The Trouble with Nature by Lancaster Roger N

Author:Lancaster, Roger N.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 2012-01-22T16:00:00+00:00

Figure 22. Joel-Peter Witkin, Man with Dog, Mexico, 1990. Courtesy of Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Galerie Baudoin Lebon, Paris.

The spectacular increase of intersexed figures in recent visual, filmic, and literary representations does not seem to correspond to any dramatic increase in the number of persons literally claiming mixed or crossed identities, but it does suggest that transgendered or transsexual themes serve an important cultural role during times of transformation, flux, and anxiety, an idea developed at length by Marjorie Garber.12 The social significance of trannies lies not in their absolute numbers but in the cultural work they do—on afternoon talk shows, for instance. Since sex terms are “oppositive”—x is defined as not-y—supernumerary sexes affect the entire constellation of meanings available. Transsexuality mediates, complicates, and qualifies the absoluteness of the opposition between male and female. In the presence of a third term, x now enjoys a number of possible relations to others, including not-y, not-z, x/y, x/z, not-x/y. . . . To put the issues in a pragmatic perspective: The categories “Male” and “Female” would not quite sit the same on the page if the U.S. census allowed a third category, “Other”—no matter how few or how many people marked “Other.” At the very least, everyone would pause over not two, but three, official options.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.