From James

Joanne Meyerowitz traces the emergence of trans-sexuality in the United States as a category of identity distinct from homosexuality and transvestism. She does a great job at showing how the phenomenon of trans-sexuality transformed understandings of the relationship among sex, gender and sexuality, not only in the medical and legal professions but also in the popular consciousness. Sex was no longer seen as the biological foundation of gender and sexuality but was thought to exist independently of them. Like gender and sexuality, Meyerowitz was able to show that sex has a history and her study complicates that understanding in important ways. Sex of object choice began to displace gender as the organizing principle of sexuality and sexual practice. She makes very clear that the reorganization of sexuality occurred unevenly and over a long period of time than we thought, and that it was mediated by a number of factors including race, class and as a nation. Meyerowitz also allows us to see that the construction of trans-sexuality as a distinct category of identity has played a critical role in the early understandings of sex. She raises many good points but also raises some questions. For example, it attributes to Jorgensen’s sex change to a larger role in transforming gender and sexual norms than warranted. Jorgensen reinforced the idea that femininity was expressed most “naturally” by female heterosexual bodies. However, it is a great additional to sex/gender history considering its views and rare study on the history of sex and its transformation.

From Jessie

Something that struck me about Joanne Meyerowitz’s How Sex Changed, was just the unique nature of the whole topic in comparison to many of the other medical themes we have read about this semester. The issue of gender in How Sex Changed takes on many dimensions including medical, psychological, physical, personal and social. It is interesting in this author’s story to see how society and psychiatry played a role in defining “normal” gender roles, and to see how these definitions conflicted with the understanding, and feelings of sane people. It is interesting how despite personal liberties in America, peoples minds and bodies are still such a contested ground, as though the individual body still remains the property of the larger society. Despite an individuals personal feelings, and opinions regarding their body or sexual orientation, science, medicine and psychology have all played a role in defining what normal sexual roles are. In the past it seems science, medicine, and psychology may have betrayed themselves to the will of society, rather then remaining unbiased and simply seeking the socio-biological foundations of sex. It seems many medical professionals carried societal biases with them and rather looked at the blurred lines of gender as a societal problem requiring repair.

The matter of medicine yielding to society, over doing unbiased research seems to represent one of the great challenges to medicine throughout many of the books we have read this semester. I find the idea that medicine yields to society to be full of conflict, because we look to medicine as an embodiment of science, and see that science should be unbiased, yet researchers have historically allowed their own biases to play into their research, even when their research subjects include the bodies and minds of real people. This all raises questions about how free we all are, and what role the medical-industrial complex has in shaping the lives of individuals.

Dan's Blog

Joanne Meyerowitz’s book is surprisingly accessible for a work that tackles the complex world of medicine (and its jargon), the abstract realm of sex/gender debates and theories, and the contentious social atmosphere that issues of transsexuality has and continues to bring to light. Having had little experience with this particular historical narrative, I was surprised to learn about Christine Jorgenson—particularly the year of her procedure. This was the most important aspect of the book for me. I never realized the debate around transsexuality had such a long and twisted history.

I found the chapter “From Sex to Gender” particularly useful. It helps to explain how various people came to define transsexualism differently, but also provides solid historical context for the shifting of American ideas of sex and gender. As Meyerowitz outlines how scientists “distinguished biological sex from the sense of a sexed self, which they labeled ‘psychological sex’ and later ‘gender’” one can’t help but become a little caught up in semantics; however Meyerowitz handles these difficulties well.