False Binaries Theme Analysis

Middlesex interrogates the binaries that many people take for granted, highlighting that in general, most of these binaries are actually false. This is primarily explored through the binary of sex and gender, which is one of the most essential building blocks of Western society. Yet as an intersex person who undergoes a gender transition, Cal’s life experience illuminates how false the sex and gender binary truly is. Through its depiction of gender fluidity, unconventional sexualities, immigrant identity, and shifting historical events, the novel shows that binaries tend not to accurately represent the world—in reality, human life is made up of many different parts that can fuse, overlap, and evolve into new categories.

At first glance, the book could be read as being structured in accordance with the sex and gender binary, although on closer inspection the narrative actually disrupts this binary. There is a major break in Cal’s life when he transitions from female to male gender identity, and he even ends up discussing his former self while living as female as a different person. Yet the fact that Cal is intersex shows that he was never fully on one side of the binary or the other. Indeed, Cal’s condition shows that the sex binary itself is false. Moreover, toward the end of the novel, Cal says that he never felt uncomfortable being a girl and doesn’t truly feel like a man either. His reflection suggests that, although he is living as a man, his experience does not fall clearly on either side of the binary.

The novel also explores the disruption of the sex binary through its depiction of evolving understandings of what it means to be intersex. Callie is born in 1960 and realizes s/he is intersex in 1974, when much less was known about intersex conditions than is true today. Indeed, Cal notes that even the term “intersex” was rarely used then; “hermaphrodite” was more common instead. This word, which Cal sometimes uses in the novel (despite the fact that in the present, many consider it offensive) comes from Greek mythology. It is derived from the name of a god, Hermaphroditus, who was the child of Hermes and Aphrodite, the god and goddess of sex. When a female water nymph, Salmacis, fell in love with Hermaphroditus, a god answered her wish to be fused with him, and the two became a single, bigender person. After Cal’s gender transition, he moves to San Francisco and performs as “Hermaphroditus,” embracing both his intersex identity and Greek heritage. He is encouraged to do so by another intersex person, Zora, who tells him that intersex people have a special and important role in human culture: “There have been hermaphrodites around forever, Cal. Forever. Plato said that the original human being was a hermaphrodite. Did you know that? The original person was two halves, one male, one female. Then these got separated. That’s why everybody’s always searching for their other half. Except for us. We’ve got both halves already.” Although Zora’s words could be interpreted as reinforcing binary thinking, she also shows Cal that he can embrace his intersex identity rather than hiding it and pretending to be a biologically “typical” man or woman. This represents a major development in Cal’s life and his relationship to his own identity. 

The novel also hints at the falseness of binaries through its depiction of marginalized sexualities. Although Cal is largely attracted to women, she also has a sexual experience with the brother of her crush, the Obscure Object, suggesting that sexuality is rather fluid. The notion of fluid sexuality is further explored later in the novel when Cal’s girlfriend, Julie, who is a Japanese American woman, says she was initially worried Cal was gay. She calls herself a “last stop,” explaining, “Haven’t you heard of that? Asian chicks are the last stops. If a guy’s in the closet, he goes for an Asian because their bodies are more like boys’.” Here Julie’s words suggest that gender isn’t a simple, universal binary, but rather varies across racial lines, creating a kaleidoscope of racialized gender identities. There are also other characters that exist outside of a heterosexual framework within the novel, such as Sourmelina, who is a closeted lesbian (and in a sense thus also disrupts a binary, as she is a lesbian married to a man). Moreover, even the incest in the novel disrupts a binary—the binary between familial and sexual relationships. In different ways, all these examples indicate that binaries are overly simplistic ways of looking at the world.

Not all the disrupted binaries in the novel have anything to do with gender or sexuality, but all of them are ultimately proven to be false. Like many novels about the immigration experience, Middlesex depicts its characters struggling to reconcile their home culture with settling into their new country. Again, however, the novel ultimately suggests that the binary between Greek (in the case of Cal’s family) and American is false. The Stephanides’ embrace of a hybrid Greek-American identity is perhaps best (and most comically) demonstrated by Milton’s restaurant chain, which is decorated with pillars “combined his Greek heritage with the colonial architecture of his beloved native land. Milton’s pillars were the Parthenon and the Supreme Court Building; they were the Herakles of myth as well as the Hercules of Hollywood movies.” Details like these show that pretty much everyone and everything are made up of multiple parts, and strict binaries do not represent the way the world actually is. As Cal observes toward the end of the novel, “We’re all made up of many parts, other halves. Not just me.”