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Hermaphrodite’s Voice: Dealing with the Either-Or Attitude in Science, Law, and the Arts

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Transgender and Intersex: Theoretical, Practical, and Artistic Perspectives

Abstract

This chapter situates resistances against the acceptance of inter- and transgendered persons in the either-or attitude governing human mind and action by disjunctive logic, and discusses ways to deal with it in the three realms of social reality, law, and in science and the arts. The attitude is identified in science’s tendency to create binary analytic tools, and in Antique forms of art production. It shows how sex/gender and nature/nurture distinctions reproduce a disjunctive attitude with violent potential on the level of theory. The third element to reality and theory is the imaginary. The way different art forms deal with irruptions of the gender binary offer interesting insights into the actual challenges of modern life, science, and art.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Michael Groneberg

  2. University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland

    Michael Groneberg

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  1. Michael Groneberg
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dresden University of Technology, Dresden, Germany

    Stefan Horlacher

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Groneberg, M. (2016). Hermaphrodite’s Voice: Dealing with the Either-Or Attitude in Science, Law, and the Arts. In: Horlacher, S. (eds) Transgender and Intersex: Theoretical, Practical, and Artistic Perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-71325-7_9

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