Intersexes and the end of gender: Corporeal ethics and postgender bodies

Abstract

Constructionism depends upon the stability of the body as a self-evidential, neutral and passive object of cultural activity that shapes sex through gender. The medical treatment of intersexed bodies suggests otherwise: although medicine seeks to enact a binary gender imperative upon the bodies of intersexed people, it produces instead an awareness of the multiplicity of factors that results in a plurality of sex categories. In this essay we will explore the ramifications of taking seriously multiple human sexualities upon gender theorizing. We will consider seriously the 'corporeal ethical imperative' at work even in gender constructionism when confronted with bodies that do not conform to clear sex dualism. We will propose an alternative theoretical foundation for a critical sex-gender theorizing that is premised upon the body as an interactive force, thereby demanding a fundamental recognition and respect for pluriform sexualities. Instead of embracing the nature/culture, sex/gender dualism at the heart of gender theorizing produced during the last decade, we will propose a 'postgender' alternative that views bodies as active participants and contributors to sex identification, formation and practices.