Would there be any non-anecdotal evidence to any of this which you would share with me here?
Four out of five biology teachers recommend Jamie Lee Curtis to their students who chew gum.
If she is the product of corrective surgery, she definitely got her money’s worth.
Yowza!
The snopes article, referenced first by Mangetout and within a mere 4 minutes of the OP, treats this question pretty well. [aside] Some of the subsequent comments in this thread make me wonder if the posters bothered to follow the link provided. [/aside]
The only thing I would add that the snopes article doesn’t state the case as strongly as it might, beginning the discussion with a very weak: “We may never know.” For the benefit of those who remain determined to cling to this ill-gotten smear campaign, I’d add a line that says something like “Although we’re unlikely ever to have visual proof that confirms or denies this rumor, there is absolutely no evidence AT ALL to believe the Jamie Lee is anything other than female.”
If you want to learn more about this condition without wading through medical journals or scholarly articles or waiting for the next broadcast of the right Discovery channel show, I’d recommend Jeffrey Eugenides’ recent (2002) novel, “Middlesex,” whose first person narrator is ‘intersex’, as a result of androgen insensitivity.
As a 40-year-old male, the narrator recounts her family history, the gene responsible for the condition, and her experience growing up as a female with no suspicions to the contrary until age 14. Makes for a good read and may help to disabuse you of any lingering obsessions you have about Jamie Lee. 
Rather than just an inspecific request of “cite”, I would like to request (1) the name and date of the program on the Discovery Channel (2) the names of some of the “other documentaries” (3) the names of the magazine articles (and magazine and date) or newspaper articles (and paper and date) or books that reported this “fact” and (4) the place that the doctor’s office leaked to (paper and date of article or magazine and date of article or channel and date of news broadcast).
My graduate and undergraduate work was in sexual differentiation. I was at a conference on sexual differentiation with many of the notable professors in the field about 7 years ago. We were out drinking after the conference one night when this subject came up. Many of the “experts” swore that this rumor is true.
What does this mean? Nothing except that even respected researchers in sexual differentiation do indeed believe this and at least one that I know brings it up in his undergraduate classes. That doesn’t mean that it is true in the least but it does lend credit to the claim that students heard it from their professors in a biology class or other related discipline. Urban legend or not, many educated people are more likely to believe this rumor when they hear from a professor in the field.
Well, I am certainly not Susanann, nor do I make any claims as to the validity of these sites (didn’t sift through them), but there are indeed a few references made to JLC having been born with XY chromosomes.
Jamie Lee Curtis + XY Chromosomes
True, rumor, nasty gossip, as Snopes says, I doubt anyone but her closest relatives and doctors know for sure. Doesn’t make any difference to me. She identifies herself as a woman, and I find the evidence put forth, er…eye-popping?
Methinks it’s time to rent “True Lies” again
I have to preface this by asking:
Why the heck would anyone care if Jamie Lee Curtis has XY chromosomes.
The reason I ask is:
- She lives as a woman
- She dresses like a woman
- She LOOKS like a woman (A really hot woman, by most accounts).
As far as I’m concerned, she’s a woman.
That being said, one of the reasons I had heard for people spreading this (In my opinion) malicious rumour, is jealousy.
Jamie Lee Curtis is hot. She’s in her 40’s and has a body that I didn’t even have in my 20’s when I was working out twice a day. She’s been a sex symbol for almost 30 years. She looks good.
People get jealous of that - either because they don’t look like that, or can’t date someone who does.
As far as I’m concerned, the rumour should be treated as totally false, until Ms. Curtis decides to tell the world otherwise.
Al.
Sorry for the sanctimoniousness, but this has always cheesed me off. People sprouting “Cites” and “Proof”, when really the only substantial thing they have is a bad attitude. And no, I am not refering to any of you folks that actually linked to a web site, or did a little reading before making your posts.
About 1 in 2000 people are born with “sexually ambiguous genitalia.” There are a myriad of reasons for this but the one I’ve heard most in reference to the lovely actress is AIS.
Like the Tootsie Roll owl said,
the world may never know.
Unless you intend to get a lot closer than it is likely you ever will, what difference does it make?
There used to be stories that Babe Didrickson Zaharias must be a man. A mere woman couldn’t possibly have such athletic talent!
Don’t want to burst anyone’s bubble, but for at least 10 years, all pictures of her have been manipulated to some degree. As a part of her alcoholism therapy, she published pictures of herself as she really looks a few months ago.
Not bad for a 43 year old woman, but hardly the perfect body we’re used to seeing.
See, the problem with this line of reasoning is that someone who actually is an “XY female” usually looks more feminine than usual, not less.
These women (despite their chromosomes, they ARE women) are, as has been mentioned, tall, with “flawless” skin, and ample female curves. While the hair on their heads is thick and full it is scanty or entirely absent elsewhere (armpits, crotch, legs) The do not exhibit unusual muscle development (in fact, they probably put muscle on slower than chromosomally normal women) You see, XX women also produce small amounts of testosterone and respond to it - XY women do not respond to testosterone at all. Pump an XX women full of testosterone she’ll not only grow muscles, she’ll wind up with a beard as well and a lower voice. Do that to an XY female and it will have no effect - she’ll still have that flawless skin, that hairless, chin, and her voice won’t change.
Now, there ARE other conditions that can lead to “intersex”. I had a friend in high school who had the one where her adrenal glands overproduced testosterone - she looked sort of mannish, no doubt the 5 o’clock shadow helped. (She got hormone treatments and electrolysis). Whether this was a life-long problem present from and involved surgery I never asked and frankly don’t care either way. IF Jamie Lee is intersex (which I highly doubt anyhow, just on lack of solid evidence) I’d say it’s more likely to be one of the adrenal gland based disorders rather than the XY female situation.
However, it IS perfectly possible to be a very athletic, tall, long-legged, sexy woman without having a disorder.
As usual from susanann, we have a bunch of claims here without any corroboration. As usual, I do not expect her to provide any substantive support for those claims so I will not waste much time on them but I will just pick one: “The doctors offices leaked out that she had xy chromosones.” HUH? What doctors? When? Where was it published? I am sure they were subject to legal and disciplinary action. Please give us the details susanann.
Was that for therapy? I saw the magazine article- the “undone” picture published above and the “after” picture, which was stunning. Man, I thought it was to give us all hope.
Note: the “after” picture in the linked article was actually from the movie Perfect and was taken in 1984 or 1985. It may well be real.
Anyway, you’re not the only one on the “hope” angle. The last paragraph in the article translates thusly:
The Straight Dope Tells All, in which Cecil responds to message board questions about JLC’s supposed hermaphrodism:
The comments by Cecil Adams on this topic can be found on p. 171 of The Straight Dope Tells All
Wheatley was a poster who was convinced JLC suffered from testicular feminization.
I could have saved myself 24 minutes of index-searching and typing. :smack: