LHMP #581c DeVun 2020 The Shape of Sex Chapter 2

This chapter connects an interest in non-binary people with a wider interest in “monstrosity,” especially as attributed to foreign (i.e., non-Christian) lands. These images depicted the “hermaphrodites” in the half-and-half version, alongside other imagined beings, such as people with their faces on their chests. By connecting these non-binary figures to other types of “monstrous races,” they were dehumanized—not a natural variation of humanity, but something else entirely.

This fascination that had begun in classical times evolved into something of a philosophical game among writers of the 12-13th centuries. In the absence of actual physical evidence for the “monstrous races” under discussion, they could be used to debate questions of the nature of humanity.

In this way, they participated in larger debates about the nature of self and other, where “other” was defined not only in terms of the physical form but of geography, with the nebulous concept of “the East” standing for the non-Christian world.

While these descriptions of “monstrous races” imagined species of beings who “bred true” as it were, there was a parallel fascination with the birth of infants with unexpected morphology to “normal” parents. While “monstrous races” represented an alien “other,” “monstrous births” were more commonly interpreted as portents or the consequences of individual parental behavior. In the 13th century and later, these two categories were clearly distinguished. “Monstrous births” could include what we would classify as birth defects, along with conjoined twins and intersex infants.

The two categories shared the function of being used to test and define the limits of humanity and various legal and religious consequences derived from that status. Following Roman law, intersex infants were classified as human, but the assignment of sex was a more difficult matter (discussed in a later chapter).

The Pliny-style half-and-half hermaphrodite was imagined to be able to switch back and forth between functioning as male and as female. This mythic figure (who continued to appear in medical art) was not ambiguous—rather it contained both sexes simultaneously.

Writings of this era conflate the concepts of sex, gender (including social gender roles), and sexuality. This conflation is relevant to historic beliefs about the interaction of gendered performance (including sexuality) and physiology.

The remainder of the chapter uses the Hereford Map and its depiction of “monstrous races” as a focus for discussing the religious debates and anxieties prevalent in Europe in the 14th century.