The culture behind masculinity is a rather interesting subject, over several decades in American culture, the notion of the male gender as an entity synonymous with verbose masculinity has a profound impact on what American culture defines as a man. In the case of Confessions of a Teenage Hermaphrodite, the protagonist, Jamie, has a rather peculiar father that falls into these preconceived beliefs within our own culture quite well. Moreover, the ever-looming feeling of parents watching over a child, perhaps with disappointment, as is represented in this book, is a natural phenomenon that many readers can relate to. This ‘omniscience’ if you will, especially in Jamie’s case, guides oneself towards various circumstances that may in fact, not be within one’s own best interest, or completely off the mark from what one’s parents truly believe best. The overpowering, yet fallible, omniscience of Jamie’s father throughout the book ultimately leads Jamie’s life towards many erroneous situations that only harm her notion of gender and what it means to be intersex that speak towards society as a whole. 
	Firstly, it is important to define Jamie as an intersex individual identifying as a female. Jamie is in a rather delicate spot with her family as well, with both of her parents believing that Jamie is a male, and thus should go through medical procedure to obtain more features that a male would possess. 
Given the ambiguous time-period of sometime in the 1970s or early 1980s at the most, much of the stigmatization of those against the Vietnam War was as Jamie’s father describes. But, what’s important here is for the reader to recognize that Jamie’s father is old fashioned, which in regards to sex and gender, indicate that he is far from tolerant of people whom may be different. Further dissecting this quote, Jamie’s father shows much intolerance towards individuals that have a trait seen as a feminine one, which is of course longer hair.
	In figuring out just how powerful Jamie’s father is, Jamie’s boyfriend Tyler comes into play almost comically. Before Jamie is about to get on a plane back to her mother’s house, her father is regrets to inform Jamie that Tyler was killed in action. Interestingly, the father places Tyler’s dog tags around Jamie’s neck. The notion of how Jamie’s father of all people obtained these dog tags instantly strikes the reader, as he gained priority over Tyler’s family without any sense of reason other than “he has contacts in the military”. However, this is a particularly insightful look at the level of control Jamie’s father possesses in the materialistic sense. To have this level of control even with individuals outside of the family is alarming. It is no wonder Jamie struggles with inner conflict between the father’s wishes and her own when Jamie can recognize such great influence. The power even comes into play with a pastor named Jim Nyquist, the reader sees a bit of this fallible omniscience when Jim proclaims to Jamie that her father “was pretty sure you had sexual relations with a man”. Despite this belief, it turns out Jamie’s father was incorrect, showing limits to his particular omniscience. With this in mind, the reader takes away the idea that while Jamie’s father has power far beyond logical reason, it is imperfect in some respects, despite its prominence in Jamie’s head.
