title: Sarah was a butch: sexual identity, gender practices, and Sarah's place as mother in the Jewish National Pantheon.
abstract: Three fields of discourse regarding a masculine-like woman connect at a point that the queer field calls intersex, medical practice calls a sexual disorder, and rabbinic literature terms aylonit. The queer discursive field focuses on the freedom to choose an identity, but not the freedom from choosing one. The medical field focuses on sexual practice as the source of determining "normal" sexuality. In the discursive field of Jewish law there are no demands, because the Halakhic authority determines gender identity on behalf of the individual, maintaining ambiguity.
authors.affiliation: Gender Studies Program, Ben Gurion University, P.O. Box 653, Beersheba, Israel 84105. henms@bgu.ac.il
authors.forename: Henriette Dahan
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Kalev
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D018452:Homosexuality, Female; D006801:Humans; D007599:Judaism; D012725:Sexual Behavior