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I want you to imagine two couples
我希望大家設想一下，兩對夫婦
in the middle of 1979
在1979年的年中
on the exact same day, at the exact same moment,
在相同的一天，相同的時刻
each conceiving a baby -- okay?
每對懷上了一個孩子 -- 好
So two couples each conceiving one baby.
那么兩對夫婦各自都都懷上了一個孩子
Now I don't want you to spend too much time imagining the conception,
現在，我不希望大家花太多的時間去想象懷孕
because if you spend all that time imagining that conception,
因為如果你花太多時間去想它
you're not going to listen to me.
你就不會聽我說了
So just imagine that for a moment.
所以稍微想一下就好了
And in this scenario,
那么在這種情況下
I want to imagine that, in one case,
我來設想一下，一個個例是
the sperm is carrying a Y chromosome,
攜帶著Y染色體的精子
meeting that X chromosome of the egg.
遇到攜帶著X染色體的卵子
And in the other case,
另一個是
the sperm is carrying an X chromosome,
攜帶著X染色體的精子
meeting the X chromosome of the egg.
遇到攜帶著X染色體的卵子
Both are viable; both take off.
兩個都存活下來了，兩個都開始發育
We'll come back to these people later.
我們之后再來看這兩對夫婦
So I wear two hats
我擔任兩個角色
in most of what I do.
在我所從事的領域
As the one hat,
一個角色是
I do history of anatomy.
我做解剖學歷史研究
I'm a historian by training,
我是個史學工作者
and what I study in that case
我所研究的是
is the way that people have dealt with anatomy --
人類是怎么對待解剖學的——
meaning human bodies, animal bodies --
對無論是人類軀體，或是動物軀體——
how they dealt with bodily fluids, concepts of bodies;
他們如何處理體液，抽象的軀體
how have they thought about bodies.
他們是如何看待軀體的
The other hat that I've worn in my work
另一個角色是
is as an activist,
一名社會活動家
as a patient advocate --
作為一個為病人辯護人的角色——
or, as I sometimes say, as an impatient advocate --
或者說，像我有時候說的，作為醫生們的病人的辯護人——
for people who are patients of doctors.
我是很激進的
In that case, what I've worked with
那樣的話，在我工作中
is people who have body types
所接觸到的是一些
that challenge social norms.
挑戰著社會規范的人
So some of what I've worked on, for example,
比如，我接觸到的一些人
is people who are conjoined twins --
是連體嬰兒
two people within one body.
兩個人共用一個身體
Some of what I've worked on is people who have dwarfism --
還有一些是侏儒癥患者
so people who are much shorter than typical.
他們比一般人要矮小的多
And a lot of what I've worked on
另外，許多我接觸的人
is people who have atypical sex --
他們的性別與眾不同 --
so people who don't have the standard male
即他們沒有很標準的男性特征
or the standard female body types.
或者女性特有的身體特征
And as a general term, we can use the term intersex for this.
總的來說，這個癥狀可以被叫做雙性人
Intersex comes in a lot of different forms.
雙性可以有多種的形式
I'll just give you a few examples
我來舉幾個例子
of the types of ways you can have sex
來說明你可以具有
that isn't standard for male or female.
既不是標準的男性特征也不是標準的女性特征的類型
So in one instance,
例子之一
you can have somebody who has an XY chromosomal basis,
一個人可以擁有XY染色體
and that SRY gene on the Y chromosome
并且，在Y染色體上的SRY基因(雄性性別決定基因)
tells the proto-gonads, which we all have in the fetal life,
刺激我們在胎兒時期都有的原始性腺
to become testes.
使其變成睪丸
And so in the fetal life the testes are pumping out testosterone.
因此在胎兒時期，睪丸分泌睪丸激素
But because this individual lacks receptors
但是這個個體缺少受體
to hear that testosterone,
來接收睪丸激素
the body doesn't react to the testosterone.
身體不能對睪丸激素做出反應
And this is a syndrome called androgen insensitivity syndrome.
這是一種叫做睪丸不敏感（睪丸女性化）綜合征
So lots of levels of testosterone, but no reaction to it.
所以，睪丸激素的量很大，但是不能引起反應
As a consequence, the body develops
因此，身體就會朝著
more along the female typical path.
女性化的趨勢發展
When the child is born, she looks like a girl.
當嬰兒誕生時，她看起來像個女孩兒
She is a girl. She is raised as a girl.
她就是女孩兒，并且被當作小姑娘來撫養
And it's often not until she hits puberty
大多數情況，直到青春期
and she's growing and developing breasts,
她的胸部開始發育的時候
but she's not getting her period,
她卻沒有女性周期
that somebody figures out something's up here.
這時我們才會開始懷疑有什么差錯
And they do some tests and figure out
于是他們檢查發現
that, instead of having ovaries inside and a uterus,
她并沒有卵巢和子宮
she actually has testes inside, and she has a Y chromosome.
實際上，在她身體內有睪丸，并且她攜帶著Y染色體
Now what's important to understand
現在，有一個重要問題需要說明的是
is you may think of this person as really being male,
大家一定認為這個人實際上是個男孩兒
but they're really not.
其實并非如此
Females, like males,
女性，和男性一樣
have in our bodies something called the adrenal glands.
體內有一個器官叫做腎上腺
They're in the back of our body.
它在我們身體的后端
And the adrenal glands make androgens,
并且腎上腺負責分泌雄性激素
which are a masculinizing hormone.
即一種雄性荷爾蒙
Most females like me -- I believe myself to be a typical female --
像我一樣的大多數女性--我相信我自己是個典型的女性--
I don't actually know my chromosomal make-up
我其實不太清楚我的染色體的組成
but I think I'm probably typical --
但是我想我應該是有典型的女性——
most females like me are actually androgen-sensitive.
大多數像我一樣的女性實際上是雄激素敏感的
We're making androgen, and we're responding to androgens.
我們分泌雄性激素，并且對它有反應
The consequence is that somebody like me
結果是，有的像我一樣女性，
has actually had a brain exposed to more androgens
大腦暴露在過多的雄性激素下
than the woman born with testes
比那個出生時有睪丸的女孩
who has androgen insensitivity syndrome.
那個雄性激素不敏感綜合征的女孩有的雄性激素還多
So sex is really complicated; it's not just that intersex people
所以說性別是個非常復雜的東西；并不是說那些雙性的人
are in the middle of all the sex spectrum --
就處在男性和女性之間——
in some ways, they can be all over the place.
在某些方面，他們可以覆蓋整個性特征的范圍
