<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.18783">
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT size=2>
<DIV id=pgtop class=hldpg>
<H1>Review: Sex in shades of grey </H1>
<UL class=markerlist>
<LI>05 July 2009 by <A
href="http://www.newscientist.com/search?rbauthors=Deborah+Blum"><B>Deborah
Blum</B></A> </LI>
<LI>Magazine issue <A href="http://www.newscientist.com/issue/2715">2715</A>.
<A
href="http://www.newscientist.com/subscribe?promcode=nsarttop"><B>Subscribe</B></A>
and get 4 free issues.</LI>
<LI>For similar stories, visit the <A
href="http://www.newscientist.com/topic/books-art"><B>Books and Art</B></A>
and <A href="http://www.newscientist.com/topic/love-sex"><B>Love and
Sex</B></A> Topic Guides </LI></UL></DIV><!-- pgtop -->
<DIV id=hldmain class="hldpg floatclearfix">
<DIV id=hldcontent class=floatleft>
<DIV id=maincol class=floatleft>
<DIV id=artImg><IMG
title="Sex isn't black or white (Image: Nils Jorgensen/Rex Features)"
alt="Sex isn't black or white (Image: Nils Jorgensen/Rex Features)"
src="http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/cms/mg20327151.700/mg20327151.700-2_300.jpg">
<P class=lowlight>Sex isn't black or white (Image: Nils Jorgensen/Rex
Features)</P></DIV>
<UL class="notlist bookbx bxbg">
<LI><B class=highlight>Book information</B></LI>
<LI><I>Between XX and XY: Intersexuality and the myth of two sexes</I> by
Gerald N. Callahan</LI>
<LI>Published by: Chicago Review Press</LI>
<LI>Price: $24.95</LI></UL>
<P class=infuse>"I AM satisfied with a wild free Nature," the
psychologist-philosopher William James once wrote to a quarrelsome colleague.
"You seem to me to cherish and pursue an Italian Garden, where all things are
kept in separate compartments, and one must follow straight-ruled walks."</P>
<P class=infuse>I've always admired the way James challenged what he perceived
as scientific dogma. In this case, he raised a conundrum we still wrestle with
today. Science, with its love of classification, seeks to impose a strict order
on the world around us. Yet life on Earth is (forgive the pun) by nature
tangled, messy and, in James's words, "everywhere gothic".</P>
<P class=infuse>This Jamesian perspective pervades Gerald Callahan's smart and
compassionate book. Callahan's argument arises from the fact that human
sexuality spans a slippery biological spectrum. The stereotypical view of two
sexes - me Tarzan, you Jane - is not only cartoonish, it limits our
understanding and appreciation of our own biology.</P>
<DIV class="quotebx bxbg">
<DIV class=quoteopen>
<DIV class=quoteclose>
<DIV class="quotebody lowlight"><QUOTE><QUOTETEXT>The stereotypical view of two
sexes - me Tarzan, you Jane - limits understanding of our own
biology</QUOTETEXT></QUOTE> </DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV>
<P class=infuse>"We still see a gap where none exists," Callahan writes, "a
mirage that shimmers over the hot land of sex." He argues instead that there is
a range of sexual characteristics that stretches from the testosterone-inflated
Tarzan to the womanly "perfection" of a stereotypical Jane and all the
variations that lie in between. "In truth, we are all intersex," he
concludes.</P>
<P class=infuse>The standard model of human development is built on 46
chromosomes, including two that determine sex: XX for female, XY for male. But,
as Callahan points out, not everyone ends up 46XX or 46XY.</P>
<P class=infuse>Variations in sperm or egg, in the mixing of cells from mother
and father and in the cell division that follows can all stir the genetic soup
into alternative outcomes. The possibilities, Callahan writes, "are as grand and
as varietal as the fragrances of flowers: 45X; 47XXX; 48XXXX; 49XXXXX; 47XYY;
47XXY; 48XXXY; 49XXXXY; and 49XXXYY." These variations are familiar to
geneticists - the first on the list, for instance, is known as Turner's syndrome
- but the general public is still stuck in a black and white, XX/XY world.</P>
<P class=infuse>Much of Callahan's book is spent exploring our understanding of
intersexuality, from the physicians of ancient Greece to today's
neuroendocrinologists. He also weaves in the stories of people who live in the
stretch between the classic male and female endpoints. "Truthfully, I think the
most important thing I would like people to understand about me is that I am a
person," Kailana, who is hermaphrodite, tells him in a diatribe of anger, grief
and courage.</P>
<P class=infuse>Callahan, an associate professor of immunology and the public
understanding of science at Colorado State University, is an accomplished and
versatile writer. His work has appeared in everything from <I>Nature</I> to the
<I>Southern Poetry Review</I>. As a result, the book has an appealingly literary
flair, even in the descriptions of complicated biology. Sometimes it verges on
purple prose, as when he describes Los Angeles as a place of "limp palm trees
curdling in the oily light", but for the most part the language is nicely
polished.</P>
<P class=infuse>Do I think the result is smooth enough to change the minds of
those who prefer the standard model of sexuality? Not really. Such attitudes are
grounded in habit and faith more than scientific logic. I hope, however, that it
adds to the forces moving us toward a more generous perspective. We are all
better off for appreciating, as James wrote long ago, that real life never does
follow that straight-ruled path.</P>
<P><I><A href="http://www.journalism.wisc.edu/users/dblum"
target=nsarticle>Deborah Blum</A> is a professor of science journalism at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of <I>Sex on the Brain: The
biological differences between men and women</I> (Penguin,
1998)</I></P></DIV></DIV></DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>