3 ms·

The article paints the picture of a person who, rather than being transgender, or intersex, or just not liking the role of women in the 18th century, had mind-b

The article paints the picture of a person who, rather than being transgender, or intersex, or just not liking the role of women in the 18th century, had mind-bogglingly idiotic parents who raised him the wrong gender as a "whoopsie" and never thought to question it. I find that rather unlikely, especially considering the other women from that time period who assumed male identities to break out of restrictive gender roles.

has2k1 8y ago
> ... had mind-bogglingly idiotic parents who raised him the wrong gender ... Though uncommon, XX children can have ambiguous genitalia at birth. Today (1) we have some idea on what it is and we can deal with it at various stages of growth in-utero, at birth, during infant development, at adolescence or even later? Faced with a similar situation the past, parents gambled (aided with biases and superstitions). Is that sufficient to call it idiocy, I do not think so. 1. https://childrensnational.org/choose-childrens/conditions-and-treatments/diabetes-hormonal-disorders/differences-in-sex-development https://childrensnational.org/choose-childrens/conditions-an...
- Causality1 8y ago
  Exactly my point. That could easily have been what happened but that's not what the article says.
- ladberg 8y ago
  Even if they got it wrong at birth, I still don't see why they didn't just say "whoopsie" while s/he was still a baby instead of continuing as male.
pbhjpbhj 8y ago
I'm assuming that Pulaski had external male genitalia, but the skeleton had a "female" pelvis? The article quotes Prof Merbs saying "The skeleton is about as female as can be." but doesn't seem to say in what respect it was female, which is a weird omission. The family seemingly avoided infant baptism, in which traditionally a child might be stripped naked, so the likelihood of external genital abnormality seems relatively high. Lots of chromosomal changes result in amennorhea in females. I'm just surprised there is no speculation as to the exact nature of the persons phenotype, particularly their chromosomal makeup. Female pseudohermaphrodism might explain having testes but being biologically female; similarly true hermaphrodism (eg due to mosaicism, having 46,XX and 46,XY karyotypes). But perhaps they were male with partial androgen insensitivity syndrom (PAIS, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partial_androgen_insensitivity_syndrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partial_androgen_insensitivity...), I'm not sure how that presents itself skeletally and Wikipedia doesn't appear to have any info on how chromosomal abnormalities effect skeletal development. It doesn't seem too wild to imagine a male with PAIS might have a "female skeleton" as skeleton differentiation develops through puberty, at least one doc I read [oup.com link] indicated - but not explicitly - that AIS would lead to a female skeleton. Some sources: * https://academic.oup.com/edrv/article/39/5/803/5052770 https://academic.oup.com/edrv/article/39/5/803/5052770 * https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Partial-androgen-insensitivity-syndrome-Multiplanar-MRI-T2weighted-sequences-A-B-C-and_fig4_281461139 https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Partial-androgen-insensi...
skookumchuck 8y ago
> mind-bogglingly idiotic parents who raised him the wrong gender as a "whoopsie" and never thought to question it. I wouldn't be surprised to hear of parents who really wanted a boy, birthed a girl instead, and decided to raise her as a boy.
- emmelaich 8y ago
  This does happen. A relative was a psychologist and related the case of a woman (I think single mother but I'm not sure) desperately wanted a girl. When a boy was born, the boy was dressed up in "girl's" clothes and treated in every way as a girl. The woman was mad but not mad enough to have her kid taken away from her.

has2k1 8y ago

> ... had mind-bogglingly idiotic parents who raised him the wrong gender ... Though uncommon, XX children can have ambiguous genitalia at birth. Today (1) we have some idea on what it is and we can deal with it at various stages of growth in-utero, at birth, during infant development, at adolescence or even later? Faced with a similar situation the past, parents gambled (aided with biases and superstitions). Is that sufficient to call it idiocy, I do not think so. 1. https://childrensnational.org/choose-childrens/conditions-and-treatments/diabetes-hormonal-disorders/differences-in-sex-development https://childrensnational.org/choose-childrens/conditions-an...

Causality1 8y ago
Exactly my point. That could easily have been what happened but that's not what the article says.
ladberg 8y ago
Even if they got it wrong at birth, I still don't see why they didn't just say "whoopsie" while s/he was still a baby instead of continuing as male.

pbhjpbhj 8y ago

I'm assuming that Pulaski had external male genitalia, but the skeleton had a "female" pelvis? The article quotes Prof Merbs saying "The skeleton is about as female as can be." but doesn't seem to say in what respect it was female, which is a weird omission. The family seemingly avoided infant baptism, in which traditionally a child might be stripped naked, so the likelihood of external genital abnormality seems relatively high. Lots of chromosomal changes result in amennorhea in females. I'm just surprised there is no speculation as to the exact nature of the persons phenotype, particularly their chromosomal makeup. Female pseudohermaphrodism might explain having testes but being biologically female; similarly true hermaphrodism (eg due to mosaicism, having 46,XX and 46,XY karyotypes). But perhaps they were male with partial androgen insensitivity syndrom (PAIS, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partial_androgen_insensitivity_syndrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partial_androgen_insensitivity...), I'm not sure how that presents itself skeletally and Wikipedia doesn't appear to have any info on how chromosomal abnormalities effect skeletal development. It doesn't seem too wild to imagine a male with PAIS might have a "female skeleton" as skeleton differentiation develops through puberty, at least one doc I read [oup.com link] indicated - but not explicitly - that AIS would lead to a female skeleton. Some sources: * https://academic.oup.com/edrv/article/39/5/803/5052770 https://academic.oup.com/edrv/article/39/5/803/5052770 * https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Partial-androgen-insensitivity-syndrome-Multiplanar-MRI-T2weighted-sequences-A-B-C-and_fig4_281461139 https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Partial-androgen-insensi...

skookumchuck 8y ago

> mind-bogglingly idiotic parents who raised him the wrong gender as a "whoopsie" and never thought to question it. I wouldn't be surprised to hear of parents who really wanted a boy, birthed a girl instead, and decided to raise her as a boy.

emmelaich 8y ago
This does happen. A relative was a psychologist and related the case of a woman (I think single mother but I'm not sure) desperately wanted a girl. When a boy was born, the boy was dressed up in "girl's" clothes and treated in every way as a girl. The woman was mad but not mad enough to have her kid taken away from her.