really quick thread on the term intersex, what it means, how it affects people & dispelling intersex myths! intersex people feel free to add on! an obvious tw for intersexism but also intersexist slurs specifically!
What exact is intersex? As defined as planned parenthood, “Intersex is a general term used for a variety of situations in which a person is born with reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn't fit the boxes of “female” or “male.” plannedparenthood.org/learn/gender-i…
So what exactly does that mean? This means that a person’s primary and/or secondary sexual characteristics vary from the “expectation” of “male” and “female”. What are primary sexual characteristics? Primary sexual characteristics are the ones+
someone is born with, those would be chromosomes, gonads, external genitalia etc. Secondary sexual characteristics are the ones that appear during and after puberty e.g. breasts, pubic hair, facial hair and the like
Now that we have ground level understanding of what intersex means and what intersex describes, let’s discuss practices and prejudice against intersex people
One thing important not to forget when discussing intersex topics is Intersex Medical Interventions also known as IGM (meaning Intersex Genital Mutilation). This refers to surgical, hormonal or other medical interventions to modify atypical+
or ambiguous sexual characteristics, usually genitalia. It is argued that these interventions “prevent” future problems but there’s an extreme issue with a lack of consent, sexual function compromisation, and the creation of lifelong health issue
Intersex intervention on infants & children are a human rights issue. There’s only so many countries were this practice is banned, the first being Malta. How can this be fixed? I would recommend looking into petitions and organizations.
A reminder that these interventions are extremely invasive and irreversible! Once it’s done there is no going back.
There is various other prejudices intersex people face. For example, we are constantly stigmatised, ostracised & subjects to various human rights violations over our conditions. Intersex people face infanticide, mutilation, neglect & abandonment.
We face discrimination in the workplace, in education, in the healthcare system & sports which has an impact on mental & physical health, harmful medical practices (like the previously mentioned IGM practices) & poverty.
Even within spaces & communities like the LGBT community, we face consistent discrimination and exclusion from spaces. Among that we are consistently used as talking points on discourse & asked invasive, interpersonal questions
What invasive interpersonal questions am i referring to? Questions like “What genitals do you have?” “Do you have a penis & a vagina?” and questions like those. For example, there’s about 40 different intersex conditions+
the one that is described as having both a penis & a vagina is called ovotesticular syndrome or “True Hermaphroditism” and is actually the rarest condition among intersex people (this doesn’t mean no one has it though!
This moves us into intersex myths!
Myth no. 1: Sex is binary. There is only 2 possible sexes and those are Male & Female. as previously discussed the very existence of intersex people disproves this, our traits break outside of the typical standards for male and female+
science shows that sex is more of a spectrum than anything, there’s not 2 little neat boxes you can fit everyone in when it comes to sex
Myth no. 2: Intersex conditions need to be cured/corrected. We should actually start doing the opposite. The normalisation of intersex conditions could open up more research and put and end to things like IGM & other intersex discrimination+
as previously discussed, trying to “normalise” sexual traits does more harm than good.
Myth no.3: Intersex people & their conditions are rare. You’re not likely to come across and intersex person. This is actually terribly incorrect. For one, the statistic that we make up only 1.7% of the population is wrong considering that+
people can live their entire lives without knowing they’re intersex due to sadly nonconsensual IGM & also intersex conditions that show during or after puberty. Also consider that the Earth’s population is over 8 billion at this point+
1.7% of 8 billion is 136,000,000 that’s literally over the recorded population of Mexico, that’s just confirmed and medically recognised intersex people!
Myth no.4: Intersex people are trans / non-binary. This can be the case for SOME intersex people but it’s not the case for all of us, we have the right to choose our identities, we can be trans, cis, male, female, gay, straight, whatever+
to force us into identities regardless is harmful.
This brings me to my next point, how being intersex can affect gender identity, especially for trans intersex people
Intersex people can have a complicated relationship with gender considering we are consistently told that gender is based off of your sex! Intersex exclusion from trans labels by perisex trans people can make this even more complicated
For example, an afab intersex transfem may be told prn is not a real transfem because prn isn’t amab, same thing goes for an amab transmasc being excluded in the same way
Also consider that falling outside of the boxes of male and female can lead someone to identify as simultaneously transfem & transmasc! Intersex trans people can also fluctuate between what they identify as, this is called “Aphroflux”
Now, i would like to discuss intersex fetishisation & slurs. Before i get into it i would like to place the disclaimer that pornography will in fact be mentioned as it plays an important role in our fetishisation.
first things first, i would like to clarify a list of intersexist slurs that are used. “hermaphrodite” is an outdated medical term used to refer to intersex people. another one is “heshe” & “futa” or “futanari”
in the pornography industry all of the previously mentioned slurs are used to refer to intersex people. this is extremely dehumanising considering our conditions are being used as a sexually desirable thing, it is terribly uncomfortable.
a non-sexual example of intersex fetishisation is the label “altersex”. this is used by people who wish to be intersex or perisex trans people who have taken hrt commonly. this is an uncomfortable experience considering how much we go+
through, whether it be issues from our conditions or from medical practices or the discrimination we face in society.
end of thread! here’s a list of intersex support & advocacy programs & groups! also look into the trevor project & other supporting organisations! thank you! interactadvocates.org/resources/inte…
also! intersex people feel free to add on or promote something! :3
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