Body Problems: What Intersex Priest Sally Gross Teaches Us About Embodiment, Justice, and Belonging

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.

Table of Contents:
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

About the Author :
M. Wolff is Associate Professor of Religion at Augustana College.

Review :
“Engagingly written and extensively researched, Body Problems is a compelling and insightful account of the life, contributions, and ongoing relevance of scholar-priest-activist Sally Gross. M. Wolff has done a remarkable job of organizing such a rich and varied life into a story that functions not only as a biography but also something more expansive and more enlightening: a provocation to think more carefully about questions of identity, the regulation of bodies, and the consequences of committing one’s life to activism.” - Kent L. Brintnall, author of Ecce Homo: The Male-Body-in-Pain as Redemptive Figure “Body Problems provides a rich, theoretically rigorous, cross-culturally contextual, biographical account of the life of Sally Gross, whose contributions to numerous activist movements have yet to be fully recognized. Combining theology, decoloniality, and feminist and queer theory, this work stands at the cutting edge of numerous fields, including critical intersex studies, religious studies, and cultural studies, making it valuable to students, scholars, and activists. Moreover, M. Wolff’s accessible, poetic style, and careful research tell Gross’s story with verve, compassion, and great critical insight.” - David A. Rubin, author of Intersex Matters: Biomedical Embodiment, Gender Regulation, and Transnational Activism