In Body Problems, M. Wolff offers groundbreaking insight into Sally Gross, a South African intersex priest and activist whose body was continuously policed and politicized. Gross’s role in founding Intersex South Africa and her involvement with the African National Congress are celebrated in the Apartheid Museum, but the complex dimensions of her life - from her Jewish heritage, Christian priesthood, and Buddhist practices - remain largely unexplored. Wolff illuminates these lesser-known aspects of Gross’s spirituality and theorizes her resistance to the regulation of intersexuality. The book urges readers to rethink bodies and belonging, particularly as they relate to formations of gender and religion. Wolff presents Gross’s life as a guide for discerning our commitments to social justice and responsible relations. Body Problems is a timely and expansive contribution to ongoing discourses on the medical, religious, and political construction of bodies.
Introduction 1
I. Body Problems
1. Context 15
2. Adulthood 29
II. Problem Bodies
3. Religious Bodies 51
4. Medical Bodies 65
5. Bodies of Paperwork 87
6. Bodies of Land 99
III. Agitating Bodies
7. Transnational Activism 119
8. Community Building in South Africa 137
9. Costs of Activism 149
IV. Bodiliness
10. Clearings 169
11. Breaks 173
12. Sutures 191
13. Resonance 213
Postscript 233
Acknowledgments 245
Notes 247
Bibliography 299
Index 309
