GENDER: An Ethnomethodological Approach SUZANNE J, KESSLER WENDY McKENNA "THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS‘Te Ln of Cengo Ps Caeg S067 ‘hen of megs si 878 om Wy ert ‘anti of eg Pecos ‘ray 6 Congres aang Patein Date xa Sum} 146- ‘ner on oncoehsigcal prach teesttet nore | re eT a Shows one Gwe pp tn ain ett non ‘sles Soca Femny Pee Pred ‘Tour Parents athe Lattan Balsa and Sidney Blas nd manuel Goldenberg nd to the Memory of Mollie Rsben Goldenberg¥ | | 1 INTRODUCTIO! THE PRIMACY OF GENDER ATTRIBUTION ‘Ae we go about our deily lives, we assume that every human ting la ster a mal ov female; We make this assumption Tor evarjone who ever lived and for every fature human being. Most ‘people would admit thet the cultorel trappings of males and females fave varied over place and timo, but that nevertheless, there Is something essentially male and something essentially female Ite 8 {act that someone fe a men or & worn, juste is «fact tet the result of «coin toss is ater heads or tals and we can easily decide the case by looking. Of course, the coin may be worn and wa may have to inspect it vry closely. Analogously person may not cleanly be one gender or the ther. But just as we assume that we can de termine “heads” or "tll" by detailed Snspection(eaher than oon eluding thatthe coin has no heads or lal) we tesune that we can fo the same with a person's gender. Not even with biologically “imbeed Individual da we conclade ta theyre neler female not male. Bilopato may atest thst s hermaphrodite’ gender is not dear, but in ovarjday fe ultimately some eiteia can (and wil) be found by which esch une is paced in one of two mutually exclusive mnder categories along with everyone else. Even th bololet would ay tat hermaphrodite are a combination ofthe two existing cate sores rather than a third gender category. TT wo ask by what ereria a person might clasify someone a2 ‘boing either mle ot female the answers appear to beso selevident a5 to mako the question tiv But consder 4 ist of lems that Aiteretite fomales from males. Thee are none that alvaye and thou exeeption are tre of only oe gender. No behavioral char- Scteratic fe, exying or physical aggremion) is aways present ot ‘bevorpreent for ne gender. Neither can physical characteristics ther vise (eg, beads), unexposed fo. gents), oF normally