KATHRYN PAULY MORGAN

TWO INSTRUCTIVE ANECDOTES

I am fortunate to be able to teach a course entitled " Philosophy of Human
Sexuality." One of the course materials I use is a story by Lois Gould called
" X: A Fabulous Child's Story" ( 1974, pp. 281-290). Gould describes the ad-
ventures, challenges, and perils experienced by a child named X, whose gen-
der goes undetermined for the entire story. She observes the behavior of X's
committed parents who frequently consult their several-thousand-page
Instruction Manual on how to raise a gender-free child. She notes the de-
lighted reactions of X's gendered peers, reactions that are in striking contrast
to those of their increasingly disturbed parents. Apart from the intrinsic in-
terest of the story, I have noticed that whenever I read the story, I find myself
desperately wanting to know X's gender. I search, time after time, for micro-
scopic clues in the text that would reveal this information. I share the frustra-
tion and the curiosity of the other parents who want to know about X. At the
same time, I realize well that I have no justification that would entitle me to
that gender knowledge. And yet I still want to know. I do not regard my reac-
tion as idiosyncratic or pathological. Rather, I see it as instructive, for it
points to the centrality of our gender categories and gender assignments in
mediating how we identify and understand others and ourselves.

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