Before We Were Trans. A New History of Gender

Abstract

the regenerative and discriminatory capabilities of the endometrium allows for better understanding of the unique power that female bodies hold. It’s no wonder that this has been neglected by those who lack this distinctive skill. Finally, the chapter titled “Beauty” explores the history and progress of gender affirmation treatments and exposes the biases rooted in a binary culture. Gross connects this to the management of people with differences in sexual development, and how medicine has transformed its approach to care. As all of our lives are shaped by cultural assumptions of gender, the understanding of people whose gender is not easily classified can be enlightening. A radical realigning of how we distinguish and judge others might result. Misogyny and misinformation conspire to create misery, not just within the female body. Gross relays that she was told by one researcher that “nobody in Congress cares about the uterus when it doesn’t have a baby in it” (p. xii). Perhaps this book should be required reading for our legislators who keep claiming they are not “doctors” or “scientists” while they blithely restrict women’s reproductive autonomy. The title of VAGINA OBSCURA exemplifies the failure to use correct terms for female anatomy, but it also underscores a cultural discomfort with notions of gender and sexuality. While I wish Gross had explored more of the structural gender discrimination that results, and how this is used to keep women tyrannized by reproduction, I think these essays will enhance the knowledge of professionals who care for people with all body parts. As we all have embryologically similar yet alternatively purposed organs, we can universally benefit from this material. Gross conveys the wonder of biology by showing that observation is always biased. An alternative viewpoint makes science richer and can change the world.