Do Boys Have to Be Boys? Gender, Narrativity, and the John/Joan Case

Abstract

Do Boys Have to Be Boys? examines the famous John/Joan case of twin sex reassignment in order to comment upon the way that gender as a concept operates in the nature vs. nurture debate concerning the development of gender identity. I use basic elements of narrative theory to investigate how scientific assumptions about what gender is ignore the ways in which stories about gender overdetermine what counts as a legitimate way to be a sex. In the end, I challenge scientific and medical uses of gender that promote simplistic ontologies of gendered being, and demonstrate that utilizing an epistemological approach to gender allows the researcher to destabilize and undo the natural attitude toward gender that supports traditional gender ontologies.