Book: In Between
Author: Jane Hoppen
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Yin and Yang—Fire and Ice—Wet and Dry—Right and Wrong—Us and Them—God
and Man—Male and Female.
Intersex.
Coincidentia oppositorum
. . . the simultaneous occurrence of opposites.
Things
aren’t always black and white, and it isn’t a new concept.
“Being and non-being produce one another.
Hard depends on easy,
Long is tested by short,
High is determined by low.”
– Tào Té
Chīng, Laozi,
“The way up and the way down are one and the same.”
- Heraclitus
“For I am knowledge and ignorance.
I am shame and boldness.
I am shameless; I am ashamed.
I am strength and I am fear.
I am war and peace.”
- The Thunder,
Perfect Mind
Reaching back to Ancient Greece, we are introduced to Hermaphroditus, a mythological figure
who was the son of the gods Hermes and Aphrodite. While he bathed in a
fountain, the nymph Salmacis fell in
love with him and wished to be united with him. The gods heard her desire and
fulfilled it by joining the two together forever.
Plato saw the hermaphroditic nature as the one and true origin of our
race. In The Symposium he states that
“First of all, the races of human beings
were three, not as now, male and female; for there was also a third race that
shared in both, a race whose name still remains, though it itself has vanished.
For at that time one race was androgynous, and in looks and name it combined
both, the male as well as the female; but now it does not exist except for the name
that is reserved for reproach.”
Questions
about the nature of humanity began to drift in the late Middle Ages and early
Renaissance. In particular, during the late 15th century, scholastic natural
philosophers began to construct theories in which sexual difference played a
key role in religious and cultural norms. These scholars identified the absence
of distinct sex as a key characteristic of nonhumans—plants, animals, and
demons. It was argued that humans who displayed multiple sexes, or the
attributes of multiple sexes, bordered on “beasts,”
and therefore lost the subjectivity and dignity relegated to humanity.
Still, prior to the 19th century, most intersexed individuals led largely
unremarkable lives. Their genital and reproductive peculiarities were, for the
most part, accepted as a variation which occured throughout nature—including
other mammals, reptiles, birds, plants, and insects.
But, as medicine and psychology became more “scientific,” intersex morphed into a medical issue,
and intersexed individuals were suddenly classified as “abnormal” and
“diseased.” The thrust of medicine in the last century has been on “curing”
intersexed individuals by using surgical, hormonal, and psychological therapies
to make them unequivocally male or female. Usually at or near birth, and almost always before the
individual has a chance to figure out who and what they inherently are.
As a result, many intersexed individuals have suffered severe
psychological and physical damage from modern medicine’s attempts to make them distinctly
male or female, instead of heeding strong empirical evidence that, through
history, intersexed individuals have lived normal, happy lives without intervening
medical treatment.
In Between, the debut novel
by author, Jane Hoppen, tells the sordid coming of age story of a child born into
a world that has lost it’s capability to understand just how normal different can really be. The year was
1963, and Mary and Max Schmidt had just welcomed their second child into
the world when Dr. Willit said “Your baby is healthy, but . . .” The “but” came
in the form of male and female parts, neither of which were well developed.
Against instinct, the young parents followed the advice of the doctors, and
allowed their new baby to go through a series of medical procedures to be rendered more female.
A smart and precocious tomboy, Sophie, at the age of fourteen, discovers
the truth of how she was really born. Hurt, angry, and confused, she begins a
journey to discover more about who she is, and find others born like her. From
high school to college and the working world, Sophie begins to understand the
science. But when she finally meets a woman she can love, she has to find a way
to move beyond her issue of self-acceptance.
With all deference to The Birdcage,
Jane Hoppen’s In Between is “an epic
piece full of mythic themes.” And, make no mistake, In Between is
Sophie Schmidt’s story—only she would have likely preferred it be titled Sophie’s Choice. But, Sophie wasn’t
given a choice to figure out who she really was, because that decision was made
for her shortly after birth. Her anger, hurt, and self-pity come directly as a
result of her confusion. What, if any,
parts of me are male? What, if any, parts of me are female? Am I both? Am I
neither?
She understands that she is normal in so many ways, but being normal
doesn’t change the fact that she is different. Sophie is smart and rational,
and she knows there have to be other people out there like her. But where are they and how do you find them?
And as she grows from angry teen into self-sheltered adult, she begins
to learn that there really is a world full of other people who are normal but
different, too. And not just because they are intersexed like her, but because
they are gay, lesbian, transgender, and transsexual. She wakes up to her own
depth of involuntary prejudice, and begins to understand how hard her path to
self-acceptance really is.
Sophie has a built-in support network in the Schmidts, the classic
corn-fed, god-fearing, hard-working All-American family. Mary and Max are
steadfast in their love and support of their two children. Grandma Evelyn is a bitter
divorcée who clings to her religion, but who finally comes to peace with her
youngest granddaughter when she admits she wants her to have a happy life and
sexual satisfaction. Older sister Holly is both friend and foe to the enigmatic
young Sophie, but becomes one of her fiercest and most loyal supporters as
Sophie begins her uncertain journey to enlightenment. Farmhand, Cal, is an
unlikely beacon of light to Sophie as he lives his life as a cautious gay man
who takes a chance on love, and finds a place he belongs.
The family dynamic
pitches and rolls with each tempest in Sophie’s journey, and each character
shows strength and weakness, and eventually a peace that passes all understanding.
 |
| Author Jane Hoppen |
Jane Hoppen’s In Between is
more than the tale of one person’s search for personal truth—it is a story
about what it means to occupy the complex middle ground between male and
female, living with the choices made by others, and trusting yourself enough to
trust others. For Sophie, the journey to adulthood is fraught with anger,
confusion, and self-pity, but tempered and strengthened by love.
Jane Hoppen's heroic portrayal of Sophie's struggle
is classic in its structure, and contemporary in its content—it is a tender and honest examination
of a battle that is increasingly relevant to each and every one of us.
