases like these are not too rare and occurs only in 1 in 2000 people in the United States. It's called intersex, when sexual development is intermediate enough that it is uncertain whether the sex of the person is male or female. In the case of Debbie, formally Andrew, she felt uncomfortable with who she thought she was. Even though Andrew had a family and kids, it did not feel right.
Gender identity is more than just physiological and rearing factors, there has to be something else that makes us feel comfortable with the role we've been placed in.
Very interesting topic, in the video you can see how the social and biological factors play in people who are born under the definition of Aphrodite. I wrote in my blog a similar story of a man called David, who had the same problems. This data is very helpful because it demonstrate that not all behavior are social or biological but rather a mix of both.
ReplyDeleteThis is definitely heartbreaking....just knowing that there are people out there who were deceived. I agree that parents and doctors should wait until the child knows just what their gender identity is before performing any type of surgery. It's seems morally wrong to make a life changing decision without having the consent of the person. No one should have the right to make such a choice other than the person who is affected by this.
ReplyDelete