How Sex Changed

In my U.S. Women and Gender History class we just finished discussing How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in America. Until we talked about it, I had not noticed how much approval of having sex-change surgeries is entering into mainstream thought. But my classmates pointed out the popularity of movies such as Transgeneration, 20 Centimeters, Transamerica and Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Shows like Ugly Betty, Big Shots, and Dirty, Sexy Money also have characters exploring their "otherness." And a couple of weeks ago, Oprah featured some kids using hormones to "make the switch." (I was having my nails done at the time, and a couple of women in the salon with me blurted out, "That ain't right!")

Contrast such thinking with what you'll find in Eve's Revenge by Lilian Calles Barger. In this work Barger builds a case that the body cannot be ignored in accounting for the desires and frustrations of contemporary people. But where she differs with the direction of contemporary gender thought is in suggesting that the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth are uniquely relevant to the questions people are asking about the body and its significance. As Publishers Weekly notes, "She offers a fresh reading of Jesus for our body-haunted culture, suggesting that only flesh-and-blood suffering and resurrected divinity can do justice to the wounds and wonder of our humanity."