Are there only two sexes?

Anne Fausto-Sterling's book Sexing the Body makes one realize that gender and sex may not be so different as we thought. It seems to be a two way street both affecting the other. "That Sexe which Prevaileth" was incredibly interesting and made me wonder if there really are only two sexes? The history of hermaphrodites/intersexuals pushed this idea. History shows in different cultures and different times the acceptance of intersexuals varied. I did not know that there was a creation story that says Adam was both male and female and after he/she had fallen from grace did he/she split into two different beings. I'm beginning to think that there is a continuum of biological sexes.

In recent history, Europe and North America- specifically America and Canada- have pushed the idea that there are only two genders and thus society and everything that makes up cultural norms have abided to this idea. Challenging this idea challages what is the norm and what is considered right. It is interesting how we moved from an area of acceptance to an area when the person must fit one or the other. At the end of the chapter it seems like we are starting to move away from this idea. This is happening very slowly, but more and more doctors are making or giving parents the choice to wait instead of doing surgery to "fix" the baby. I see this as being good, because maybe our cultural concepts are not right and this issue forces us to rethink what we take as the norm.

I feel like this week has been truly eye-opening. I've been pushed into a world I know nothing to very little about and it is forcing me to rethink the way I perceive gender and sex.