title: The human simulation lab-dissecting sex in the simulator lab: the clinical lacuna of transsexed embodiment.
abstract: This article begins with an ethnographically documented incident whereby nursing students dissected a medical human simulator model and rearranged it so that the "male" head and torso was attached to the "female" lower half. They then joked about the embodiment of the model, thus staging a scene of anti-trans ridicule. The students' lack of ability, or purposeful refusal, to recognize morphological biodiversity in medical settings indicates a lacuna in clinical imaginaries. Even as trans-identified and gender nonconforming people increasingly access care in the clinic, the lacuna of transsex-as a proxy term for non-binary embodiment-persists at the heart of clinical practice. This article concludes that we might engage in more ethical clinical practice if we recognize and affirm the trace of multiple forms of human being in the non-human simulator.
authors.affiliation: University of Pennsylvania, Alice Paul Center for Research on Women, Gender and Sexuality, Philadelphia, PA, USA. bsinger@critpath.org
authors.forename: Ben
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Singer
mesh_terms: D026688:Bioethical Issues; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D006801:Humans; D008348:Manikins; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D013663:Teaching; D063106:Transgender Persons; D014925:Wit and Humor as Topic; D008297:Male; D005260:Female