Invisible Kingship

Like all maiden kings, Nítíða initially rejects her suitors only to accept marriage eventually. Rather than accepting the saga’s ‘happy ending’ as its heroine’s choice, this article argues that her kingship is cast as liminal in Victor Turner’s sense. Her character reflects liminal traits: visual, temporal and sexual ambiguity, mediated through the motif of invisibility, body-thing relations and notions of space. Nítíða’s kingship is structured as a transition to the role of a queen, which she does not take on voluntarily, but because she lacks choice in the face of her increasingly fragile power. Her suitor Livorius ultimately succeeds neither by trickery, military power, nor a courtly approach, but by employing structures Nítíða is excluded from due to her sex. Spared physical violence, she nonetheless suffers structural violence coercing her into a norm-appropriate role and erasing her kingship.

A case of labioscrotal ovotestis in Madagascar with review of the literature

Among the disorder sexual development which regroups several pathological entities, true hermaphroditism or Ovotestis disorder remains a rare variety. We report a case of true hermaphroditism, diagnosed at the age of 15 years. Despite the presence of sexual ambiguity at birth, the female gender has been declared. The presence of a female genital tract and secondary sexual characteristics has led the choice of scrotal excision. The surgical procedure, the histological study bestow the positive diagnosis and allowed to revise the sexual ambiguity.

CAH Newborn Screening in India: Challenges and Opportunities

Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) is a common treatable disorder which is associated with life-threatening adrenal crisis, sexual ambiguity, and/or abnormal growth if undiagnosed. Newborn screening is a cost-effective tool to detect affected babies early after birth to optimize their treatment and follow-up. Newborn screening however is in its nascent stage in India where it is not yet introduced universally for all babies. The following review briefly highlights the challenges (e.g., lack of universal screening, healthcare resources) and opportunities (e.g., reduction in morbidity and early correct gender assignment in females) associated with newborn screening for CAH in a large Indian birth cohort.

Flaming?

Flaming?: The Peculiar Theopolitics of Fire and Desire in Black Male Gospel Performance examines the rituals and social interactions of African American men who use gospel music-making as a means of worshiping God and performing gendered identities. Prompted by the popular term “flaming” that is used to identify over-the-top or peculiar performance of identity, Flaming? argues that these men wield and interweave a variety of multivalent aural-visual cues, including vocal style, gesture, attire, and homiletics, to position themselves along a spectrum of gender identities. These multisensory enactments empower artists (i.e., “peculiar people”) to demonstrate modes of “competence” that affirm their fitness to minister through speech and song. Through a progression of transcongregational case studies, Flaming? observes the ways in which African American men traverse tightly knit social networks to negotiate their identities through and beyond the worship experience. Coded and “read” as either hypermasculine, queer, or sexually ambiguous, peculiar gospel performances are often a locus of nuanced protest, facilitating a critique of heteronormative theology while affording African American men opportunities for greater visibility and access to leadership. Same-sex relationships among men constitute an open secret that is carefully guarded by those who elect to remain silent in the face of traditional theology, but musically performed by those compelled to worship “in Spirit and in truth.” This book thus examines the performative mechanisms through which black men acquire an aura of sexual ambiguity, exhibit an ostensible absence of sexual preference, and thereby gain social and ritual prestige in gospel music circles.

The Gender Ambiguity of Fertilization

SummaryThe role of women in the processes of fertilization and procreation in ancient Egypt has been traditionally regarded as passive. This article sets out to challenge this view, by introducing the new evidence that the study of the Hemusets provide. The Hemusets have been largely neglected by the Egyptological scholarship, and consequently, their important contribution to the discussion of fertilization is still ignored, but this research examines for the first time their relevant textual and iconographic sources. This investigation shows that the Hemusets are involved in the creation of food and provision of fertility for both lands and humans. Furthermore, the sexual ambiguity of their iconography, and their chthonic nature frames them in a broader Mediterranean context of androgynous creative goddesses.

La vulva de Atis = The vulva of Attis

Resumen: La iconografía de la vestimenta de Atis es muy variada. Uno de los tipos más característicos es la imagen del dios con el vestido abierto mostrando, con frecuencia, el sexo. La forma en la que se abre la túnica no deja lugar a dudas: representa una vulva. Es sugerente imaginar que esa forma alude al momento del mito en el que se produce la eviración. El Carmen 63 de Catulo es un buen material propedéutico para el problema. Más allá de la constatación de la ambigüedad sexual del dios cercenado, lo interesante en este caso es que la ambigüedad se resuelve mediante un mecanismo ideológico de oposición de contrarios: lo que no es claramente viril, aparenta femenino. En consecuencia, la representación de la vestimenta es aprovechada para resolver un conflicto de los observadores que soportan mal la indefinición genérica: la pérdida del sexo masculino se reviste con la marca genital femenina.Abstract: The iconography of Attis’ clothing is varied. One of the most characteristic types is the image of the god with the open dress showing often his sex. The way the tunic is opened leaves no doubt: it represents a vulva. It is suggesting imagining that this form alludes to the moment of the myth whereby the castration takes place. Catullus’s Carmen 63 is a good propaedeutic material for the problem. Beyond the verification of the sexual ambiguity of the emasculated god, the interesting point in this case is that the ambiguity is resolved by means of an ideological mechanism of opposition of opposites: what is not clearly virile, seems feminine. Consequently, the representation of the clothing is used to resolve a conflict generated in the observers who badly endure generic lack of definition: the loss of the male sex is clothed with the female genital mark.Palabras clave: Androginia, Atis, Cibeles, Frigia, vulva.Key words: Androgyny, Attis, Cibeles, Phrygia, vulva.