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I want you to imagine two couples
我希望大家设想一下，两对夫妇
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，相同的时刻
each conceiving a baby -- okay?
每对怀上了一个孩子 -- 好
So two couples each conceiving one baby.
那么两对夫妇各自都都怀上了一个孩子
Now I don't want you to spend too much time imagining the conception,
现在，我不希望大家花太多的时间去想象怀孕
because if you spend all that time imagining that conception,
因为如果你花太多时间去想它
you're not going to listen to me.
你就不会听我说了
So just imagine that for a moment.
所以稍微想一下就好了
And in this scenario,
那么在这种情况下
I want to imagine that, in one case,
我来设想一下，一个个例是
the sperm is carrying a Y chromosome,
携带着Y染色体的精子
meeting that X chromosome of the egg.
遇到携带着X染色体的卵子
And in the other case,
另一个是
the sperm is carrying an X chromosome,
携带着X染色体的精子
meeting the X chromosome of the egg.
遇到携带着X染色体的卵子
Both are viable; both take off.
两个都存活下来了，两个都开始发育
We'll come back to these people later.
我们之后再来看这两对夫妇
So I wear two hats
我担任两个角色
in most of what I do.
在我所从事的领域
As the one hat,
一个角色是
I do history of anatomy.
我做解剖学历史研究
I'm a historian by training,
我是个史学工作者
and what I study in that case
我所研究的是
is the way that people have dealt with anatomy --
人类是怎么对待解剖学的——
meaning human bodies, animal bodies --
对无论是人类躯体，或是动物躯体——
how they dealt with bodily fluids, concepts of bodies;
他们如何处理体液，抽象的躯体
how have they thought about bodies.
他们是如何看待躯体的
The other hat that I've worn in my work
另一个角色是
is as an activist,
一名社会活动家
as a patient advocate --
作为一个为病人辩护人的角色——
or, as I sometimes say, as an impatient advocate --
或者说，像我有时候说的，作为医生们的病人的辩护人——
for people who are patients of doctors.
我是很激进的
In that case, what I've worked with
那样的话，在我工作中
is people who have body types
所接触到的是一些
that challenge social norms.
挑战着社会规范的人
So some of what I've worked on, for example,
比如，我接触到的一些人
is people who are conjoined twins --
是连体婴儿
two people within one body.
两个人共用一个身体
Some of what I've worked on is people who have dwarfism --
还有一些是侏儒症患者
so people who are much shorter than typical.
他们比一般人要矮小的多
And a lot of what I've worked on
另外，许多我接触的人
is people who have atypical sex --
他们的性别与众不同 --
so people who don't have the standard male
即他们没有很标准的男性特征
or the standard female body types.
或者女性特有的身体特征
And as a general term, we can use the term intersex for this.
总的来说，这个症状可以被叫做双性人
Intersex comes in a lot of different forms.
双性可以有多种的形式
I'll just give you a few examples
我来举几个例子
of the types of ways you can have sex
来说明你可以具有
that isn't standard for male or female.
既不是标准的男性特征也不是标准的女性特征的类型
So in one instance,
例子之一
you can have somebody who has an XY chromosomal basis,
一个人可以拥有XY染色体
and that SRY gene on the Y chromosome
并且，在Y染色体上的SRY基因(雄性性别决定基因)
tells the proto-gonads, which we all have in the fetal life,
刺激我们在胎儿时期都有的原始性腺
to become testes.
使其变成睾丸
And so in the fetal life the testes are pumping out testosterone.
因此在胎儿时期，睾丸分泌睾丸激素
But because this individual lacks receptors
但是这个个体缺少受体
to hear that testosterone,
来接收睾丸激素
the body doesn't react to the testosterone.
身体不能对睾丸激素做出反应
And this is a syndrome called androgen insensitivity syndrome.
这是一种叫做睾丸不敏感（睾丸女性化）综合征
So lots of levels of testosterone, but no reaction to it.
所以，睾丸激素的量很大，但是不能引起反应
As a consequence, the body develops
因此，身体就会朝着
more along the female typical path.
女性化的趋势发展
When the child is born, she looks like a girl.
当婴儿诞生时，她看起来像个女孩儿
She is a girl. She is raised as a girl.
她就是女孩儿，并且被当作小姑娘来抚养
And it's often not until she hits puberty
大多数情况，直到青春期
and she's growing and developing breasts,
她的胸部开始发育的时候
but she's not getting her period,
她却没有女性周期
that somebody figures out something's up here.
这时我们才会开始怀疑有什么差错
And they do some tests and figure out
于是他们检查发现
that, instead of having ovaries inside and a uterus,
她并没有卵巢和子宫
she actually has testes inside, and she has a Y chromosome.
实际上，在她身体内有睾丸，并且她携带着Y染色体
Now what's important to understand
现在，有一个重要问题需要说明的是
is you may think of this person as really being male,
大家一定认为这个人实际上是个男孩儿
but they're really not.
其实并非如此
Females, like males,
女性，和男性一样
have in our bodies something called the adrenal glands.
体内有一个器官叫做肾上腺
They're in the back of our body.
它在我们身体的后端
And the adrenal glands make androgens,
并且肾上腺负责分泌雄性激素
which are a masculinizing hormone.
即一种雄性荷尔蒙
Most females like me -- I believe myself to be a typical female --
像我一样的大多数女性--我相信我自己是个典型的女性--
I don't actually know my chromosomal make-up
我其实不太清楚我的染色体的组成
but I think I'm probably typical --
但是我想我应该是有典型的女性——
most females like me are actually androgen-sensitive.
大多数像我一样的女性实际上是雄激素敏感的
We're making androgen, and we're responding to androgens.
我们分泌雄性激素，并且对它有反应
The consequence is that somebody like me
结果是，有的像我一样女性，
has actually had a brain exposed to more androgens
大脑暴露在过多的雄性激素下
than the woman born with testes
比那个出生时有睾丸的女孩
who has androgen insensitivity syndrome.
那个雄性激素不敏感综合征的女孩有的雄性激素还多
So sex is really complicated; it's not just that intersex people
所以说性别是个非常复杂的东西；并不是说那些双性的人
are in the middle of all the sex spectrum --
就处在男性和女性之间——
in some ways, they can be all over the place.
在某些方面，他们可以覆盖整个性特征的范围
