Actress, Jamie Lee Curtis has basically lived her life to prove a point – that the ridiculous conspiracy theory centered around her sexuality is false! The actress for over two decades has been trying to prove rumors that she was born a hermaphrodite wrong.
First used as such in the 15th century, “hermaphrodite” is an all-but-obsolete medical term (clinicians now prefer inters3x) for a set of conditions characterized mainly by genitalia which is either “ambiguous” (i.e., not clearly male or female) or at odds with the subject’s chromosomal gender.
Depending on the specific symptoms, hermaphroditism/inters3xuality may result from a genetic anomaly or a hormonal excess or deficiency during gestation.
READ MORE: What happens When you search WYNS2022ID
It has been estimated that as many as 1 in 2,000 children born in the United States are diagnosed with ambiguous external genitalia, of whom a very small percentage undergo “s3x reassignment” surgery in infancy.
The specific condition most often attributed to Ms. Curtis is AIS or Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome. People born with AIS are genetically male (defined as having one X and one Y chromosome) but are resistant to androgens, the hormones responsible for male sexual development.
As a result, they display female physical characteristics despite being genetically male. “In its classic form (complete androgen resistance), the person appears to be female but has no uterus, and has sparse armpit and pubic hair,” states the Medline Plus Medical Encyclopedia.
“At puberty, female secondary s3x characteristics (e.g., breasts) develop, but menstruation and fertility do not.”
Why Jamie Lee Curtis?
It bears pointing out that Curtis was neither the first nor the last female celebrity to whom gender ambiguity has been attributed.
According to Paul Young, author of “L.A. Exposed: Strange Myths and Curious Legends in the City of Angels, ” Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, and Mae West endured similar whisper campaigns during their respective heydays.” So did ’80s disco star Grace Jones, and, more recently, pop music divas Ciara and Lady Gaga.
READ MORE: Biography of Sovereign Bo Raymond (Ushers’s Daughter with Jenn Goicoechea)
One thing all of these famous performers have in common is some degree of androgyny—either in appearance, behavior, or both—that sets them apart from other women.
Curtis, who easily passes for “butch” when she dresses down for a role and has her hair cut short, has also been singled out for what film critic Bill Cosford once referred to as her “androgynous appeal.”
And then there is the matter of her name. Some have speculated that she was christened “Jamie Lee” because it wasn’t clear at birth whether she was a boy or a girl.
But, according to Curtis’ mother, actress Janet Leigh, says the gender-ambiguous name was just a practical choice.
In 1998, Leigh explained her decision to Village Voice columnist Michael Musto:
“We didn’t know ahead of time if it would be a girl or a boy, so when I was pregnant with Kelly, my best friend Jackie Gershwin said, ‘Why don’t you call the baby Kelly, so if it’s a girl, it works, and if it’s a boy, it works?’ And she thought the same thing with Jamie.
The babies were named before they were born because Jackie said, ‘This way, we won’t have to worry about it!'”
Speculation has also centered on the fact that Curtis and her husband, Christopher Guest, adopted their two children instead of conceiving—the implication being that perhaps Curtis couldn’t conceive because of her allegedly “abnormal” physique.
It’s a question that will have to go unanswered for now—and perhaps forever—since neither Curtis nor Guest seems keen on speaking publicly about their reasons for adopting.
Without a doubt, the main driving force behind this gossip is the rumor that Jamie Lee Curtis’s alleged inters3xuality has long been spoken of as a given in medical school classrooms, even though her name has never appeared in a textbook or journal article in connection with inters3x conditions.
A rumor is still a rumor, even from the lips of a board-certified physician. All the more so, in fact, given that any physician who actually treated Curtis couldn’t have revealed such information without violating patient confidentiality laws.
The only document that has ever been offered as “proof” was a 1996 op-ed piece in the Baltimore Sun written by William O. Beeman, associate professor of anthropology at Brown University, entitled “What Are You: Male, Merm, Herm, Ferm or Female?”
The relevant passage reads as follows:
“There are perhaps millions of XX males and XY females living in the United States today. These are cultural males with male genitalia who are genetically female, and cultural females with female genitalia who are genetically male.
The film star Jamie Lee Curtis is one well-known individual who is genetically male, but phenotypically female.”
First, according to Professor Beeman, the proper sentence was deleted from the published article. Second, the reason it was deleted was that Beeman’s attempts to track down the plastic surgeons to whom intermediate sources had attributed the statement were “totally unsuccessful.” In other words, Professor Beeman had simply repeated an item of gossip.
These rumors are just gossip, and there’s no evidence to back them up.
The investigations come right back to where it all started: face-to-face with an unsubstantiated rumor. Twenty-odd years of hearsay later, there is simply no evidence to support it.
Any honest appraisal of the facts must arrive at the same conclusion reached by “L.A. Exposed” author Paul Young—to wit, “the rumor that Curtis suffers from AIS (Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome) has never been proven and is almost certainly false.”
Does Jamie Lee Curtis have a prosthetic?
“Everyone assumes that her belly in the movie is a prosthetic, but it’s actually her real belly,” Kwan told EW. “She was grateful that she was allowed to just let it out.” “I wanted to just be truthful to this woman,” Curtis added in the interview.
How many biological children does Jamie Lee Curtis have?
The 64-year-old is an acclaimed film and television actor, author, and activist, but perhaps her most important role is being a mom to her two daughters, Annie and Ruby Guest, whom she shares with husband Christopher Guest.
Share your thoughts in the comments section below
Source: By Suliyah
