Follow up Post 2/17

In the third and fourth chapters of Sexing the Body, Fausto-Sterling discusses the topic I brought up in my last blog post about the way parents should respond after giving birth to a child who is intersex. Fausto-Sterling also discusses this in context of how doctors, psychologists, and the law should respond. After reading her thoughts I found myself agreeing with her that the correct way to respond to children like this is to not make rash decisions and to wait for the child to be able to decide for themselves. This seems to me to be the most apropos way to handle a situation like this and judging from the evidence that Fausto-Sterling gives it seems like this gives the child the biggest chance to feel like themselves. I do also agree with Fausto-Sterling that in order for this to be an good option for children there must be a change in the acceptance level of people in general especially people who do not fit into sexual “norms.” It is hard to consider how the world would go about changing their collective mindset because of the diversity of people and the preconceived notions people have. Also, many people are not educated on people other than themselves and therefore cannot put themselves in another’s shoes and do not want to make the effort to do so. It seems as though if/when people are able to try to not put their thoughts and notions onto others that we will be able to be a more accepting society and many problems that stem from issues of not liking the way someone else behaves or not liking the fact that someone is different from you will be able to be put aside for a more peaceful world. It is an interesting to think about how this issue fits into other issues of persecutions such as religious ad how many people on this earth have been touched by some sort of feeling of not fitting in. If people could realize that changing their attitudes toward others would help them as well, maybe some change would happen.