“A New Type of Human Being”
Jeffrey Eugenides’s 2002 epic Middlesex uses its intersex narrator, Callie/Cal, to interrogate the process of radically changing identity. Cal is a guevedoce, possessing a rare but real genetic condition that transforms apparent girls into men at puberty. From butch schoolgirl to effeminate patriarch, never simply male or female, Cal’s life is passing. The novel questions, however, whether any categories need be so exclusive. Cal’s ambiguous identity echoes myriad others, in plot lines concerning incest, immigration, Islam, and more. Through shifting genres, secret identities, and dramatic plot twists, the novel demonstrates that when society demands strict categories, we are all essentially passing. The chapter gestures forward to a time when the pretense of passing will disappear, and we will all embrace our multifarious, uncategorizable selves.