0:00:12.038,0:00:13.601 Okay, so to start, 0:00:13.658,0:00:18.320 I want you to imagine two couples[br]in the middle of 1979 0:00:18.344,0:00:21.613 on the exact same day,[br]at the exact same moment, 0:00:21.637,0:00:23.919 each conceiving a baby, OK? 0:00:23.943,0:00:26.197 So two couples each conceiving one baby. 0:00:26.221,0:00:29.487 Now I don't want you to spend too[br]much time imagining the conception, 0:00:29.511,0:00:32.366 because if you do,[br]you're not going to listen to me, 0:00:32.391,0:00:34.202 so just imagine that for a moment. 0:00:34.226,0:00:38.400 And in this scenario,[br]I want to imagine that, in one case, 0:00:38.424,0:00:40.592 the sperm is carrying a Y chromosome, 0:00:40.616,0:00:42.647 meeting that X chromosome of the egg. 0:00:42.671,0:00:45.843 And in the other case,[br]the sperm is carrying an X chromosome, 0:00:45.867,0:00:48.134 meeting the X chromosome of the egg. 0:00:48.158,0:00:50.209 Both are viable; both take off. 0:00:50.747,0:00:52.795 We'll come back to these people later. 0:00:52.819,0:00:56.479 So I wear two hats in most of what I do. 0:00:56.895,0:01:00.434 And I also sometimes wear[br]metaphorical scarves, 0:01:00.482,0:01:01.549 and great shoes, 0:01:01.577,0:01:04.521 but in this case I want to tell you[br]about the two hats I wear. 0:01:04.574,0:01:07.773 As the one hat, I do history of anatomy. 0:01:07.797,0:01:11.676 I'm a historian by training,[br]and what I study in that case 0:01:11.700,0:01:14.286 is the way that people[br]have dealt with anatomy... 0:01:14.910,0:01:17.540 Meaning human bodies, animal bodies... 0:01:17.564,0:01:20.276 How they dealt with bodily fluids,[br]concepts of bodies; 0:01:20.300,0:01:22.276 how have they thought about bodies. 0:01:23.033,0:01:26.989 The other hat that I've worn[br]in my work is as an activist, 0:01:27.013,0:01:28.869 as a patient advocate... 0:01:28.893,0:01:31.276 Or, as I sometimes say,[br]as an impatient advocate... 0:01:31.300,0:01:33.537 For people who are patients of doctors. 0:01:33.561,0:01:37.276 In that case, what I've worked with[br]is people who have body types 0:01:37.300,0:01:39.215 that challenge social norms. 0:01:39.239,0:01:41.396 So some of what[br]I've worked on, for example, 0:01:41.420,0:01:43.467 is people who are conjoined twins... 0:01:43.491,0:01:44.994 Two people within one body. 0:01:45.540,0:01:48.260 Some of what I've worked on[br]is people who have dwarfism... 0:01:48.284,0:01:50.568 So people who are much[br]shorter than typical. 0:01:50.592,0:01:54.614 And a lot of what I've worked on[br]is people who have atypical sex... 0:01:54.638,0:01:58.666 So people who don't have the standard male[br]or the standard female body types. 0:01:58.690,0:02:02.276 And as a general term,[br]we can use the term "intersex" for this. 0:02:02.300,0:02:04.838 Intersex comes[br]in a lot of different forms. 0:02:04.862,0:02:08.276 I'll just give you a few examples[br]of the types of ways you can have sex 0:02:08.300,0:02:10.633 that isn't standard for male or female. 0:02:10.657,0:02:12.276 So in one instance, 0:02:12.300,0:02:15.736 you can have somebody[br]who has an XY chromosomal basis, 0:02:15.760,0:02:18.276 and that SRY gene on the Y chromosome 0:02:18.300,0:02:21.704 tells the proto-gonads,[br]which we all have in the fetal life, 0:02:21.728,0:02:22.912 to become testes. 0:02:22.936,0:02:26.058 So in the fetal life,[br]those testes are pumping out testosterone. 0:02:26.982,0:02:32.165 But because this individual[br]lacks receptors to hear that testosterone, 0:02:32.189,0:02:34.269 the body doesn't react[br]to the testosterone. 0:02:34.293,0:02:37.353 And this is a syndrome called[br]androgen insensitivity syndrome. 0:02:37.892,0:02:40.754 So lots of levels of testosterone,[br]but no reaction to it. 0:02:40.778,0:02:44.680 As a consequence, the body develops[br]more along the female typical path. 0:02:45.004,0:02:47.282 When the child is born,[br]she looks like a girl. 0:02:47.306,0:02:50.404 She is a girl, she is raised as a girl. 0:02:50.428,0:02:54.974 And it's often not until she hits puberty[br]and she's growing and developing breasts, 0:02:54.998,0:02:56.577 but she's not getting her period, 0:02:56.601,0:02:58.765 that somebody figures[br]out something's up here. 0:02:58.789,0:03:00.558 And they do some tests and figure out 0:03:00.582,0:03:03.059 that, instead of having[br]ovaries inside and a uterus, 0:03:03.083,0:03:05.529 she has testes inside,[br]and she has a Y chromosome. 0:03:05.553,0:03:07.244 Now what's important to understand 0:03:07.268,0:03:09.756 is you may think of this[br]person as really being male, 0:03:09.780,0:03:11.008 but they're really not. 0:03:11.032,0:03:13.096 Females, like males, 0:03:13.120,0:03:15.775 have in our bodies something[br]called the adrenal glands. 0:03:15.799,0:03:17.356 They're in the back of our body. 0:03:17.380,0:03:20.810 And the adrenal glands make androgens,[br]which are a masculinizing hormone. 0:03:20.834,0:03:23.935 Most females like me...[br]I believe myself to be a typical female... 0:03:23.959,0:03:26.118 I don't actually know[br]my chromosomal make-up, 0:03:26.142,0:03:27.827 but I think I'm probably typical... 0:03:27.851,0:03:30.333 Most females like me[br]are actually androgen-sensitive. 0:03:30.357,0:03:33.078 We're making androgen,[br]and we're responding to androgens. 0:03:33.402,0:03:35.491 The consequence is that somebody like me 0:03:35.515,0:03:38.534 has actually had a brain[br]exposed to more androgens 0:03:38.558,0:03:41.940 than the woman born with testes[br]who has androgen insensitivity syndrome. 0:03:41.964,0:03:43.486 So sex is really complicated... 0:03:43.510,0:03:45.154 It's not just that intersex people 0:03:45.178,0:03:47.255 are in the middle[br]of all the sex spectrum... 0:03:47.279,0:03:49.376 In some ways,[br]they can be all over the place. 0:03:49.400,0:03:50.558 Another example: 0:03:50.582,0:03:53.487 a few years ago I got a call[br]from a man who was 19 years old, 0:03:53.511,0:03:55.374 who was born a boy, raised a boy, 0:03:55.398,0:03:57.983 had a girlfriend,[br]had sex with his girlfriend, 0:03:58.007,0:03:59.679 had a life as a guy, 0:03:59.703,0:04:02.800 and had just found out[br]that he had ovaries and a uterus inside. 0:04:03.329,0:04:05.081 What he had was an extreme form 0:04:05.105,0:04:07.786 of a condition called[br]congenital adrenal hyperplasia. 0:04:07.810,0:04:09.736 He had XX chromosomes, 0:04:09.760,0:04:13.499 and in the womb, his adrenal glands[br]were in such high gear 0:04:13.523,0:04:17.141 that it created, essentially,[br]a masculine hormonal environment. 0:04:17.165,0:04:19.702 And as a consequence,[br]his genitals were masculinized, 0:04:19.726,0:04:23.239 his brain was subject to the more typical[br]masculine component of hormones. 0:04:23.263,0:04:26.500 And he was born looking like a boy...[br]Nobody suspected anything. 0:04:26.524,0:04:29.235 And it was only when he had[br]reached the age of 19 0:04:29.259,0:04:32.850 that he began to have enough medical[br]problems from menstruating internally, 0:04:32.874,0:04:36.246 that doctors figured out that, in fact,[br]he was female, internally. 0:04:36.734,0:04:40.268 OK, so just one more quick example[br]of a way you can have intersex. 0:04:40.592,0:04:44.471 Some people who have XX chromosomes[br]develop what are called ovotestis, 0:04:44.495,0:04:48.234 which is when you have ovarian tissue[br]with testicular tissue wrapped around it. 0:04:48.258,0:04:50.384 And we're not exactly sure[br]why that happens. 0:04:50.408,0:04:53.231 So sex can come[br]in lots of different varieties. 0:04:54.055,0:04:58.902 The reason that children[br]with these kinds of bodies... 0:04:58.926,0:05:01.693 Whether it's dwarfism,[br]or it's conjoined twinning, 0:05:01.717,0:05:03.043 or it's an intersex type... 0:05:03.067,0:05:05.448 Are often "normalized" by surgeons 0:05:05.472,0:05:09.512 is not because it actually leaves them[br]better off in terms of physical health. 0:05:09.536,0:05:12.518 In many cases, people are actually[br]perfectly healthy. 0:05:13.142,0:05:16.184 The reason they're often subject[br]to various kinds of surgeries 0:05:16.208,0:05:19.029 is because they threaten[br]our social categories. 0:05:19.053,0:05:21.822 Our system has been based[br]typically on the idea 0:05:21.846,0:05:25.176 that a particular kind of anatomy[br]comes with a particular identity. 0:05:25.200,0:05:27.803 So we have the concept[br]that what it means to be a woman 0:05:27.827,0:05:29.219 is to have a female identity; 0:05:29.443,0:05:33.676 what it means to be a black person[br]is, allegedly, to have an African anatomy 0:05:33.700,0:05:35.259 in terms of your history. 0:05:36.317,0:05:40.096 And so we have[br]this terribly simplistic idea. 0:05:40.120,0:05:41.753 And when we're faced with a body 0:05:41.977,0:05:44.911 that actually presents us[br]something quite different, 0:05:44.935,0:05:47.729 it startles us in terms[br]of those categorizations. 0:05:47.753,0:05:51.694 So we have a lot of very romantic ideas[br]in our culture about individualism. 0:05:51.718,0:05:55.359 And our nation's really founded on[br]a very romantic concept of individualism. 0:05:55.383,0:05:57.288 You can imagine how startling then it is 0:05:57.612,0:06:01.442 when you have children who are born[br]who are two people inside of one body. 0:06:02.871,0:06:06.874 Where I ran into the most heat[br]from this most recently 0:06:06.898,0:06:09.769 was last year when South African runner,[br]Caster Semenya, 0:06:09.793,0:06:13.348 had her sex called into question[br]at the International Games in Berlin. 0:06:13.372,0:06:16.196 I had a lot of journalists[br]calling me, asking me, 0:06:16.220,0:06:18.094 "Which is the test they're going to run 0:06:18.118,0:06:21.576 that will tell us whether or not[br]Caster Semenya is male or female?" 0:06:21.600,0:06:24.893 And I had to explain to the journalists[br]there isn't such a test. 0:06:24.917,0:06:28.768 In fact, we now know[br]that sex is complicated enough 0:06:28.792,0:06:30.526 that we have to admit: 0:06:30.550,0:06:34.239 Nature doesn't draw the line[br]for us between male and female, 0:06:34.263,0:06:37.172 or between male and intersex[br]and female and intersex; 0:06:37.196,0:06:39.271 we actually draw that line on nature. 0:06:40.092,0:06:44.759 So what we have is a sort of situation[br]where the farther our science goes, 0:06:44.783,0:06:47.719 the more we have to admit to ourselves[br]that these categories 0:06:47.743,0:06:50.430 that we thought of as stable[br]anatomical categories, 0:06:50.454,0:06:54.584 that mapped very simply[br]to stable identity categories 0:06:54.845,0:06:56.980 are a lot more fuzzy than we thought. 0:06:57.004,0:06:58.957 And it's not just in terms of sex. 0:06:58.981,0:07:00.576 It's also in terms of race, 0:07:00.600,0:07:03.016 which turns out to be[br]vastly more complicated 0:07:03.040,0:07:05.132 than our terminology has allowed. 0:07:05.156,0:07:08.248 As we look, we get into all sorts[br]of uncomfortable areas. 0:07:08.272,0:07:10.101 We look, for example, about the fact 0:07:10.125,0:07:14.437 that we share at least 95 percent[br]of our DNA with chimpanzees. 0:07:14.461,0:07:16.161 What are we to make of the fact 0:07:16.185,0:07:19.652 that we differ from them[br]only, really, by a few nucleotides? 0:07:19.676,0:07:22.119 And as we get farther[br]and farther with our science, 0:07:22.143,0:07:24.332 we get more and more[br]into a discomforted zone, 0:07:24.756,0:07:28.041 where we have to acknowledge[br]that the simplistic categories we've had 0:07:28.065,0:07:30.163 are probably overly simplistic. 0:07:31.163,0:07:34.774 So we're seeing this[br]in all sorts of places in human life. 0:07:34.798,0:07:37.003 One of the places[br]we're seeing it, for example, 0:07:37.027,0:07:39.041 in our culture,[br]in the United States today, 0:07:39.065,0:07:41.844 is battles over the beginning[br]of life and the end of life. 0:07:41.868,0:07:43.476 We have difficult conversations 0:07:43.500,0:07:46.639 about at what point we decide[br]a body becomes a human, 0:07:46.663,0:07:49.628 such that it has a different[br]right than a fetal life. 0:07:49.652,0:07:52.176 We have very difficult[br]conversations nowadays... 0:07:52.200,0:07:54.949 Probably not out in the open[br]as much as within medicine... 0:07:54.973,0:07:57.222 About the question[br]of when somebody's dead. 0:07:57.246,0:07:59.873 In the past, our ancestors[br]never had to struggle so much 0:07:59.897,0:08:01.999 with this question[br]of when somebody was dead. 0:08:02.023,0:08:04.415 At most, they'd stick[br]a feather on somebody's nose, 0:08:04.439,0:08:06.583 and if it twitched,[br]they didn't bury them yet. 0:08:06.607,0:08:08.466 If it stopped twitching, you bury them. 0:08:08.490,0:08:09.926 But today, we have a situation 0:08:09.950,0:08:12.261 where we want to take[br]vital organs out of beings 0:08:12.285,0:08:13.869 and give them to other beings. 0:08:13.893,0:08:15.352 And as a consequence, 0:08:15.376,0:08:17.980 we have to struggle[br]with this really difficult question 0:08:18.004,0:08:19.639 about who's dead, 0:08:19.663,0:08:22.008 and this leads us[br]to a really difficult situation 0:08:22.032,0:08:25.008 where we don't have such simple[br]categories as we've had before. 0:08:25.031,0:08:28.442 Now you might think that all this[br]breaking-down of categories 0:08:28.467,0:08:30.453 would make somebody like me really happy. 0:08:30.477,0:08:33.529 I'm a political progressive,[br]I defend people with unusual bodies, 0:08:33.553,0:08:35.988 but I have to admit to you[br]that it makes me nervous. 0:08:36.011,0:08:37.702 Understanding that these categories 0:08:37.726,0:08:40.818 are really much more unstable[br]than we thought makes me tense. 0:08:40.842,0:08:44.096 It makes me tense from the point of view[br]of thinking about democracy. 0:08:44.720,0:08:46.876 So in order to tell you[br]about that tension, 0:08:46.900,0:08:50.017 I have to first admit to you[br]a huge fan of the Founding Fathers. 0:08:50.041,0:08:52.650 I know they were racists,[br]I know they were sexist, 0:08:52.674,0:08:53.847 but they were great. 0:08:53.871,0:08:58.985 I mean, they were so brave and so bold[br]and so radical in what they did, 0:08:59.009,0:09:03.479 that I find myself watching that cheesy[br]musical "1776" every few years, 0:09:03.503,0:09:06.507 and it's not because of the music,[br]which is totally forgettable. 0:09:06.531,0:09:09.869 It's because of what happened in 1776[br]with the Founding Fathers. 0:09:09.893,0:09:12.167 The Founding Fathers were,[br]for my point of view, 0:09:12.191,0:09:14.243 the original anatomical activists, 0:09:14.267,0:09:15.872 and this is why. 0:09:15.896,0:09:19.171 What they rejected[br]was an anatomical concept 0:09:19.195,0:09:20.731 and replaced it with another one 0:09:20.755,0:09:24.084 that was radical and beautiful[br]and held us for 200 years. 0:09:24.408,0:09:26.130 So as you all recall, 0:09:26.154,0:09:29.558 what our Founding Fathers were[br]rejecting was a concept of monarchy, 0:09:29.582,0:09:33.220 and the monarchy was basically based[br]on a very simplistic concept of anatomy. 0:09:33.244,0:09:36.883 The monarchs of the old world[br]didn't have a concept of DNA, 0:09:36.907,0:09:39.040 but they did have a concept of birthright. 0:09:39.064,0:09:40.736 They had a concept of blue blood. 0:09:40.760,0:09:43.943 They had the idea that the people[br]who would be in political power 0:09:43.967,0:09:47.144 should be in political power[br]because of the blood being passed down 0:09:47.168,0:09:50.842 from grandfather to father[br]to son and so forth. 0:09:51.494,0:09:53.862 The Founding Fathers rejected that idea, 0:09:53.886,0:09:56.537 and they replaced it[br]with a new anatomical concept, 0:09:56.561,0:10:00.394 and that concept[br]was "all men are created equal." 0:10:00.418,0:10:03.781 They leveled that playing field[br]and decided the anatomy that mattered 0:10:03.805,0:10:08.219 was the commonality of anatomy,[br]not the difference in anatomy, 0:10:08.243,0:10:10.787 and that was a really radical thing to do. 0:10:11.260,0:10:12.712 Now they were doing it in part 0:10:12.736,0:10:15.028 because they were part[br]of an Enlightenment system 0:10:15.052,0:10:17.061 where two things were growing up together. 0:10:17.085,0:10:19.353 And that was democracy growing up, 0:10:19.377,0:10:22.442 but it was also science[br]growing up at the same time. 0:10:22.466,0:10:25.945 And it's really clear, if you look[br]at the history of the Founding Fathers, 0:10:25.969,0:10:28.255 a lot of them were very[br]interested in science, 0:10:28.279,0:10:31.307 and they were interested[br]in the concept of a naturalistic world. 0:10:31.331,0:10:33.817 They were moving away[br]from supernatural explanations, 0:10:33.841,0:10:37.078 and they were rejecting things[br]like a supernatural concept of power, 0:10:37.102,0:10:41.157 where it transmitted because[br]of a very vague concept of birthright. 0:10:41.181,0:10:43.463 They were moving[br]towards a naturalistic concept. 0:10:43.487,0:10:46.542 And if you look, for example,[br]in the Declaration of Independence, 0:10:46.566,0:10:49.272 they talk about nature and nature's God. 0:10:49.296,0:10:51.485 They don't talk about God[br]and God's nature. 0:10:51.509,0:10:55.412 They're talking about the power of nature[br]to tell us who we are. 0:10:55.436,0:10:58.676 So as part of that,[br]they were coming to us with a concept 0:10:58.700,0:11:01.410 that was about anatomical commonality. 0:11:01.934,0:11:05.063 And in doing so, they were really[br]setting up in a beautiful way 0:11:05.087,0:11:07.000 the Civil Rights Movement of the future. 0:11:07.024,0:11:10.565 They didn't think of it that way,[br]but they did it for us, and it was great. 0:11:10.589,0:11:12.232 So what happened years afterwards? 0:11:12.256,0:11:15.698 What happened was women, for example,[br]who wanted the right to vote, 0:11:15.722,0:11:19.084 took the Founding Fathers' concept[br]of anatomical commonality 0:11:19.108,0:11:21.315 being more important[br]than anatomical difference 0:11:21.339,0:11:23.873 and said, "The fact that we have[br]a uterus and ovaries 0:11:23.897,0:11:26.660 is not significant enough[br]in terms of a difference 0:11:26.684,0:11:28.973 to mean that we shouldn't[br]have the right to vote, 0:11:28.997,0:11:32.679 the right to full citizenship,[br]the right to own property, etc." 0:11:32.703,0:11:34.755 And women successfully argued that. 0:11:34.779,0:11:37.176 Next came the successful[br]Civil Rights Movement, 0:11:37.200,0:11:39.319 where we found people like Sojourner Truth 0:11:39.343,0:11:41.612 talking about, "Ain't I a woman?" 0:11:41.636,0:11:45.581 We find men on the marching lines[br]of the Civil Rights Movement 0:11:45.605,0:11:46.955 saying, "I am a man." 0:11:46.979,0:11:51.376 Again, people of color[br]appealing to a commonality of anatomy 0:11:51.400,0:11:54.090 over a difference of anatomy,[br]again, successfully. 0:11:54.114,0:11:57.151 We see the same thing[br]with the disability rights movement. 0:11:57.492,0:11:59.650 The problem is, of course, 0:11:59.674,0:12:02.052 that, as we begin to look[br]at all that commonality, 0:12:02.076,0:12:05.501 we have to begin to question[br]why we maintain certain divisions. 0:12:05.525,0:12:08.254 Mind you, I want to maintain[br]some divisions, 0:12:08.278,0:12:09.945 anatomically, in our culture. 0:12:09.969,0:12:13.649 For example, I don't want to give a fish[br]the same rights as a human. 0:12:13.673,0:12:16.258 I don't want to say[br]we give up entirely on anatomy. 0:12:16.282,0:12:17.949 I don't want to say a five-year-old 0:12:17.973,0:12:20.604 should be allowed to consent[br]to sex or consent to marry. 0:12:20.628,0:12:22.595 So there are some anatomical divisions 0:12:22.619,0:12:25.928 that make sense to me[br]and that I think we should retain. 0:12:25.952,0:12:28.845 But the challenge is trying[br]to figure out which ones they are 0:12:28.869,0:12:31.480 and why do we retain them,[br]and do they have meaning. 0:12:31.504,0:12:35.294 So let's go back to those two beings[br]conceived at the beginning of this talk. 0:12:35.318,0:12:37.176 We have two beings, both conceived 0:12:37.200,0:12:40.691 in the middle of 1979[br]on the exact same day. 0:12:40.715,0:12:44.465 Let's imagine one of them, Mary,[br]is born three months prematurely, 0:12:44.489,0:12:46.991 so she's born on June 1, 1980. 0:12:47.015,0:12:51.188 Henry, by contrast, is born at term,[br]so he's born on March 1, 1980. 0:12:51.786,0:12:53.578 Simply by virtue of the fact 0:12:53.602,0:12:56.060 that Mary was born[br]prematurely three months, 0:12:56.084,0:13:00.326 she comes into all sorts of rights[br]three months earlier than Henry does... 0:13:00.350,0:13:04.565 The right to consent to sex,[br]the right to vote, the right to drink. 0:13:04.589,0:13:06.222 Henry has to wait for all of that, 0:13:06.246,0:13:09.260 not because he's actually[br]any different in age, biologically, 0:13:09.284,0:13:11.549 except in terms of when he was born. 0:13:12.189,0:13:15.349 We find other kinds of weirdness[br]in terms of what their rights are. 0:13:15.373,0:13:17.566 Henry, by virtue of being[br]assumed to be male... 0:13:17.590,0:13:19.981 Although I haven't told you[br]that he's the XY one... 0:13:20.005,0:13:24.176 By virtue of being assumed to be male[br]is now liable to be drafted, 0:13:24.200,0:13:26.140 which Mary does not need to worry about. 0:13:26.164,0:13:29.937 Mary, meanwhile, cannot in all the states[br]have the same right 0:13:29.961,0:13:31.561 that Henry has in all the states, 0:13:31.585,0:13:33.067 namely, the right to marry. 0:13:33.091,0:13:35.855 Henry can marry, in every state, a woman, 0:13:35.879,0:13:38.887 but Mary can only marry today[br]in a few states, a woman. 0:13:39.419,0:13:42.312 So we have these anatomical[br]categories that persist, 0:13:42.336,0:13:46.085 that are in many ways[br]problematic and questionable. 0:13:46.109,0:13:47.830 And the question to me becomes: 0:13:47.854,0:13:53.842 What do we do, as our science[br]gets to be so good in looking at anatomy, 0:13:53.866,0:13:56.436 that we reach the point[br]where we have to admit 0:13:56.460,0:13:59.337 that a democracy[br]that's been based on anatomy 0:13:59.361,0:14:00.793 might start falling apart? 0:14:02.080,0:14:04.804 I don't want to give up the science,[br]but at the same time, 0:14:04.828,0:14:07.976 it feels sometimes like the science[br]is coming out from under us. 0:14:08.000,0:14:09.176 So where do we go? 0:14:10.029,0:14:14.110 It seems like what happens in our culture[br]is a sort of pragmatic attitude: 0:14:14.134,0:14:17.572 "We have to draw the line somewhere,[br]so we will draw the line somewhere." 0:14:17.596,0:14:20.282 But a lot of people get stuck[br]in a very strange position. 0:14:20.306,0:14:25.176 So for example, Texas has at one point[br]decided that what it means to marry a man 0:14:25.200,0:14:27.595 is to mean that you don't have[br]a Y chromosome, 0:14:27.619,0:14:30.689 and what it means to marry a woman[br]means you have a Y chromosome. 0:14:30.713,0:14:33.435 In practice they don't test people[br]for their chromosomes. 0:14:33.459,0:14:34.942 But this is also very bizarre, 0:14:34.966,0:14:37.286 because of the story I told you[br]at the beginning 0:14:37.310,0:14:39.120 about androgen insensitivity syndrome. 0:14:39.144,0:14:42.676 If we look at one of the Founding Fathers[br]of modern democracy, 0:14:42.700,0:14:43.880 Dr. Martin Luther King, 0:14:43.904,0:14:47.107 he offers us something of a solution[br]in his "I have a dream" speech. 0:14:47.131,0:14:50.398 He says we should judge people[br]"based not on the color of their skin, 0:14:50.422,0:14:52.293 but on the content of their character," 0:14:52.317,0:14:53.839 moving beyond anatomy. 0:14:53.863,0:14:56.842 And I want to say, "Yeah, that sounds[br]like a really good idea." 0:14:56.866,0:14:58.522 But in practice, how do you do it? 0:14:58.546,0:15:01.496 How do you judge people based[br]on the content of character? 0:15:02.033,0:15:03.185 I also want to point out 0:15:03.209,0:15:07.020 that I'm not sure that is how we should[br]distribute rights in terms of humans, 0:15:07.044,0:15:10.347 because, I have to admit, that there[br]are some golden retrievers I know 0:15:10.371,0:15:13.948 that are probably more deserving of social[br]services than some humans I know. 0:15:13.972,0:15:17.567 I also want to say there are probably[br]also some yellow Labradors that I know 0:15:17.591,0:15:20.614 that are more capable of informed,[br]intelligent, mature decisions 0:15:20.638,0:15:23.360 about sexual relations[br]than some 40-year-olds that I know. 0:15:23.384,0:15:27.562 So how do we operationalize[br]the question of content of character? 0:15:27.586,0:15:29.511 It turns out to be really difficult. 0:15:29.535,0:15:31.016 And part of me also wonders, 0:15:31.040,0:15:32.912 what if content of character 0:15:32.936,0:15:36.176 turns out to be something[br]that's scannable in the future... 0:15:36.921,0:15:39.230 Able to be seen with an fMRI? 0:15:39.254,0:15:40.865 Do we really want to go there? 0:15:41.300,0:15:42.636 I'm not sure where we go. 0:15:42.660,0:15:45.211 What I do know is that it seems[br]to be really important 0:15:45.235,0:15:48.178 to think about the idea[br]of the United States being in the lead 0:15:48.202,0:15:50.206 of thinking about this issue of democracy. 0:15:50.230,0:15:52.941 We've done a really good job[br]struggling with democracy, 0:15:52.965,0:15:55.299 and I think we would do[br]a good job in the future. 0:15:55.323,0:15:57.926 We don't have a situation[br]that Iran has, for example, 0:15:57.950,0:16:00.243 where a man who's sexually[br]attracted to other men 0:16:00.267,0:16:01.464 is liable to be murdered, 0:16:01.488,0:16:03.659 unless he's willing[br]to submit to a sex change, 0:16:03.683,0:16:05.570 in which case he's allowed to live. 0:16:06.108,0:16:07.899 We don't have that kind of situation. 0:16:07.923,0:16:11.222 I'm glad to say we don't have[br]the kind of situation with... 0:16:11.246,0:16:13.229 A surgeon I talked to a few years ago 0:16:13.253,0:16:15.689 who had brought over a set[br]of conjoined twins 0:16:15.713,0:16:18.624 in order to separate them,[br]partly to make a name for himself. 0:16:18.648,0:16:22.098 But when I was on the phone with him,[br]asking why he'll do this surgery... 0:16:22.122,0:16:25.848 This was a very high-risk surgery...[br]His answer was that, in this other nation, 0:16:25.872,0:16:29.505 these children were going to be treated[br]very badly, and so he had to do this. 0:16:29.529,0:16:32.681 My response to him was, "Well,[br]have you considered political asylum 0:16:32.705,0:16:34.312 instead of a separation surgery?" 0:16:34.336,0:16:36.785 The United States has offered[br]tremendous possibility 0:16:36.809,0:16:39.176 for allowing people[br]to be the way they are, 0:16:39.200,0:16:42.898 without having them have[br]to be changed for the sake of the state. 0:16:42.922,0:16:45.100 So I think we have to be in the lead. 0:16:45.124,0:16:47.581 Well, just to close,[br]I want to suggest to you 0:16:47.605,0:16:50.136 that I've been talking[br]a lot about the Fathers. 0:16:50.160,0:16:52.176 And I want to think[br]about the possibilities 0:16:52.200,0:16:55.105 of what democracy might look like,[br]or might have looked like, 0:16:55.129,0:16:57.002 if we had more involved the mothers. 0:16:57.585,0:17:00.623 And I want to say something[br]a little bit radical for a feminist, 0:17:00.647,0:17:04.492 and that is that I think that there may be[br]different kinds of insights 0:17:04.516,0:17:06.765 that can come from different[br]kinds of anatomies, 0:17:06.789,0:17:09.411 particularly when we have[br]people thinking in groups. 0:17:09.435,0:17:11.942 For years, because[br]I've been interested in intersex, 0:17:11.965,0:17:14.443 I've also been interested[br]in sex-difference research. 0:17:14.467,0:17:16.819 And one of the things[br]that I've been interested in 0:17:16.844,0:17:19.445 is looking at the differences[br]between males and females 0:17:19.470,0:17:22.108 in terms of the way they think[br]and operate in the world. 0:17:22.133,0:17:24.205 And what we know[br]from cross-cultural studies 0:17:24.230,0:17:26.069 is that females, on average... 0:17:26.094,0:17:28.375 Not everyone, but on average... 0:17:28.400,0:17:33.291 Are more inclined to be very attentive[br]to complex social relations 0:17:33.315,0:17:34.893 and to taking care of people 0:17:34.917,0:17:37.193 who are, basically,[br]vulnerable within the group. 0:17:37.919,0:17:40.126 And so if we think about that, 0:17:40.150,0:17:42.151 we have an interesting situation in hands. 0:17:42.175,0:17:44.141 Years ago, when I was in graduate school, 0:17:44.165,0:17:47.362 one of my graduate advisors[br]who knew I was interested in feminism... 0:17:47.386,0:17:49.622 I considered myself[br]a feminist, as I still do, 0:17:49.646,0:17:51.195 asked a really strange question. 0:17:51.219,0:17:54.128 He said, "Tell me what's feminine[br]about feminism." 0:17:54.152,0:17:57.323 And I thought, "Well, that's the dumbest[br]question I've ever heard. 0:17:57.347,0:17:59.921 Feminism is all about undoing[br]stereotypes about gender, 0:17:59.945,0:18:02.007 so there's nothing[br]feminine about feminism." 0:18:02.031,0:18:04.056 But the more I thought about his question, 0:18:04.080,0:18:07.298 the more I thought there might be[br]something feminine about feminism. 0:18:07.322,0:18:10.031 That is to say, there might be[br]something, on average, 0:18:10.055,0:18:12.927 different about female[br]brains from male brains 0:18:12.951,0:18:18.015 that makes us more attentive[br]to deeply complex social relationships, 0:18:18.039,0:18:20.872 and more attentive[br]to taking care of the vulnerable. 0:18:20.896,0:18:23.698 So whereas the Fathers[br]were extremely attentive 0:18:23.723,0:18:27.534 to figuring out how to protect[br]individuals from the state, 0:18:27.558,0:18:31.403 it's possible that if we injected[br]more mothers into this concept, 0:18:31.427,0:18:35.033 what we would have is more of a concept[br]of not just how to protect, 0:18:35.057,0:18:37.377 but how to care for each other. 0:18:37.401,0:18:39.974 And maybe that's where[br]we need to go in the future, 0:18:39.998,0:18:42.205 when we take democracy beyond anatomy, 0:18:42.229,0:18:45.764 is to think less about the individual body[br]in terms of the identity, 0:18:45.788,0:18:48.138 and think more about those relationships. 0:18:48.162,0:18:51.627 So that as we the people[br]try to create a more perfect union, 0:18:51.651,0:18:54.544 we're thinking about what we do[br]for each other. 0:18:54.568,0:18:55.719 Thank you. 0:18:55.743,0:18:58.517 (Applause)