Overview

Just like noses, sexes come in all shapes and sizes

Providing a fascinating look at the science of sex and what makes people male or female, this book explains dozens of intersex conditions—such as hermaphroditism, Klinefelter syndrome, and androgen insensitivity syndrome—and includes personal interviews with people living with these conditions telling their surprising and often heart-wrenching stories. Even doctors and scientists are not entirely sure if external genitalia, internal sex organs, chromosomes, DNA, environment, or some combination define a person's sex, but this examination shows that sex is not an either-or proposition: not girl/boy, XX/XY—there are babies born XYY, XXX, or with any dozen or more known variations in the X or Y chromosomes. The history and the current treatment for intersex conditions as well as the options that are available today for the ambiguous child are covered in this captivating account that truly shows what it means to be human.

Reviews

"Callahan does a good job of exploring intersex individuals, who are neither male nor female, and argues that they need to be accepted for what they are and not viewed as defective."  —Publishers Weekly

"Immunologist Callahan takes a fascinating look at the biology and human experience of intersexuality, a state in between male and female."  —Discover Magazine

"Callahan's writing style is both accessible and engaging; it reads more like creative non-fiction, a la Malcolm Gladwell."  —Ms. Magazine

"This is a fascinating, easily understandable journey into why we are born male or female and examines our age-old obsession with sex."  —Fort Collins Coloradoan

"There are lots of interesting nuggets here—for example, Callahan's description of biological sex as a spectrum, not a binary system."  —Double X

"The book is really beautifully written, highly accessible, and visionary in its own right."  —Feministing

"This book takes readers through an alphabet of gender and gender variations. Callahan shows readers that rather than either/or scenarios, there have always been variations; his book shatters our society's take on pink and blue."  —Advocate.com

Author Biography

Gerald N. Callahan, PH.D., is an author and an immunologist/pathologist with more than 30 years of experience in biomedical research. He is the author of Infection: The Uninvited Universe and Faith, Madness, and Spontaneous Combustion. He is currently an associate professor at Colorado State University. He lives in Fort Collins, Colorado.