"How can we feel whole when we are closed off to parts of ourselves?"

Intersections:
Science, Art, Moment-to-Moment Life, and Representation

​To find yourself in the infinite,
You must distinguish and then combine...
                                                                                                                  – Goethe

The constraints imposed by others do not end when we are children. The walls are continuously being built throughout our lives. They pin us in, and try to keep us from running through fields, undoubtedly filled with risk and potential rejection, but also stocked with freedom and exhilaration. How can we feel whole when we are closed off to parts of ourselves?

When we conform to binary choices, we may as well RSVP, “yes,” to an invitation not to think. Black or White, Right or Left, Science or Religion, Pink or Blue—these “boxes” may provide a haven for those who enjoy the comfort of lines not to be crossed, but they offer no visionary or revisionary way to see the world, and how to navigate through that world with an open mind and heart. A binary world is one filled with assumptions that in most cases turn out to be wrong.

Societal constraints impact our career and/or vocational directions too. How much independent thinking do we afford our children? How much do we tell them that learning is not limited to a classroom; it can and should happen everywhere. I was fortunate to have been mentored by amazing thinkers who taught me to always seize on an opportunity to learn. I heeded their advice, and together with luck and hard work, I was able to shape a career that did not keep me confined on one path. I have forged a career in immunology as an academic scientist, and have completed many written works as a fiction and non-fiction author. Whether in science or art, all of my work is informed and guided by social and political landscapes that intersect and enrich each other.

In the courses I teach, such as cell and molecular biology, I found it impossible to lecture about mutations, or changes in our genetic blueprint, without ensuring students understood that human diversity, in large measure, is a consequence of these changes. Differences in skin pigmentation, hair and eye color, and so much more, are due to alterations in our DNA. Variations due to changes in our genetic blueprint also impact sex development, as seen in intersex people. The frequency of intersex in the population is approximately 1-2%. Intersex people are born with internal reproductive anatomy and/or external sexual anatomy that differ from typical males and females. We have been taught to think that those in possession of a vagina, clitoris, ovaries, and XX chromosomes = female, and those in possession of a penis, testes, and XY chromosomes = male. However, this is not the case for everyone.

The strength of binary thinking tries to force us into one of two “boxes,” and has limited our ability to accept and welcome intersex people. Designating intersex people as unequal and inferior to males or females has led to the unjust treatment of those with intersex variances. If a child is born intersex and is in possession of external genitalia that is androgynous, a mix of male and female, the child may be subjected to surgeries aimed at “correcting” the “imperfections.” In most cases, these types of surgeries are medically unnecessary, and are solely executed to force people to fit the sex binary. 

Surgeries done purely to adhere to social norms need to be called out for what they are, nothing short of Intersex Genital Mutilation. As a biologist it has been important for me to do what I can, through writing and lecture, to utilize science in the pursuit of social justice. In collaboration with the author, intersex activist, and consultant, Hida Viloria, we have written a book (anticipated publication date, early 2020) entitled, Reimagining Sex and Gender: Understanding Biological Diversity. The book not only provides the framework to understand how intersex variances arise, it also addresses how sex and gender intersect and impact policy and law, such as marriage rights.

A few years back it became clear to me that the acceptance of intersex people as a legitimate third sex could also be helpful in securing marriage equality rights. For example, viewing marriage as a right that should only be afforded between one man and one woman, does not take into consideration people who do not fit the binary. As a counterpoint to this view, I was driven to use science to write the first biology-based amicus brief in support of marriage equality to the Supreme Court of the United States. I used the natural existence of intersex variances to formulate my argument.
As with my science based writing, my work in fiction has been used to create characters and plots to call out injustice. In my crime dramas, Pig Behind The Bear and The Water of Life Remains in the Dead, I had to create a new heroine because heroes like Superman have not been interested in coming to East LA where the people impacted in my stories live. Therefore, a protagonist, a feisty Chicana by the name of Alejandra Marisol, had to be fashioned to fight injustice and protect the most vulnerable among us—immigrants and their children.

​Alejandra is not faster than a speeding bullet, or more powerful than a locomotive—she can’t even leap tall buildings, but she is determined to come out on top even when confronted with bone chilling danger. She is the best in each of us. She is the dreamer, the fighter, the one where the words, si se puede or yes we can, are not enough. Instead she lives by the words, si lo haremos, or yes we will.
For me it has never been a question of how to navigate work in science and art, but rather, how could I not.

​Maria Nieto, who earned her doctorate in Immunology from UC Berkeley in 1989, is a Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at California State University, East Bay in Hayward, California, where she has been involved in underrepresented minority recruitment, teaching, writing, and research for over 30 years. Her award-winning crime novels, which incorporate her scientific insights, Pig Behind the Bear and The Water of Life Remains in the Dead, have been featured in Somos en escrito Magazine.