Reading the writing in the margins: dysfunction, disjunction, disgust, and the bodies of others. Issue 2 (4th May 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Cornwall, Susannah
• Is Part Of: Theology & sexuality. Volume 24:Issue 2(2018)
• Page Start: 72
• Page End: 84
• Publication Date: 2018-05-04
• Subjects: Intersex -- novels -- Judaism -- Islam -- Christianity -- disgust; Sex -- Religious aspects -- Christianity -- Periodicals; 261.835
• DOI: 10.1080/13558358.2018.1463642
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1355-8358

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Intersex's representation as "border case, " explored via six fictional treatments of unusually sexed bodies, echoes the ways "atypical" and "marginal" sex and sexuality receive attention to defer focus on that never queried because it seems so ordinary. Across the novels, the purported otherness of the intersex character highlights the dysfunctionality of those around them. In this way, dysfunction, disjunction, and disgust exist across the relationships and dynamics surrounding the scapegoated identity and are a means to avoid the hard work of critical self-reflection on the parts of those who do not usually deem themselves "other." If the supporting characters in all these novels are guilty of failing fully to explore their own marginality, the same has frequently happened with religious bodies' attitudes to intersex, and this is discussed with reference to accounts of intersex in Judaism and Islam, and tensions surrounding the casting out of sexual "violators" in one Christian tradition.