Hermaphrodites and the medical invention of sex / Alice Domurat Dreger

Object Details

Notes: Beckwith, J. Bruce. Bibliotheca Beckwithiana (unpublished), 80; SCDIRB copy 39088019621978 has bookplate: Smithsonian Libraries: The Beckwith-Browning-Peterson Teratology Collection.; SCDIRB copy cataloged with funds from Dr. Alan Peterson.; SCDIRB copy with publisher's tan cloth binding and copper-colored spine lettering, with dust jacket as issued.
Contents: Prologue -- 1. Doubtful sex -- 2. Doubtful status -- 3. In search of the veritable vulva -- 4. Hermaphrodites in love -- 5. The age of gonads -- Epilogue -- Notes -- Index
Summary: "Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex takes us inside the doctors' chambers to see how and why medical and scientific men construed sex, gender, and sexuality as they did, and especially how the material conformation of hermaphroditic bodies - when combined with social exigencies - forced peculiar constructions. Throughout the book Dreger indicates how this history can help us to understand present-day conceptualizations of sex, gender, and sexuality. In an epilogue, she discusses and questions the protocols employed today in the treatment of intersexuals (people born hermaphroditic). Given the history recounted, should these protocols be reconsidered and revised?"--Jacket.

author: Dreger, Alice Domurat
donor: Beckwith, J. Bruce 1933-,- DSI; Browning, Nancy Gay DSI
Author: Beckwith-Browning-Peterson Teratology Collection (Smithsonian Libraries) DSI
publisher: Harvard University Press

Topic: Intersexuality--Treatment--History; Intersexuality--Treatment; Intersexuality--Psychological aspects; Sex (Psychology)