Author(s)

Li Shuorui

Corresponding Author

Li Shuorui

Abstract

In modern societies, medical technologies develop in a tremendous speed and people’s aesthetic values change accordingly. Intersexed people now become a solid part of the social group at large and the delineation between male and female becomes even vaguer. As a result, there comes the necessity to analyze the normal and traditional sexed life, so as to obtain a better understanding of genders and sexes, the existing aesthetics of them and how them applied to normal people or influenced social constructs and phenomena. In this passage, I review an empirical case made by the U.C.L.A professor Garfinkel on the intersexed person Agnes and the field study conducted by professor Geertz on the Balinese cockfights, to shed light on the development of social recognition process.

Keywords

Intersex, Sexed life, Sexual aesthetics, Garfinkel, Deep play, Geertz, Ethnomethodology