Intersex

Intersex

11. The college senior wanting a sex change could be validated in that he feels feminine. I have seen shows before where people are born with both sex organs and / or with deformed organs. People born this way are very confused about their sex and are therefore very lost in their identity. I would again remain unemotional and try to understand this man’s need to feel whole by having a sex change. It is his life and he has to live it.

Hello Tamara:

Since this learner not having the text did not have a chance to answer number 11 she chooses to extend your number 11.   In response to number 11 this learner feels that you are on the right track.   However a person with hermaphrodite characteristics is physically, DNA, different.   There are several areas such as;   intersex (formerly called hermaphroditism);and several other DNA deformities such as   chimerism; mosaicism; XX sex reversal, that all present some very unnatural physical characteristics.   Whether or not these exist is usually not the issue.   There is a small percentage of the population that exhibits these as the initial sex charisteristics.   Now experts are treating this by counseling families and the child until the child is old enough to choose which sex characteristics he/she wishes to pronounce to the world.   This learner found a novel entitled Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides a very interesting read that offered much insight into how this might happen and how it can be dealt with.  

Our sexual orientation is defined in terms of relationships with others and the behaviors we express with other people; our attachments and our intimacies.   As this learner teaches AP Psychology, this topic is a delicate one when it comes to classroom discussion and often there are several camps of individuals wanting to extend these discussions.  

Reference
American Accreditation HealthCare Commission.   (2007, October 15).   Health t topics A to Z,   Intersex, A part of The New York Times Company,   Retrieved April...