The Riddle of Gender

by Deborah Rudacille

  the flip side of the postmodern “performativity” argument See Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (New York: Rout-ledge, 1999) and Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex (New York: Routledge, 1993).

  many of these chemicals can disturb development of the endocrine system World Health Organization, “Global Assessment of the State of the Science of Endocrine Disrupters,” retrieved from http://www.who.int/pcs/emerg_site/edc/global_edc_TOC.htm, July 31, 2002.

  Some … argue that the buildup of these endocrine-disrupting chemicals See Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumanoski, and John Peterson Myers, Our Stolen Future (New York: Dutton, 1996).

  Animal research has also shown that DES and other estrogenic chemicals See J. A. McLachlan, R. R. Newbold, and B. Bullock, “Reproductive Tract Lesions in Male Mice Exposed Prenatally to Diethylstilbestrol,” Science 190 (1975): 991-92; R. R. Newbold, B. Bullock, and J. A. McLachlan, “Mullerian Remnants of Male Mice Exposed Prenatally to Diethylstilbestrol,” Teratog. Carcinog. Mutagen. 7 (1987): 377—89; W. B. Gill, G. F. Schumacher, M. Bibbo, et al., “Association of Diethylstilbestrol in Utero with Cryptorchidism, Testicular Hypoplasia and Semen Abnormalities,” Journal of Urology 122 (1979): 36—39; J. A. Visser, A. McLuskey, M. Verhoef-Post, et al., “Effect of Prenatal Exposure to Diethylstilbestrol on Mullerian Duct Development in Fetal Male Mice,” Endocnnology 139 (1998): 4244-251-17 The moderators of an online discussion group Scott Kerlin and Dana Beyer, M.D., “The DES Sons Online Discussion Network: Critical Issues and the Need for Further Research,” unpublished paper, August 2002.

  There are millions of us who were exposed to DES Author interview with Dana Beyer, Bethesda, Md., September 27, 2002.

  there is no morepsychopathology This was noted as early as 1973- “The psy-chodynamic histories of transsexuals do not yield any consistent differentiation characteristics from the rest of the population.” Marie C. Mehl, Ph.D., “Transsexualism: A Perspective” in Proceedings ofthe Second Interdisciplinary Symposium on Gender Dysphona Syndrome, ed. Donald R. Laub, M.D., and Patrick S. Gandy, M.S., Stanford University Medical Center, February 2-4,1973,15.

  transsexuality is “apart of human variation” Author interview with Rusty Moore, New York City, July 1, 2001.

  Somewhere the hormones that are secreted either by the brain Author interview with Beyer.

  an anomaly or mutation is not in itself pathological Georges Canguilhem, The Normal and the Pathological (NewYork: Zone Books, 1991), 137.

  There’s an idea that people have subconsciously inculcated Author interview with Susan Stryker, San Francisco Calif, September 4, 2001.

  Two THROUGH SCIENCE TO JUSTICE

  Plato was acquainted with… “Mixed beings” In Niels Hoyer, ed., Man into Woman: An Authentic Record of a Change of Sex (New York: E. P. Dut-ton and Company, 1933), 112. (“Niels Hoyer” was a pseudonym for Ernst Ludwig Harthern Jacobson.)

  Paragraph zy5 Paragraph 175 of the German penal code, inherited from an earlier Prussian code, made sex between men a felony punishable by imprisonment for up to six months. “Paragraph 175 was no dead letter. It was actively enforced by police surveillance, by entrapment, and by the use of informers. About 500 men were imprisoned under paragraph 175 each year.” LeVay, Queer Science, 17.

  On the other hand, Christopher Isherwood wrote, “The Berlin police ‘tolerated’ the bars. No customer risked arrest simply for being in them. When the bars were raided, which didn’t happen often, it was only the boys who were required to show their papers. Those who hadn’t any or were wanted for some crime would make a rush to escape through a back door or window as the police came in.” Christopher Isherwood, Christopher and His Kind (NewYork: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1976), 30. 31 a strange million-headed city like a cuirass In Hoyer, Man into Woman, 125.

  Berlin, in Hirschfeld’stime Erwin J. Haeberle, ed., The Birth of Sexology: A Brief History in Documents (Washington, D. C: World Association for Sexology, 1983), 10.

  During the early years of the twentieth century Charlotte Wolff, Magnus Hirschfeld: A Portrait of a Pioneer in Sexology (London, Melbourne, New York: Quartet Books, 1986), 52.

  A couple of times I was invited to accompany Hirschfeld Harry Benjamin, “Reminiscences,” address given at the Twelfth Annual Conference of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sex, November 1, 1969. Archiv fur Sexualwissenschaft, http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/GESUND/ARCHIV/REMINI.HTM, 9/10/2001.

  Berlins “famousdecadence” Isherwood, Christopher, 29.

  It was a place of education Isherwood, Christopher, 18.

  By sexual intermediaries we understand manly-formed women Hirschfeld, Transvestites, 215.

  Whether erotic transvestism is a rare and exceptionalphenomenon Ibid., 141. 35 My sex life is not so great Ibid., 109.

  As a rule I only cross-dress Ibid., 62.

  When I put on a woman’s dress Ibid., 29.

  I myself, as a child, took every opportunity Ibid., 84.

  I cannot report anything of much importance Ibid., 95.

  In most of the cases we can trace the urge back to their early childhood Ibid., M3-

  The transvestites that we have come to know Ibid., 141.

  The pre-sexological era of modern sex research Haeberle, Birth of Sexology, :5- Hirschfeld was a eugenicist Wolff, Magnus Hirschfeld, 250.

  women betray their manly mixture Hirschfeld, Transvestites, 222.

  The nineteenth century had cherished a belief Elaine Showalter, Sexual Anarchy: Gender and Culture at the Fin de Siecle (New York: Viking 1990), 8.

  Often compared to a flower Patricia Marks, Bicycles, Bangs and Bloomers: The New Woman in the Popular Press (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1990), 1.

  The New Woman, who appeared as if by magic On the eve of the twentieth century, the French historian Michelle Perrot observed, “The image of the New Woman was widespread in Europe from Vienna to London, from Munich and Heidelberg to Brussels and Paris.” Showalter, Sexual Anarchy, 38.

  “ detrimental to the health and morals “ of women Ann Heilman, New Woman Fiction: Women Writing First Wave Feminism (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000), 121.

  an avant-garde of male artists, sexual radicals and intellectuals Showalter, Sexual Anarchy, 11. See also Sally Ledger, The New Woman: Fiction and Feminism at the Fin de Siecle (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1997): “The New Woman materialised alongside the decadent and the dandy, and although they had surprisingly little in common, they were repeatedly linked in the flourishing periodical press of the 1890s. The New Woman and the decadent writers both overtly challenged the dominant sexual codes of the Victorian era” (5).

  In each person there is a different mixture of manly and womanly substances Hirschfeld, Transvestites, 229.

  In a radical departure from earlier medical practices LeVay, Queer Science, 26.

  Abraham published an article reporting the surgeries Felix Abraham, “Geni-talumwandlungen an zwei mannlichen Transvestiten” [Genital reassignment on two male transvestites] Zeitschrift für Sexualwissenschaft und Sexualpolitik 18 (1931): 223—26 in International Journal of Transgenderism 2, no. 1 retrieved from http://www.symposion.com/ijt/ijtco302.htm 9/20/2001.

  Iremember the shock with which Christopher first realised Isherwood, Christopher, 15.

  Some of the doctors to whom he went thought him neurotic Norman Haire in Hoyer, Man into Woman, vi.

  agreed that Andreas [EinarJ was probably an intermediate sexual type Ibid., vii.

  “‘Why have I been sent here?’ he wondered” Ibid., 51. 46 By means of a thousand penetrating questions Ibid., 52.

  The first operation, which onlyrepresents a beginning Ibid., 134.

  I feel like a bridge-builder Ibid., 250.

  All that I desire is nothing less than the last fulfilment Ibid., 275. 48 You must sympathise with me in my desire for maternity Ibid., 280. 48 an abyss of suffering Ibid., 286.

  Paralysis of the heart put an end to her short young wom
an’s life Ibid., 287.

  Weeds never die Wolff, Magnus Hirschfeld, 198.

  Homosexuals as Speakers in Boys’ Schools Haeberle, Birth of Sexuality, 38.

  Some have argued that the institute’s files Benjamin, “Reminiscences.”

  “Hirschfeld never returned to Germany after his world tour. The Nazis had come to power. Some of the prominent ones had been patients of Hirschfeld. That is why his records and books and his Institute were destroyed so promptly.” 50 The German academic community became totally absorbed in socialisation theory Author interview with Simon LeVay, Los Angeles, Calif., September 7, 2001.

  Three THE BOMBSHELL

  Looked into a sea effaces This account of Christine Jorgensen’s life is a summary based on her memoir Christine Jorgensen: A Personal Autobiogra phy, published in 1967, and reprinted by Cleis Press in 2000. I also spoke with a few people who had known Jorgensen at various points throughout her life, most notably Joanna Clark (Sister Mary Elizabeth), an early trans- activist who was Jorgensen’s friend and neighbor in Southern California. The first person to serve in the United States armed forces as both a man and a woman; founder of AEGIS, the first and most comprehensive source of AIDS information on the Internet; and author of one of the early legal texts for transpeople—Clark truly deserves to be the subject of a book in her own right.

  Dolly and I were surrounded Jorgensen, Christine Jorgensen, 5. 63 Grandma was always my champion Ibid., 16.

  A little boy wore trousers Ibid., 8.

  “‘Mom,’ I asked, ‘why didn’t God’make us alike?”’ Ibid., 9.

  After World War Two, there was the creation of this really ngid gender system Author interview with Stryker.

  Mrs. Jorgensen, do you think this is anything for a red-bloodedboy Jorgensen, 14-15. 64 Instead of assimilating into a group Ibid., 20.

  I triedto findsome solace in books Ibid., 25.

  time when I would have an important place behind the cameras Ibid. 65 I wondered if’my new associates wouldnotice Ibid., 28.

  I wanted to be accepted by the army for two reasons Ibid., 30.

  couldn’t help comparing myself with the boys inmy group Ibid., 31.

  During the months in the service Ibid., 33.

  I awaited a miracle to release me Ibid., 35.

  Christine Jorgensen lived with my mother and father Author’s personal communication, Peggy Stockton McClelland, June 7, 2001.

  His hips were wide like a woman’s Paul de Kruif, The Male Hormone (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1945), 94. for purely scientific purposes Ibid.

  The boy’s thyroid gland began to grow Ibid., 95.

  In five days he had four hot flashes Ibid.

  They crowed. They battled. They chased hens enthusiastically Ibid., 54. 70 symptoms of underdevelopment or even retrogression passed away Ibid., 52.

  the female implanted with the male gland will always be a male Ibid., 56.

  He came to America quite by happenstance Author interview with Christine Wheeler, New York City, February 11, 2002.

  I was greatly impressed with his sex changes Erwin J. Haeberle, “The Transatlantic Commuter: An Interview with Harry Benjamin,” Sexualmedivin 14 no. 1 (1985). Retrieved from http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/GESUND/ARCHIV/REMINI.HTM, 9/10/2001.

  Every year during the 1920s Benjamin, “Reminiscences.”

  Benjamin felt that Steinach was a genius Author interview with Wheeler. See also Chandak Sengoopta, “Tales from the Vienna Labs: The Eugen Steinach—Harry Benjamin Correspondence,” Favourite Edition, Newsletter of the Friends of the Rare Book Room, New York Academy of Medicine 2 (Spring 2000).

  Freud admitted that he, too, had undergone the Steinach operation Benjamin, “Reminiscences.” As did the poet William Butler Yeats and scores of other men who “had recourse to the operation in the belief that it would ‘rejuvenate’ them physically and mentally.” Sengoopta, “Tales,” 1. “Benjamin was diligent beyond belief in spreading his master’s word but soon held back because of Steinach’s wrath and unfair imputations.”

  Broadly speaking, the Steinach Operation strengthens the endocrine system Harry Benjamin in the introduction to Paul Kammerer, Rejuvenation and the Prolongation of Human Efficiency: Experiences with the Steinach Operation on Man and AnimaL (New York: Boni and Liveright, 1923).

  This study group, which beganmeeting in 1916 Charles Ihlenfeld, in “Memorial for Harry Benjamin,” Archives of Sexual Behavior 17, no. 1 (February 1988): 3.

  Harry believed that the urine of young men Leah Cahan Schaefer in “Memorial,” 13.

  Still determined to find some cure or satisfactory compromise Jorgensen, Christine Jorgensen, 73.

  Once out of the store, I headed for the car Ibid., 77.

  the present wonder is not that intersexual conditions occur Victor Cornelius Medvei, ed., A History of Endocrinology (Lancaster, Boston: MTP Press Ltd., 1982), 406.

  The great feeling of listlessness and fatigue Jorgensen, Christine Jorgensen, 79.

  after powing out “the whole story of my perplexing life” Ibid., 92.

  There are several questions about the interaction of the hormone Ibid., 93.

  Thus began a period in my life Ibid., 96.

  Miraculously, the complex I’d had for years Ibid., 98.

  The hormone tablets were discontinued for several weeks Ibid., 101.

  I felt you could not be cured, psychologically Ibid., 103.

  which her doctors were alternately calling “genuine transvestism “ and “psychic hermaphroditism” Christian Hamburger, Georg K. Sturup, and E. Dahl-Iversen, “Transvestism: Hormonal, Psychiatric, and Surgical Treatment,” JAMA 152, no. 5 (May 30,1953): 391-96.

  To return to my old way of life Jorgensen, Christine Jorgensen, 104.

  As you can see by the enclosed photo Ibid., 107.

  I admit the question didn’t take me by surprise Ibid., no. 80 Nature has made a mistake, which I have corrected Ibid., 115.

  Filled with a kind of unknown dread Ibid., 128.

  To me that message was a symbol of a brutal and cruel betrayal Ibid., 128.

  Kinsey had never seen a case like this Haeberle, “Transatlantic Commuter,” 4.

  after reading about “operative procedures that feminized men” Lean Cahan Schaefer and Connie Christine Wheeler, “Harry Benjamin’s First Ten Cases (1938—1953): A Clinical Historical Note,” Archives of Sexual Behavior 2./, no. 1 (February 1995): 79.

  Note: Although “Barry” was Benjamin’s first “immediately recognizable” transsexual patient, Benjamin had earlier encountered other individuals in his practice whom he later admitted were probably transsexual as well. Schaefer and Wheeler call Otto Spengler—a patient of Hirschfeld’s whom Benjamin met in the twenties and began treating for arthritis in 1938—his first transsexual patient. In the introduction to Green and Money’s Transsexualism and Sex Reassignment, Benjamin recounts the story himself, describing Otto Spengler as “an elderly transvestite … separated from his wife … who had his home together with his business establishment. He lived there completely as a woman.” This patient had read about the “newly discovered female hormone, Progynon” and asked Benjamin if use of the hormone would enlarge his breasts. “With some hesitation I agreed to investigate, and after a few months of parenteral therapy, a mild gynecomastia was produced to the infinite delight of the patient and with emotional improvement.” In this introduction Benjamin also notes his encounters with two medical students in the thirties whom, in retrospect, he believed to be transsexual persons. Because none of these persons requested sex reassignment surgery, they would not be considered “true transsexuals” if the typology Benjamin later developed were used.

  Benjamin’s first inclination was to send the boy to a psychiatrist Author interview with Wheeler.

  He invited me for drinks at the Sulgrave Hotel Virginia Allen in “Memorial,” 26-27.

  The papers here are full of the Jorgensen case Schaefer and Wheeler, “Harry Benjamin’s First Ten Cases,” 86. />
  encountered a mountain of mail Christine Jorgensen in “Memorial,” 24—25. Jorgensen spoke to the assembled guests by telephone from her home in California.

  The transsexual (TS) male or female is deeply unhappy Benjamin, Transsexual Phenomenon, 13—14.

  the three-to-one estimate of Christine Jorgensen’s physician Christian Hamburger, “The Desire for Change of Sex as Shown in Personal Letters from 465 Men and Women,” Acta Endocrinologica 14 (1953): 361—75.

  Like male-bodied transsexuals Benjamin, Transsexual Phenomenon, 149.

  Fifty years ago, when I was a medical student in Germany Benjamin, Transsexual Phenomenon, 118.

  facilitating another kind of “passing”—from Jewish to German See Sander L. Gilman, Making the Body Beautiful: A Cultural History of Aesthetic Surgery (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1999). “The key visual stereotype of the Jew that had to be unmade was the feature nineteenth-century scientists labeled ‘nostrility’ At the close of the nineteenth century, the size and shape of the Jew’s nose were signs that everyone, including Jewish physicians, associated with the Jew’s character and permanent visibility within society. The means to change the nose, and perhaps the character, was supplied by Jacques Joseph (1865-1934), a highly accul-turated young German Jewish surgeon practicing in fin de siecle Berlin. Born Jakob Joseph, he had altered his too-Jewish name when he studied medicine in Berlin and Leipzig. Joseph was a typical acculturated Jew of the period, and he understood the cultural signification of marks of honor and dishonor” (122).

  Benjamin “understood that you couldn’t separate the bodyfrom the mind” Author interview with Wheeler.

  Treating the gender dysphoric person Schaefer and Wheeler, “Harry Benjamin’s First Ten Cases,” 74.