"Is It a Boy or a Girl?"
A review essay by Elizabeth Bowman, M.D.

Dr. Mollenkott's basic theses (as summarized by reviewer Elizabeth Bowman, M.D.) are:

1. The binary gender construct is the assumption that there are only two types of normal (i.e., acceptable) humans: heterosexual females with typical "feminine" characteristics, and heterosexual males with typical "masculine" characteristics. This construct assumes that the two-gender system is the biologically decreed norm --the equivalent of God's Will for humanity and creation. 
2. The binary gender construct is a bipolar construct in which female = feminine, male = masculine, and heterosexual = normal. It leaves no middle ground and seems accurate because so many people have been intimidated into silently trying to conform to it by hiding their true selves. 
3. The binary gender assumption renders all "others" as "queer", defining them as gender transgressors and causing them to endure ostracism, hatred, assaults (physical, sexual and surgical), self-hatred, suppression of their true selves, and even murder. "Others" include homosexuals, bisexuals, transsexuals, transvestites, intersex/hermaphrodite persons, "masculine" women, "feminine" men, and any other person who does not fit into the female-male categories of the binary gender construct. The author subsumes all "others" under the term transpeople [meaning they trans (or cross) the carefully delineated social gender boundaries]. 
4. Gender is socially constructed. It is a set of behaviors, interests, and characteristics culturally defined as masculine or feminine rather than being decreed by biological sex. Societies vary radically in their understandings of what is defined as masculine or feminine, so there is clearly no "natural" or (Platonic) universal masculinity or femininity decreed by nature or God. 
5. The binary social construction of gender has resulted in inequities that have oppressed females and non-heterosexuals. It is the fundamental reason for gender injustices. 
6. Challenges to the binary gender construct are extremely socially threatening because they threaten the basis for male privilege and power. Intersexual children(hermaphrodites) are forced to undergo genital surgery because their existence poses such a challenge to this construct. Such surgery is legalized genital mutilation that should be banned so children can choose how they want their genitals to look. 
7. Gender is not truly binary, but is a continuum whose ends are occupied by heterosexual "feminine" women and "masculine" men. A considerable middle ground exists, inhabited by "transpeople" who are more common than is generally known because they are forced to surgically alter their genitals or to hide their personal characteristics to avoid persecution. 
8. Gender "normality" is a myth. The binary gender construct ignores the reality that not all bodies fit into clear male or female sexual or gender categories. 
9. The Genesis creation stories do not support the binary gender construct as God's original plan. Instead they support creation of a sexual hermaphrodite prior to this creature's being split into female and male humans. Other biblical passages that appear to forbid homosexuality, cross-dressing, or the involvement of intersexuals in religious rituals should be interpreted as attempts by early Judaism and Christianity to differentiate themselves from competing pagan religions. Biblical presentations of homosexuality and cross-dressing are not all negative. 
10. Transpeople (especially intersexuals) are persecuted by those who are threatened by the implicit challenge that their existence poses to the bipolar gender construct. The Gospel demands that Christians oppose the ostracism and persecution of transpeople and advocate for their acceptance as part of God's diverse creation. This means that homosexual persons of faith need to include intersexuals and transsexuals in the fight for justice. 
11. Numerous other religions world-wide across millennia have carefully broken gender norms by holding gender-blended persons as sacred and special. These religions stand in stark contrast to rigid Christian sexual categories. 
12. Since gender is socially constructed, it can be de-constructed and reconstructed. Christian faith demands that we de-construct it to address the oppression of females and of transpeople, all of whom suffer because of the dominant paradigm of "heteropatriarchy." 
13. A world free of the binary gender construct would be a world in which all persons (but not all behaviors) would be accepted as they are. Oppression based on sex, sexual orientation, or gender characteristics would be unknown. Variety in gender behaviors and genital anatomy would be embraced without stigma. In short, there would be sexual and gender justice.

Return to the review essay

© 2001 Evangelical and Ecumenical Women's Caucus