Gbt proposal 2016

A traditional paper proposal for GBT 2016 McGender: How Medical Technology Creates the Illusion of Choice for Transgender and ‘DSD’ (Intersex) Individuals Presented by: Olivia Thompson Undergraduate Sociology and Psychology student Women's Studies Minor, Radford University odthompson@radford.edu Advances in medical technology now offers a great number of choices for individuals seeking to change their sex and/or gender. While the availability of these technologies is of great benefit for the freedom of people to exercise choice in these matters, the medical field simultaneously plays a role in maintaining the constricting status quo of a binary sex/gender system. This paper presentation will explore this point of tension through the exploration of existing literature.

George Ritzer’s theory of McDonaldization focuses specifically on four primary characteristics of modernity: efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control. These characteristics can be applied to the medical field’s treatment of and approach to sex/gender medical interventions. Through these processes, individuals may be transformed by the illusion of choice – while at the same time becoming complicit in the maintenance of the status quo. These processes ultimately render non-conforming bodies - those who choose to maintain intersex or ambiguous gender identities – invisible. These limited choices also become an aspect of social (and technological) surveillance and control of the body.

In addition to this theoretical exploration, this paper pulls together findings from existing research on the experiences of intersex and transgender individuals. Through this evaluation, this paper will also seek to offer locations and opportunities for resistance and perceptual shifts as we move into the future.