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Alice Domurat Dreger, Hermaphrodites and the medical invention of sex, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1998, pp. xiii, 268, illus., 23.50 (0-674-08927-8).
One would have expected the boom in historical studies of sexuality and gender to have begun with explorations of hermaphroditism, a phenomenon that has compelled doctors over the centuries to articulate-and act in accordance with-their ideas and ideals of masculinity and femininity. Inexplicably, however, scholars, until now, have shown only lukewarm interest in the subject. Alice Dreger's perceptive, erudite and superbly-written book begins to make up for that neglect. Concentrating on late-nineteenthand early-twentieth-century Britain and France, Dreger analyses how defining and "managing" hermaphroditism were crucial to the destabilization as well as a simultaneous-and only seemingly paradoxical-reinforcement of the sexual division of humanity into male and female. In a surprisingly well-integrated epilogue of the book, she establishes that present-day treatment of hermaphrodites in America, in spite of phenomenal advancements in surgical technologies and theoretical understanding of sexual...