statute-book, but by medical psychology. By noting else so arbitrarily, because not otherwise so accurately. Particularly must we throw away one long-established notion as to sex in the human race, in general.
Sex is Never
to be Determined
by the Physique.
That special error is the idea that sex is to be determined by the physique. Physique is not, and never should be, determinative of sex in man or woman or intersex. No—the one determinative, putting the stress on the word determinative, is the sexual instinct. Nothing else. Not the bodily organs and structure, not the mental, the moral, the general emotional making-up of the human being, can stand out as a determinative before this one trait. Such details can coincide in a general effect; or they can (as so continually is the case) only help to conceal the true sex, to mislead us cunningly and elaborately; and, what is more, sometimes to deceive perfectly the very person most concerned, who is the unlucky subject of their masquerade.
Sex Determined
by Sexual Instinct.
We repeat it; sex is determined by the sexual instinct; by the desire physical and psychical, of one human being for another, no matter what his or her bodily aspects and other endowment. In every other trait that we have been accustomed to accept as telling of what sex we or another fellow-creature may be, Nature hoodwinks and plays with us, or else gives us relatively superficial clues.
What are the
Intersexes?
Taking this series of conclusions as our. guidance, let us re-distribute the human race sexually. To the one extreme and perfect masculine sex, a man, and to the other extreme and perfect female sex, a woman, we will add at least two Intersexes. These Intersexes partake of the natures and temperaments and physiques of both the male and the female, now to one extent, now to another. Departing from the first sex a
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