RachelBrady's picture   Senior Seminar in Biology and Society
September 15, 2009   Borghese Hermaphroditus, Louvre Museum
Jeffrey Eugenides (Middlesex)   Jeffrey Eugenides' novel
Middlesex (2002) focuses on the chronicle of forty-one-year-old,
hermaphroditic Calliope Stephanides, which presents her
multigenerational Greek-American family and her struggle to
establish a clear sense of self. After opening with the story of
her grandparents, Desdemona and Lefty, and their subsequent
union, Cal traces the damaged gene that this brother and sister
passed down through the generations to Cal, which causes her
gender irregularity. Cal weaves together the story of her
grandparents and their descendents with her own, comparing the
problems they faced in their efforts to reconcile their Greek
heritage with their adopted U.S. culture to Cal's attempts to
find balance between her female and male halves.   Caster
Semenya, woman who rocked athletics world, 'is hermaphrodite'
 How Not to Solve Gender Dispute  Wh