1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910465688503321

Autore

Mak Geertje

Titolo

Doubting sex [[electronic resource] ] : inscriptions, bodies and selves in nineteenth-century hermaphrodite case histories / / Geertje Mak

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Manchester ; ; New York, : Manchester University Press, 2012

ISBN

1-78170-262-4

1-84779-429-7

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (297 p.)

Disciplina

616.694

Soggetti

Intersexuality - History

Gender identity - History

Sex role - History

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction -- Inscription. Secrecy and disclosure: politics of containment -- Early sex reassignments and the absence of a sex of self -- Herculine Barbin -- Body. How to get the semen to the neck of the womb -- Justine Jumas: conflicting body politics -- The dislodgement of the person -- Self. Sex assignment around 1900: from a legal to a clinical issue -- The turn inwards -- Scripting the self: N. O. Body's autobiography -- Conclusion.

Sommario/riassunto

"An adolescent girl is mocked when she takes a bath with her peers, because her genitals look like those of a boy. A couple visits a doctor asking to 'create more space' in the woman for intercourse. A doctor finds testicular tissue in a woman with appendicitis, and decides to keep his findings quiet. These are just a few of the three hundred European case histories of people whose sex was doubted during the long nineteenth century that Geertje Mak draws upon in her remarkable new book. How did people deal with such situations? How did they decide to which sex a person should belong? This groundbreaking analysis of clinical case histories shows how sex changed from an outward appearance inscribed in a social body to something to be found deep inside body and self. A fascinating, easy to follow, yet



sophisticated argument addressing major issues of the history of body, sex, and self, this volume will fit advanced undergraduate courses, while challenging specialists."--Publisher's website.