Intersex Practice, Theory, and Activism

Abstract

The present article seeks to bring together ideas from legal, medical, social science, artistic, and activist perspectives, through dialogue among the four authors. Sarah Creighton is a gynecologist working with women who have atypical genital development or intersex conditions. Julie Greenberg is a professor of law whose work on gender and sexual identity has been influential both within the United States and internationally. Del LaGrace Volcano is a visual artist whose work engages with gender variance. Katrina Roen is an academic who approaches her research on both transgender and intersex from a social science perspective, informed by queer and feminist theorizing. Although the prior work of the four authors clearly indicates a shared commitment to change the situation of intersex people, the mechanisms for such changes are far from clear. Any changes will, however, surely be facilitated by ongoing communication and collaboration across the various perspectives and disciplines represented here.

The harms of medicalisation: intersex, loneliness and abandonment

“…This label and classification system has been profoundly contentious within intersex/VSC advocacy movements (see: Davis, 2015 ), with concerns largely lying in its potential to position sex variations semiotically within the biomedical paradigm, heightening pathologisation and passivisation, whilst furthering the ‘requirement for the unexpected body to be rectified’ ( Holmes, 2011 : 395). This also brings potential legal consequences, hindering pursuits for recognition and protection for people with VSCs ( Creighton et al, 2009 : 259), especially when ‘legislatures rarely interfere with medical protocols’ (see also: Garland and Travis, 2020b ). The language of ‘disorder’ is understood not only to medicalise bodily diversity but, in doing so, to denote abnormality (see: Foucault, 1980 ).…”

Troubling Figures

“…According to many intersex activists and scholars, asserting that sex is naturally binary is not only inaccurate but is also violent (Fausto-Sterling, 2000;Karkazis, 2008;Creighton, Greenberg, Roen, & Volcano, 2009). The rhetoric of binary sex not only ignores the ubiquity of intersex traits among humans and nonhumans but has pronounced material effects.…”