Woman Hating: A Radical Look at Sexuality

that humans once were androgynous — hermaphroditic

and androgynous, created precisely in the image of

that constantly recurring androgynous godhead.

2. Until the 7th week of fetal development both

sexes have precisely the same external genitalia. Basically, the development of sex organs and ducts is the same for males and females and the same two sets of

ducts develop in both.

3. The gonads cannot be said to be entirely male or

female. Dr. Mary Jane Sherfey writes:

In their somatic organization, the gonads always retain

a greater or lesser amount o f the opposite-sex tissue

which remains functional throughout life. 1

4. Chromosomal sex is not necessarily the visible

sex of the individual. It happens that a person of one

Androgyny: Androgyny, Fucking, and Community

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chromosomal sex develops the gonads o f the other sex. *

Gonadal sex and chromosomal sex can be in direct contradiction.

5. Chromosomal sex is not only X X or XY. There

are other chromosomal formations, and not much is

known about them or what they signify.

6. A person can have the gonads o f one sex, and the

secondary sexual characteristics o f the other sex.

7. Men and women both produce male and female

hormones. T h e amounts and proportions vary greatly,

and there is no way to determine biological maleness

or femaleness from hormone count.

8. One hormone can be transformed by the body

into its “opposite, ” male into female, female into

male. In Sex, Gender, and Society, Ann Oakley gives this

example:

. . . the fact that rapidly maturing male adolescents

sometimes acquire small breasts —the substantial increases in testosterone which accompanies puberty

[are] partially metabolised as oestrogen, which in turn

causes breast developm ent. 2

9. It is now thought that the male hormone determines the sex drive in both men and women.

* Question: Can a person with the chromosomal sex o f a male and the

gonadal sex o f a fem ale conceive? I f so, we would have to accept the notion

that men can have children. I would think that such cases do exist in nature,

even though I could find no confirmation that such persons are ferule. Since

anyone who has children is defined as a woman, and chrom osom e tests are

not done routinely, such persons would probably not be discovered except

by accident.

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Woman Hating