FRom NextGenderation]
MOSSE LECTURE SERIES
Program Spring 2004
All lectures:
Third Wednesdays of the month, 17-19 Hours, Room Heren
17, Bushuis,
Kloveniersburgwal 48, 1012 CX Amsterdam
Organized by the Mosse Foundation for Gay and Lesbian
Studies, the
Masterclub Gender, Sexuality and Culture and the
International School
for
the Humanities and Social Sciences of the University
of Amsterdam. With
financial support of the School for International
Training.
Entrance free, no reservation requested
-
April 21
Henny Bos: Lesbian Mothers
The aim of this study was to compare planned lesbian
families with
heterosexual families on family characteristics,
parental behavior, and
child development. A total of 100 planned lesbian
families (i.e. two-
mother families in which the child was born to the
lesbian
relationship)
were compared with 100 heterosexual families. A
variety of measures
were used
to collect the data, including questionnaires,
observations of the
parent-
child relationship, and a diary of activities kept by
the parents.
Results
showed that especially lesbian social mothers differ
from heterosexual
father on family characteristics and parental
behavior. It appears
that,
especially family characteristics such as intensity of
desire and
parental
justification and division of family tasks, were
responsible for the
observed differences between lesbian social mothers
and heterosexual
fathers on parental behavior. Although the results
showed differences
in
parental behavior, no differences were found
differences in the
psychological development of the children in lesbian
and heterosexual
families.
Henny Bos prepares a Ph.D. on the same topic at the
Department of
Educational Sciences, University of Amsterdam.
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May 19
Margriet van Heesch (PhD candidate), Belle van Zuylen
Institute,
University
of Amsterdam
Retrospective Ethical Dilemmas in the Life Narratives
of Dutch Adults
with
Atypical Sex Anatomies (Intersexuality)
People born with atypical sex anatomies raised
physicians' curiosity
and
philanthropical feelings. The tendency to see
intersexuality as a
medical
problem started in the end of the nineteenth century
as gynecology,
embryology and endocrinology were developing. In the
first half of the
twentieth century, the possibility of surgery even
made intersexuality
a
resolvable problem. Assuming that gender identity was
a result of the
appearance of the body and parenting, medicine started
to assign the
newborns a gender and molded the body parts according
to cultural
interpretations of 'normal' genitals. A new protocol
became accepted in
the
whole Western world, where the estimated birth
prevalence is 1 to 2
atypical sex anatomies out of every 2000.
Since around 1990, the medical protocol started to be
heavily
criticized by
Anglo-Saxon 'patient' support groups and
gendercritical thinkers. In
addition, new knowledge about prenatal influences on
gender identity
made
the contemporary protocol untrustworthy. Now, after
half a century of
medical and surgical interventions in atypical sex
anatomies, it
appears
that the medical practices were unfortunately not only
beneficial.
Epistemological contradictions, paternalism,
heterosexism, homophobia,
stigmatization and subsequent lack of long-term
research seem to be
part of
the results.
In The Netherlands, it is unclear what protocol was
and is used, and if
medical practice is following the new debates
concerning psychosexual
neutrality at birth. However, the main issue is not
whether newborns
are
psychosexual neutral or not, but rather that basic
medical ethics have
been
neglected. While scrutinizing internal and external
genitals, medicine
forgot about ethics, such as truth telling, informed
consent and
autonomy.
Tracing back Dutch adults with atypical sex anatomies
and their life
stories, Van Heesch tries to gain more insight into
the ethical trouble
of
living with an intersex condition
---------------------------------------------------------------------
for further information and reservation:
Gert Hekma
g.hekma@???
Homo/Lesbische Studies / Mosse Fonds UvA
Oudezijds Achterburgwal 185
1012 DK Amsterdam
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