Ambiguous bodies and deviant sexualities: hermaphrodites, homosexuality, and surgery in the United States, 1850-1904.
While the necessity of normalizing surgery on intersexed individuals is a topic of ongoing debate in the 21st century, the origins of surgery as a therapeutic practice for ambiguous or unusual genitalia lie in the 19th century. The first report of corrective surgery published in the United States appeared in the American Journal of the Medical Sciences in 1852, but surgery did not immediately replace more traditional social prescriptions designed to fit hermaphrodites into a dimorphic model of human sex. Only after homosexuality became a matter of discussion in American medical journals did the frequency of normalizing surgeries increase. This paper explores the connection between physicians' increased interest in preventing "abnormal" sexual behavior and their insistence that interventionist surgeries were the most appropriate means of treating cases of hermaphroditism.
Matta
Christina
C
Department of History of Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 7143 Social Sciences Building, 1180 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706, USA. cmatta@wisc.edu
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D012734:Disorders of Sex Development / Q000266:history* / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D005836:Genitalia, Female / Q000002:abnormalities / Q000601:surgery*; D005837:Genitalia, Male / Q000002:abnormalities / Q000601:surgery*; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006716:Homosexuality / Q000266:history*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D014481:United States