I've always wanted to know what traditionalist Muslims think about intersexed people and people who are atypical for their sex. For instance, here is a woman who, without taking hormones, testosterone or having a sex-change or anything like that, is just masculine in her appearance:
http://jasmynecannick.typepad.com/jasmynecannickcom/images/2007/07/10/skyler2.jpgHer name is Skyler Cooper and she is an actress. She actually plays the role of Othello in a production of the Shakespeare play of the same name in San Francisco, a part that they cast her for simply because she was so perfectly suited for it in both appearance and acting. Again, bear in mind that she doesn't take testosterone or anything like that -- this is just how her hormonal, genetic and muscle/bone build is naturally.
Gosh! Skyler Cooper looks exactly like a man! I could've never guessed that she's a woman.
Since Islam's
insaan i kamil Muhammad despised people atypical fro their sex & even advised turning them out of one's house, I suspect most Muslims don't treat intersexed people & people atypical for their sex very kindly, to say the least. Mo needs to shoulder at least some of the blame for that.
Modern research shows that human sexual dimorphism is not such a neat binary -- you can think of there being overlapping bell curves for men and women, and there is a minority of individuals covered by the intersection of the two curves, for whom the entire medical definition of sex breaks down on every level, whether chromosomal, hormonal, etc.
It's interesting also that the Iranian government actually supports and funds sex-changes but punishes homosexuality with death (the Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa in support of sex-change surgeries). I think the reason why this happens is because people who challenge the gender binary (and hence patriarchy) make conservative shaykhs and ayatollahs very nervous, and so they would much rather support sex-change surgeries and thus reinforce the gender binary than have atypical men or women walking around. There is a wonderful book called "Women with Mustaches and Men without Beards: Gender and Sexual Anxieties of Iranian Modernity" by Afsaneh Najmabadi that documents some of these issues very well.
Yep, I'd always wondered why Iran tolerates, even endorses sex change operations-your explanation makes the most sense.Gotta buy that book
Coming back to Muhammad, I find his stance on effeminate men & masculine women very mean.
Its never very happy for any individual to be very different from others-& be different in an unpleasant way.
Its nice to be prettier than others, smarter than others etc but quite another thing to have loads of facial hair as a woman or be too a "girly" man! Even today, society doesn't treat such people very well, it was worse earlier when gender roles were far more rigid.
In such a society, Muhammad, instead of making these people's lives easier, gives the advice of turning them out of one's house & making them more miserable!
Topic: Prophet Muhammad hates Effeminate Men & Masculine Women!