An AIS Adult Writes to Greer

An adult woman with AIS wrote to Prof Greer with her experiences:

Dear Prof Greer

I must say that I am very disappointed that you have used half-baked and poorly researched ideas to make cheap sensationalistic points at the expense of a group of women--those with AIS, like me--who often have a hard enough time understanding their condition and living their lives in peace. And I am surprised your publishers have allowed such an ill-researched chapter to get published in an otherwise very interesting and well-written book. I would like to address some inaccuracies you make in your book. I include your text in italics.

• [...] this is mis-described in a Guardian article as 'developing along female lines'. In fact, AIS babies do not develop along female lines; they simply do not develop adequate male genitalia or the male pattern of hair distribution.

  AIS girls develop typically female genitalia--including a vagina, labia, etc. This is more than a passive lack of masculinization: it is an active process of feminization. After all, one doesn't see many boys with vaginas, does one? The biological explanation is that both men and women typically have one and only one active X chromosome per cell; the only difference, when considering male vs. female development of hair follicles, external genitalia, and even the brain, is in the recognition of environmental androgens.
  

• When AIS results, as it often does, in a masculine figure - broad shoulders, narrow hips, no waist, short legs - and progressive baldness and heavy facial hair, the benefit of denying maleness is hard to discern [...]

  Do you have any citations for this generalisation? Or have you met enough AIS women to arrive at this conclusion yourself? Actually, the usually late hormonal action at puberty logically entails in a longer bone structure. AIS is biologically incompatible with baldness or heavy facial hair, as both features are androgen mediated. The reality is that I have met around 50 adult women with AIS of various ages, most of them with stereotypically feminine bodies, faces, and hair. Out of these, at least half have a height greater that 5'9'', with long legs. In fact, rather than looking like freaks, as you seem to imply, most AIS women are quite attractive, and some have even worked as models.

  Maybe you saw a programme on television called "The Anatomy of Desire'', where, in presenting genetic influences in sex determination, they showed a short, bald person? If this is the case, let me clarify that the individual had Congenital Adrenal Hypoplasia, which if anything is a mirror condition to AIS. I also remember that H____M______ (from the Guardian article) was stocky rather than tall; I would say that there is variation in any population, and a sample of one does not a scientific study make. Many old-fashioned books on genetics that cover AIS (maybe under the old-fashioned name of Testicular Feminization) will have a photograph of a tall, curvy AIS woman in it, for your perusal.
  

• 'Full-frontal honesty,' (the term is revealing) would have informed this patient that she was not a woman but a failed male who may pass for a female and even marry her long-term boyfriend because she was wrongly identified at birth as a female.

  Indeed, the term is revealing, and here I will reveal my personal experiences: I have been exposed to "full-frontal'' observation over more than 30 years, by parents, child-minders, doctors, friends, fellow visitors at nudist beaches, lovers (several of who performed oral sex with the lights on), and none of them have identified me as anything but a woman, and much less as a "failed man''. In fact, several reputable, experienced doctors had me on stirrups during visits when I was 16, and could not find me anything but a normal woman, until a team of doctors performed a laparoscopic exam (a lens through a small hole in the belly-button region). I hope this is fully-frontal enough to convince you, Prof Greer, that AIS women of all ages can look (and feel, and think, and taste) just like you or the woman next door. You might even have a chance to examine me at the showers at a swimming pool--though I doubt you would be able to recognize me even with a "full-frontal'' exposure. By the way, I have had no plastic surgeries.
  

• Most but not all have their male gonads removed - without explanation.

  No, there is a simple explanation, for those who care to find it: when the testes are internal and do not descend, they remain at a high temperature; this in turn increases the cell activity, which can lead to cancer. I know few AIS women who were not gonadectomized until their mid 20's; however, one of the few did develop cancer.

I hope this letter addresses some of the inaccuracies in these few pages of your book. I find that, having studied molecular biology and the mechanisms of gene expression, insisting on chromosomal structure as the basis of sex determination is as simplistic a view of biology as the story of Adam and Eve. But then, I suppose any simplistic theory will have its adherents.

Thank you for reading this letter. I must say that I am a big fan of many of your ideas--and this is the reason I, and others, feel it is worthwhile to attempt reasoning with you. In your recent television programme, I was happy that you were promoting the view that sex is more than having, as you say, a cleft for penetration. I couldn't help thinking that any young AIS woman in your audience would have benefited very much from listening to you. I strongly agree with your view that being a woman is not contingent on being an ultra-feminine Barbie doll, but is more innate and visceral. I have never felt the need to subject myself to the torture of high-heels or eyebrow-shaping to validate myself as a woman. I suppose our disagreement is about the point at which genetics, biochemistry, and environment meet in defining womanhood. I feel, as an academic, that ideology must bow to biological reality.

I would very much have liked to offer to meet you sometime for further discussion; unfortunately, your name has been linked too often with the word "outing'' for me to be comfortable doing so. While my family and friends are perfectly accepting of my unusual route to womanhood, there are still many people with notions such as those you express who would rather be lazy and think of me as a kind of freak instead of understanding how nature made me into a "whole woman''. And I feel no need to be made vulnerable to such ignorance.

Regards,

[Name withheld ]

On other pages:

• Text from "The Whole Woman"
• Milton Diamond Writes to Greer
• A Father and Greer Correspond
• A Group Member and Greer Correspond
• Charmian Quigley Writes to Greer
• [this page]