'I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day of January 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of l974 ...My birth certificate lists my name as Calliope Helen Stephanides. My most recent driver's license ...records my first name simply as Cal.'
So begins the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides, and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family who travel from a tiny village overlooking Mount Olympus in Asia Minor to Prohibition era Detroit, witnessing its glory days as the Motor City, and the race riots of l967, before they move out to the tree-lined streets of suburban Grosse Point, Michigan. To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret, and the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction. Lyrical and thrilling, Middlesex is an exhilarating reinvention of the American epic.
Middlesex is indeed an epic novel. I always loved the stories when we get to know the whole history of the family till the present day. It's written in a way that will always pull you to read forward even though you decided that you have enough for today. It is a fatty, and I was a bit scared how long will it take me to finish it, but after I started I saw that it would be a quick page turner.
Sometimes when I finish reading a book I have some questions in my head that are not always connected directly with the story, but maybe there is a theme I would like to explore further. The debate between sex and gender is not new to me, since I had taken gender studies at my university, but it was some time ago so I decided to refresh a subject a little. And there was a book on my reading list that it was perfect for this.
It's the book Sex/Gender. Biology in a Social World by Anne Fausto Sterling. Sex/Gender presents a relatively new way to think about how biological difference can be produced over time in response to different environmental and social experiences. This book gives a clearly written explanation of the biological and cultural underpinnings of gender. Anne Fausto-Sterling introduces the biochemistry, neurobiology, and social construction of gender with expertise and humor in a style accessible to a wide variety of readers. In addition to the basics, Sex/Gender ponders the moral, ethical, social and political side to this inescapable subject.
Human body is very complicated indeed and I didn't get definite answers about sex and gender just a will to learn more. There is some interesting fact in the book and I would recommend the book to everyone that is interested in the debate about sex and gender, since is written in the way that anyone can understand the topics. For example, did you know that the colours, blue for boys and pink for girls, came in use after the second world war, so that the generation that is now around fifty is the first that was raised in this strict colour scheme.
Here I have another fun fact for you. In Slovenian language we don't have a world for gender, so for the need of having something, at least for studying the subject at universities we say social sex when we mean gender and biological sex. But in everyday use, I don't think we ever use the world gender, is all just (biological) sex for us.
The nail polish is from Essence, from an old limited edition and the name is Blues of being cool. It's a greyish blue, application was ok, nothing to complain about.
Have a great day.
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