Ritið : tímarit Hugvísindastofnunar - 01.05.2017, Page 78

77
A B S T R A C T
The „true sex“ or the reality of the body?
Reflections on the story of Guðrún Sveinbjarnardóttir
The article takes as a starting point a short but interesting narration of Guðrún
Sveinbjarnardóttir (1831–1916), related by Málfríður Einarsdóttir. According to
the narration, Guðrún was assigned the wrong sex at birth, lived as a woman all her
life, and possibly got another woman pregnant. Few reliable sources exist on Guð-
rún’s life, but the article tries to present a dependable picture, drawn from available
documents, of the life of a divorced woman in late nineteenth century Iceland.
Doubts about a wrong assignment of sex evoke discussion on the demand of true
sex, which assumes only two sex categories. The reality of human bodies is more
complicated and the article discusses that subject, within the context of different
disciplines, i.e. literature, history and medicine. The case of Guðrún gives rise to
various interpretations, one of which is the possibility of her having been born int-
ersex. Few studies on intersex are available in Icelandic, so a generous part of the
article discusses this possibility. Other possibilities are also addressed, e.g. that the
stories about Guðrún do simply belong to the category of gossip and slander, due to
her ‘masculine’ looks and independence.
Keywords: Gender studies, queer studies, intersex, gossip, history of women
HIð „SANNA KYN“ EðA vERULEIKI LÍKAMANS?