7 - Hermeneutics and the politics of identity

Summary

The idea of a hermeneutic circle of whole and part might seem to be an odd idea to bring to issues of identity. Indeed, one might argue that David Reimer's troubles began because of his parents' and physicians' presumptions about the need to integrate parts and wholes. Hermeneutic premises project unity on texts and look to a standard of coherence as a criterion for revising interpretive projections of meaning that cannot be integrated with one another. If one's understanding of a part of the text cannot be integrated with the meaning one has projected for the whole, one has to revise either one's understanding of the part or one's understanding of the whole. In David's case, the loss of part of his body suggested to his parents and physicians that they revise the whole of his sex and gender identity. This same need for revision in the name of coherence explains surgeries on the genital parts of intersexuals so that the whole of their bodies can coherently mean one sex and gender. It also explains sex-reassignment surgeries on the part of individuals who think that their inner and outer selves do not cohere with one another. Such appeals to coherence might even try to justify attempts to “cure” homosexuals on the theory that their sexual desires are at odds with their sexes and genders and need to be revised to be consistent with them.