“It doesn’t suck to be intersex, it sucks to be persecuted” sadly this is the mindset that is still popular/ widely associated with individuals who are intersex. These individuals are normal human beings and people who desire to have everyday lives, normal love lives, and to be confident in their own skin. 1. 7 percent of all children born in the world are born with sex characteristics that are both male and female (cross sex) and don’t fit in either the male or female box that society has constructed (Murphy & Rudolph 117).
Intersex, like most things that fall outside social normal, is a taboo topic and, as a result, society as a whole is not well educated on the topic because it is considered an awkward/ unacceptable topic to discuss. For example, when I was writing my response and ran into a group of friends and they asked what I was writing, when I said “Oh I’m writing a paper on intersex” they clearly uncomfortable and or confused. The topic of intersex has always been and is a topic that is hush hush and seen as an issue of deformity rather than just a unique difference an individual possesses.
In regards to how intersex people are impacted today, not much has changed. The medical fields still views intersex children as having a physical deformity and describes it to the child’s parents as such. In the 1950’s, John Money at Johns Hopkins University developed the Optimal Gender or Rearing Policy. This policy/ theory stated that “children were more likely to develop a gender identity that matched the sex of rearing than might be determined by chromosomes, gonads, or hormones” (Murphy & Rudolph 116). Basically, Money claimed that nurture could out rule nature.
This policy/ theory is still applied in modern medicine when dealing with intersex children and surgically assigning them a sex, even though this theory is severally lacking in supportive evidence and is based on a minimal amount of unsubstantial cases studies (Murphy & Rudolph 119). As a result of intersex still being seen as a deformity, individuals who are intersex suffer great emotional trauma throughout their lifetime. These individuals often times feel like they don’t fit in because they feel that they have no one to relate to since intersex is not talked about publicly.
These children are kept secret and isolated from other children since the parents fear the opinion of society. As the children grow up, they feel conflicted about what gender role to act in since society forces gender to either be male or female and noting in between, and with this inability to fit in either mold they feel shame. Some are even told they are nothing. This emotional abuse results in intersex people not feeling comfortable in their own bodies, feeling that they cannot or are undeserving of romantic relationships, and can also lead to suicide.
So as I said previously, not much has changed for the intersex community even as awareness has grown; those in this community still fall victim to abuse and oppression by society. As a result of intersex not being widely talked about, and sex education lacking in discussing the spectrum of gender, the intersex population lacks a voice. From birth, the voice of intersex individuals is taken away when the parents decide what gender they will be so that the parents and society are more comfortable with how their genitals look.
The chance of deciding who they want to be and what gender they feel they are is taken from them. In 2 of the cases in the documentary, the parents of the intersex child refused the gender assignment surgery and let the child grown up and decided. These two individuals had significantly better childhood and adult experiences as an intersex individuals, which is huge evidence to the medical field that these surgeries are unneeded and more detrimental to the child than helpful.
Sami and I both agreed that letting the child grow and decide what they wanted was the better option. We both agreed that it is easy to claim this now, but if down the road one of us did have an intersex child, would we still hold this to be true? For myself, I hope I would still agree that letting my healthy child grow and decided what he/she wanted would be the best option because I would not desire to take away my child’s voice, confidence, and freedom when they are not old enough to speak for themselves.
The scientific reductionist approach is still largely influential within the medical field, and has reduced the determining of sex/gender to the presence or absence of a penis, whether an individual has xx or xy chromosomes, and whether an individual can participate in heterosexual sex (Murphy & Rudolph 5). Even though Money’s theory has no substantial scientific or case study evidence, intersex children are still handled in the manner that if they are surgically assigned a sex and raised as that sex, that they will identify with that sex and live happily.
Hospitals still follow this policy and have been slow to change otherwise. This is because Money’s theory provided an answer, even though it is not a good one, and a policy for handling an anatomical condition that previously did not have one. These power structures should be addressed because this “solution” has caused all damage and no good; not one person who was the victim of Money’s theory was thankful that their parents took this route to handle their intersex.
The best way to do this we think is to educate the public more on intersex, and that it is not a deformity but simply an aspect of an individual. Also, educating medical students and current medical practitioners that surgical assignment of sex does more harm than good, and letting the child grow and decide on their own what they want is what is truly best fort the child. I feel like I have majority of control over my body and I am very familiar with how my body works, and what I should and should put in it to keep me healthy.
I say majority because if I get sick or need medical assistance, I may not know what my body needs in order to reestablish a healthy equilibrium. This ties in with the fact that I do trust a doctor’s opinion over my own. I did not go to school for 4+ years and complete a residency for 3+ years, am not an expert in the medical treatment of my body. I might not agree 100% with each recommendation that is given to me by a doctor, but that does not mean the doctor is uneducated in his/her recommendation.
I think it is ignorant and shows significant hubris if an individual regards their diagnosis and opinion of how to treat their medical condition as better than a certified doctor’s diagnosis and treatment. Awareness of intersex issues has grown significantly due to the internet. Through the internet, individuals who identity as intersex have access to information regarding their condition, and are also able to easily connect with those who are like them. This access has provided the intersex community with comfort and a community that is understanding and supportive of the experiences they have endured.
Outside of the internet, Sami and I agreed that beginning sexuality (not sex) education at a young age, like the children in the Netherlands, is beneficial to children and to the topic of sexuality as whole. By starting the discussion of sexuality and gender at a young age, and teaching children how to be loving and handle situations, it removes the taboo and the “don’t ask, don’t tell” mindset. This would propagate generations that are more tolerant, open, and understanding of differences when it comes to sexuality and gender.
