So it is all over the news, someone thinks they may have found a cure for lesbianism. All those conservatives can finally rest easy, just pop a load of pills when preggers and the baby will drop out with a Barbie in hand and a pink bow stuck to her little bald head.
The “wonder” drug is not supposed to be targeted at gay people... yet. Rather it is intended to reduce the incidence of an adrenal gland condition that can cause ambiguous genitals. Adrenal hyperplasia can lead to elevated masculinizing hormones that can affect foetal development and cause the genitalia of female newborns to be ambiguous in appearance. Although the vaginal opening and function remain unchanged the clitoris can be enlarged. In addition the person can grow up to be more masculine and androgynous.
I managed to find some reports of this being subscribed in New York by a doctor called Maria New who was has been prescribing the drug to expectant mothers claiming that it will prevent lesbianism and masculine behaviour in their daughters. Just sit and think about that for a second.
Now I don't think that this is actually any sort of cure for lesbianism. Although a larger percentage of children with adrenal hyperplasia grow up to be gay than girls without the condition... most are still heterosexual. No long term studies on efficacity have been done. What this will do is attempt to make every girl, a girly girl.
My mother is as close to being a stereotypical lesbian as you can get without actually being gay. She is sporty and outdoorsy, I have never seen her wearing makeup or a dress and she is feminist to the core. I think this all made me grow up with an innate love of butch women and all the things they bring to the world. I don't want lesbians to be wiped out... I like them!
Imaging a world where every girl grows up to be a stepford wife. Where there is no mix of women, every women is as feminine as can be. Go further... Imagine a world where every single boy grows up to be ultra masculine, the perfect red neck son. What you are imagining is a world in which all the women work as nurses and teachers and all the men as soldiers and builders. Now you need all these things in the world... but you also need female soldiers and male teachers. You need scientists and artists and everything in between.
Trying to force engineer foetuses so that everyone comes out the same is probably the most stupid idea I ever heard. Can these people not see what kind of world they want to create? They want to strip out from society everyone that doesn't match some sort of US 1950s ideal that never really existed. For the entire of human history there have been masculine women. Without them I daresay civilisation and the human race would look pretty different than it does today.
Then there are the medical problems. The drug carries side effects and has been linked to memory loss, high blood pressure and changes in brain structure in animals. Is it not enough to look at a child and say that it has two arms, two legs and a small clitoris so everything worked out for the best.?
What really knocks me sick is that if this was any other manipulation of an unborn child the conservative right would be going crazy. Playing God would be the cry. Except we all know that God doesn't make girly boys and butch women. He doesn't make gays. So this isn't playing God, they will say... it is just clearing up mistakes.
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ReplyDeleteNot only that, but there's mass confusion because the drug allegedly also treats a rare birth defect that can cause premature death. So some well-meaning people think we're "panicking" for no reason. These same people think it's "confusing" to a child to have ambiguous genitalia and be allowed to decide for hirself which gender s/he identifies as. As the proud sister of a Transwoman I object to the idea that a child should be told what gender s/he is to avoid confusion. As a masculine woman I object to the idea that girls should all be girly. And let's get real...even though the drug is meant to treat a rare birth condition...if it supposedly "cures" lesbianism there's no WAY the homophobes won't lobby for it to be used for other reasons.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why this upsets me but it sure does. I'm over all against using drugs and medication when it really isn't necessary. And this would be one of those times.
ReplyDeleteDon't the Fundamentalists also say that their God doesn't make mistakes? So using their very own logic, I am made in God's image even as wheelchair-using, Pagan, chapstick bisexual and I don't need "fixing".
ReplyDeleteMaybe this is simply my youth rearing up, but I find the jump between "ambiguous genitalia" to "hey we can 'prevent' lesbianism!" absolutely hysterical. I fail to see how the *potential* of ambiguous genitalia is even remotely connected to sexual orientation. Your plumbing doesn't define your sexual orientation, it's so much more than what's between your legs.
I think part of what peeves as is all this talk of “norms” nowadays. Normal is relative. What is “normal” female / male plumbing? Everyone is built differently, and that’s what makes the world interesting. Those differences - no matter how deep or superficial - should be cherished, not “fixed” with drugs inside the womb, or we might as well have the Barbie/Ken smooth patch. And that’s just no fun at all. :)
For some reason I rub a lot of lesbians the wrong way. Maybe it's my "Don't care" attitude, or my not suffering a fool gladly.
ReplyDeleteSome thoughts:
ReplyDeleteFirstly, God does not make mistakes. If She did, She wouldn't be God. Infallibility is kinda in the job description. So can someone explain how this drug can be "clearing up the mistakes"?
Secondly, what kind of parent would want to subject their unborn child to a drug which changes the structure of the brain? Pregnancy is the critical period in the brain's development, the period when all the major structures form and therefore the time when it is most vulnerable. Just look at any poor kid whose mother drank heavily during pregnancy - Foetal Alcohol Syndrome is a viciously cruel condition. And this drug is actually being promoted because of its ability to change the brain's structure - changes which could (judging the the drug's other effects) impair the ability to learn by damaging memory, amongst other things. It seems to me that any parent willing to do that to their own child needs to have their head examined.
And finally, why aren't we calling this drug out for what it is? It's bottled genocide - "the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group" is the dictionary definition, and it certainly fits. In this case, they're trying to wipe out lesbian and intersex people by preventing them from ever being born. It's not so very different from how the Egyptians tried to wipe out the Israelites by killing every male child at birth, in an attempt to prevent the Israelites from reproducing.
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ReplyDeleteYou are the only ignorant person to comment this feed. Lebsians 'choose' to be lesbians? So women 'learn' to be lesbians, do they? Infact i knew nobody who was gay my entire life and had a normal relationship with my family so where on earth would any woman LEARN to be gay? We all grow up seeing stereotypes of who we are meant to be. The same way gay people figure out they are gay is the same way straight people figure out they're straight, the only difference is the fact straight people don't need to feel alienated for who they love and how they feel.
Nothing is going to cure lesbians, or gay men. Same sex attraction is less common than opposite sex attraction yet it is purely natural. People are so concerned about themselves when they should realise this fact as a parent and accept the possibility their child may be straight, bisexual or gay. If they can't, then they are NOT fit to raise children.
I hear of parents all the time who raise their children like they love them their whole lives, and the moment they find out their son or daughter is gay their whole outlook on their own flesh and blood changes. Why? Because they feel emotions towards the same sex? It's sickening and pathetic. It's also pathetic that a straight person should assume a gay person would understand their hatred towards them, yet a straight person can be too ignorant to see that a gay person may find straight people repulsive, and not understand them too?
This drug is a hoax, and a ridiculous attempt at, well.. nothing. Because it will never happen.