#igm content warning

[gonyadaldysgenesis]

hello all, i noticed a lack of resource online for people who are curious about intersex genital mutilation scarring later in life without having to dig through surgery gore photos. i threw together some diagrams here (content warning for discussion of IGM and drawn genitalia diagrams) of the major surgeries that are completed on intersex children. worth noting this is based purely on my own research, and i am not a doctor, and i of course am not running around doing these surgeries myself. im absolutely free to corrections or adding more diagrams if other surgeries are brought up.

[x23innocencelost]

Intersexuality and Transgenderism in Beast Wars (1996-1999)

(ID in alt text)

Okay, so like a week ago I said I would make a post explaining why I think Blackarachnia and Silverbolt are both intersex and transgender, and I’m a bit late but there is that post! 

CONTENT WARNINGS: Discussion of medical intersexism, the medical and medical-sexual abuse faced by intersex and transgender people including IGM, the H slur was used as an example of offensive language to avoid. Discussion of sexual violence and objectification, especially as pertaining to transgender women. Discussion of transphobia, misogyny, and transmisogyny. Discussion of canonical suicide attempt and attempted sexual assault.

Introduction

“Intersex” this refers to people with sex characteristics outside of male/female binary sex. This could be anything from ambiguous or “non-standard” genitalia (external or internal), increased or decreased levels sex hormones compared to “standard” (it should also be said that what is considered standard is frequently what is standard for white people), more or less than 2 chromosomes; chromosomes that do not conform with presented sex, and a whole bunch of other things. What exactly qualifies someone as intersex is debated, because what exactly qualifies as falling outside of strict categories of “male” and “female” is contested. If intersex people are more commonly understood and concretely recognized to exist, this challenges the binary sexgender hierarchy, and undermining the sexgender hierarchy undermines the patriarchy.

Regardless, intersex people are not “biologically nonbinary” or “biologically transgender” or anything like that. Certainly there are transgender intersex people, and for some of these people their relationship with gender is directly tied with being intersex (and the same for some cisgender intersex people), but the intersex umbrella encompases millions of people with unique lives and perspectives and it is wrong to make sweeping statements about identity and experience like that. Furthermore saying gender identity is directly linked to sex is, as always, deeply bioessentialist and in this case intersexist.

I will not be speaking about where exactly Blackarachnia and Silverbolt fall under the intersex umbrella, both due to my own lack of knowledge and because they are bio-mechanical aliens who are a spider and a wolf & eagle, respectively. I do not think either of them have a specific real-world condition that effects humans and even if they did that is not something I am knowledgeable enough about to speak about.

Additionally, while I will be discussing and interpreting them as visibly intersex characters, it is important to remember that not every intersex person is visibly intersex, and you cannot tell if someone is intersex just by looking at them. You should not, ever, try to ‘prove’ that a real person is intersex, as that is an incredible invasion of privacy and just like… gross? 

From this point forward I will be expecting a basic familiarity with what it means to be intersex, so that means some terms and concepts might be glossed over. If there is anything that is confusing or needs clarification I will do my best to provide this, but I will not be engaging with anyone that fails to meet a bare minimum of respect for intersex people. For the record: “hermaphrodite” is a slur. Using this term or any term derived from it will result in an auto-block regardless of what you are otherwise saying.

Finally, I am myself perisex (ie, not intersex) and not in a position to speak for the intersex community or experience. While I am not the sole developer of this interpretation, this post and my words are my own and if I have inadvertently said something offensive or misinformed, please let me know so that I can take the necessary steps to fix that.

Acknowledgments

This post would not be possible without @maverickflare and @they-hermes who contributed to this reading (maverickflare also proofread), @redlanternz for being my lesbian spider pervert, and @htmlerror who helped me with the above section. Also thank you to @roguesrevenge , who didn’t do anything other than be intersex and incredibly enthusiastic :) . Love you all. @nielsthecat was also here. Also they wrote the ID for the meme, I guess.

Part 1: Blackarachnia

(ID in alt text)

We start with Blackarachnia, because she is the character that appears first and subsequently, the character that this whole read is based around.

First and most obviously, Blackarachnia’s black widow form just straight up is intersex. She has the red hourglass, bulbous body, elongated legs, and longer pedipalps without ‘boxing gloves’, which are classed as “female” sex characteristics in black widow spiders. However, she also has features that are classed as “male” sex characteristics in black widows, namely the coloration on the legs, small fangs, and small venom sacs. This makes her intersex, full stop.

However, this is just the beginning. Blackarachnia’s story is also that of an intersex woman. She is the only character in the entire show whose beastmode is chosen for her by someone else. Additionally, Tarantulas picked the black widow because he found it to be, well, attractive. There is also the way that Blackarachnia’s creation as a Predacon is discussed: as something that Tarantulas did to her. 

These are both reminiscent of intersex/infant genital mutilation (IGM), where visibly intersex infants are subject to “corrective” surgeries so that their genitalia more closely aligns with sex binarist ideas about what genitalia “should” look like. This can extend to procedures in childhood performed with the goal of making the child a more pleasing sexual partner as an adult. It should not need to be said that this is a gross human rights violation.

More than this, Blackarachnia’s status as a woman is something that is questioned, most notably by Rattrap. He says that she’s “about as female as a piston,”, and when she remarks on her own attractiveness, he derides her by saying he’s “seen better circuits than [hers] on maintenance bots”. This obviously ties into the intersex reading, as intersex women are frequently denied access to womanhood and told they are performing femininity incorrectly, but it also ties into the transgender reading, because transgender women face the same treatment. The fact that these readings bleed into one another is appropriate, of course, because Blackarachnia’s intersexuality and transgenderism are, for her, linked.

This is further exemplified by the control exerted over her life by men, particularly Tarantulas. Not only did he choose her beastmode for her, not only was he involved in making her as a Predacon, he also installed a failsafe so that removing the Predacon shell would kill her. Later on, Optimus Primal and Rhinox, not knowing this, discuss potentially removing the Predacon shell– without Blackarachnia being in the room. This is played as an innocent misunderstanding– of course Blackarachnia would be given ultimate say over removing the Predacon shell!– but it is still a gross overstep. This is also, again, reminiscent of the medical abuse faced by intersex and transgender people, who are frequently lied to and misinformed about the medical procedures being done to them, if they are told anything at all.

The above of course does not even touch on the most notable time that Tarantulas strips Blackarachnia of her autonomy– when he possesses her. Even once the true possession is ended (a situation Blackarachnia hated so much she said she would rather die than let it continue), he retains a psychic connection to her, forcing her to act in his interests and as an extension of himself, and causing her immense pain if she attempts to disobey him. This is combined with the fact that Tarantulas’s initial problem with Blackarachnia seems to be that she is an autonomous person who doesn’t want to fuck him.

This comes to a head in episode 2.04, where Blackarachnia starts up a minor flirtation with Quickstrike (albeit under false pretenses). Even this minor assertation of her own personhood infuriates Tarantulas, who is quick to remind her of their link and the fact that he has complete control over her and her life. Blackarachnia gets more and more frustrated with this state of affairs that eventually she decides that she would literally kill herself if it meant she would be free of Tarantulas. Tarantulas directly states that he does not not care if she commits suicide, and only intervenes when he realizes that her dying will also kill him, at which point he severs the psychic link. His immediate next action is to try to kill her.

Furthermore, many characters feel entitled to Blackarachnia’s body in a very particular way. Tarantulas, Quickstrike, and to a lesser extent Cheetor feel entitled to her body as a sex object, with Quickstrike additionally trying to assault her on-screen. Megatron, somewhat uniquely, feels entitled to her body as a receptacle for violence. 

Blackarachnia is treated with scorn by the Predacons because they view her as a sex object who is making herself unavailable to them. With the Maximals, Blackarachnia continues to be treated as a sex object, but one that “belongs” to Silverbolt. Cheetor, after becoming infatuated with her, occasionally defends her to the likes of Rattrap– but he has no qualms about joining in on the abuse out of earshot after a particularly direct put-down from her. She has the additional burden of being viewed as deviant for fulfilling the “wrong” role in her relationship (in this case as the sexually dominant partner).

In all cases this brings to mind the third-sexing of transgender women: women when sexually available or appealing, punching bag when not.

Furthermore, Blackarachnia always seeks to maintain her identity, not as a Predacon but as herself– Blackarachnia, the “bad girl”. This is her true objection to becoming a Maximal, the fear that she will lose herself. Even after removing the Predacon shell becomes a life-saving necessity, her description of the consequences of not doing so isn’t “I’ll die”: it’s “[I’ll] drool oil for the rest of my life”. This is a woman for whom her identity as herself is more important than her own life, as also evidenced by her reaction to Tarantulas possessing her.

Concurrent with that and through most of S3, we see Blackarachnia working on developing the materials to give herself a Transmetal 2 body upgrade. In other words, she is trying to medically transition. She is finally able to achieve this after the Predacon shell is removed. While initially fearing that removing the shell and thus becoming a Maximal would fundamentally change her in some way, after receiving the upgrade she soon declares that,  “Even when I’m good, I’m bad,” showing that she is still herself and no major change has taken place.

I think that Blackarachnia is best understood as a transgender intersex woman who was subjected to IGM to be coercively assigned as male as a child, who socially transitioned while with the Predacons but was denied the resources/ability to pursue medical transition. Once with the Maximals, she both distrusted them due to her past experiences with medical abuse and feared they would not allow her to medically transition (again due to her past experiences), leading her to pursue a risky DIY transition.

Part 2: Silverbolt

(ID in alt text)

(Note: I have chosen to refer to Transmutate with she/her pronouns because she was referred to as such in production, and I believe that referring to her as “it” is a symptom of the dehumanization and degendering of disabled people)

Silverbolt and the other Fuzors are, by the non-Fuzors, considered to be “mismatched” and “weird” (this is the language used in the show), which mirrors some of how intersex people are discussed in real life. 

Additionally, when Silverbolt is defending Transmutate to the other Maximals, he asks, “Are we Predacons now? Do we destroy whatever does not fit our definition of perfection?” The way that he is immediately able to empathize with her for having been born “weird”, “ugly”, and “imperfect” points to him feeling that they are in this way similar. His belief in the preservation of autonomy, especially for those deemed in some way other, is based on his own experience with having been denied that.

Then there is the matter of Tigerhawk. There is a long tradition in sci-fi of people with intersex features (who are sometimes, but not always, acknowledged as actually being intersex) only appearing through the merging of a man and a woman through fantastical means. Tigerhawk, while not being part of this tradition, is reminiscent of it, being formed out of the merging of Airazor and Tigatron. This is, indeed, the explanation for him being a Fuzor. He is also the character that most resembles Silverbolt. This, again, points to Silverbolt being intersex.

We also revisit the idea of reprogramming the protoforms to be Predacons as analogous to coercive sex assignment/IGM, with the addition that this time, Megatron edits Silverbolt and Quickstrike’s activation codes to the Predacon activation and tells them that they were always Predacons. This is reminiscent of the many intersex people who are subject to IGM or other “corrective” procedures who are never told what is happening, or that they are intersex. 

Silverbolt does not feel that he ‘fits’ as a Predacon, and repeatedly voices discomfort with being asked to act as a Predacon. He is beaten multiple times for failing to live up to Predacon standards, and, eventually, he defects to the Maximals. This, too, is a transition.

Whereas Blackarachnia was always aware of her being intersex and the medical abuse she was subject to, this is something that Silverbolt had to find out for himself as he got older, eventually leaving the Predacons concurrent with starting his transition journey.

Part 3: Closing Notes

Obviously some of what was discussed above can also be applied to Inferno and Quickstrike to read them as intersex as well, but unlike Blackarachnia and Silverbolt I do not think this massively impacts their characters. I am not otherwise discussing them here because they are not the scope of this essay.

The fact that Silverbolt most consistently supports Blackarachnia and her choices, and respects her position on the team before she officially becomes a Maximal, speaks deeply to the fact that he actually, well, respects her. Blackarachnia allows Silverbolt to joke about “making a Maximal” of her when no other character would be or has been allowed to speak to/about her like that, which says that she understands he is, in some way, saying something different than any other character when they call her a Maximal. To be clear, in that moment I think Silverbolt is giving her the opportunity to assert and affirm herself as the “bad girl”. 

I think that reading Blackarachnia and Silverbolt as intersex and transgender dramatically recontextualizes their relationship as two people who have undergone some of the same abuse in life and can find recognition and respect in each other because of their shared experiences. 

Thank you again to everybody that helped me with this and told me they were excited for this, and if you read this far I love you and happy Pride!

[intersexbookclub]

November read: Just Ash

Our book pick for November 2024 is Jush Ash by intersex author Bogi Takács. This is a YA coming-of-age novel featuring an intersex main character.

It's a fairly short book that I personally found to be a fast read 💜

Content warnings: Please note this is a book that portrays some pretty serious intersexism. Ash, the main character, experiences bullying, multiple sexual assaults, a forced gender transition, parental abuse. IGM is discussed when Ash visits an intersex support group and some IGM survivors tell their stories to Ash.

While there is a fair bit of violence in this book, I (personally) did not find it gratuitous, and Santana doesn't linger on it: it's there to provide an unflinching portrayal of what it is like for too many intersex youths growing up in small towns and rural areas.

If it helps to decide whether it's too much for you: Ash is given plenty of things to do in the book that are not just suffer constantly. I can answer questions about the book on Discord if you're on the fence about picking it up. 💜

As usual, we meet on the last Friday of the month: November 29. We’re meeting at 16:00 Eastern (20:00 UTC) on Microsoft Teams (see discord for the link).

The MS Teams meeting is configured to provide live captions in English. Participants are welcome to contribute non-verbally through the text chat in the meeting. If you have other access needs please let us know 💜.

Discord link: https://discord.gg/V3mrcjakGQ Also see: our code of conduct

How much of the book do you need to read? You don’t need to finish it participate! You are welcome to skim and/or skip chapters as desired.

Current & future book picks We'll be reading some selected chapters from Malatino's Queer Embodiment: Monstrosity, Medical Violence, and Intersex Experience. This is an academic text and the relevant chapters will be shared on the discord for anybody who doesn't have university library access. 💜

[kimgates07]

DENGUE

AN OVERVIEW:

Dengue is a viral infection transmitted by the female mosquito belonging to the Aedes aegypti species. The same species are also responsible for spreading other infections such as chikungunya, yellow fever and Zika viruses.

Geographically,dengue is widespread throughout the globe, with risk influenced by rainfall, temperature, relative humidity and unplanned rapid urbanization. In tropical regions like India where rainfall is a seasonal phenomenon, dengue fever is synonymous with the monsoon, being one of the common most monsoon fevers.

SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS:

Dengue is manifested usually as rise of temperature. Although fever could be serious, dengue is not very commonly fatal.

Dengue should be suspected when a high fever (40°C/104°F) is accompanied by any 2 of the following symptoms:

severe headache

pain behind the eyes

muscle and joint pains

nausea

vomiting

swollen glands rash

Severe dengue warning signs that suggest a severe dengue infection are as follows:

severe abdominal pain

persistent vomiting

rapid breathing

bleeding gums

fatigue

restlessness

blood in vomit

Although dengue is not potentially fatal, a rise in temperature should be a sign to see your doctor especially during monsoon.

WHAT MEASURES CAN YOU TAKE TO PREVENT DENGUE:

Simple measures like prevention of mosquito breeding and use of mosquito repellents could serve the purpose.

Covering, emptying and cleaning of domestic water storage containers, applying appropriate insecticides to water storage outdoor containers and personal protection from mosquito bites.

Most importantly, early diagnosis is the key. Especially with monsoon fevers where fever could mean anything from malaria to dengue to chikungunya.

DIAGNOSTICS TESTS IN DENGUE ARE AS FOLLOWS:

A doctor may order one or more tests to diagnose dengue:

Dengue NS1 antigen for detection of specific protein found in dengue – this test should be done within the first 5-7 days of fever

Dengue antibodies (IgG/IgM) for detection of antibodies suggestive of a recent/ongoing or past infection of dengue and are usually positive after the first 5-7 days of fever.

Dengue by RT-PCR for early detection of dengue in the earliest possible time from appearance of symptoms.

Other blood tests are also done to monitor dengue fever like CBC, ESR, LFT, KFT etc.

Monsoon fevers are often a challenge to diagnose and treat.In such cases, PCR tests should be preferred for early diagnosis.FD-5 or Fever Detect 5 in 1 is a PCR based test which can detect 5 common monsoon fevers namely; Dengue, Chikungunya, Malaria, Leptospirosis and Typhoid with a single blood sample.

REFERENCES:

World Health Organisation

The original content in published on suburbandiagnostics blog

[intersex-support]

Intersex people by all means are allowed to not want to be considered LGBT+ for being intersex and to not believe intersex is LGBT+, it is not something that you can force someone to change their perception on if they truly are uncomfortable with it.

That being said, I take huge issue with LGBT+ members who make fun of adding an I at the end, or claim to say intersex people tell you not to. Not only does this tell me you get all your information on intersex people from tumblr/twitter posts, it tells me you do not care to find out about your shared history with intersex people and that you do not see us as important, and to an extent maybe you don’t want to admit the social stigma and oppression that intersex people face (CW I will be talking about IGM).

Intersex activists have been considering intersex to be LGBT+ or queer for decades, and for a long time invasive genital mutilation on intersex infants relied on telling parents that if they did not have surgery that their children would be “homosexual” and that they should pray that their children grow up to be “normal” to paraphrase by Cheryl Chase in “Intersex Activism and Psychology: Opening a Dialogue on Theory, Research, and Clinical Practice” (Hegarty, 2000). This isn’t coming from a cishet intersex person either, last I checked Cheryl Chase identified as a lesbian, and many intersex people I meet are also not cisgender and heterosexual.

Not to mention my own personal experience, where when I spoke on the 2018 Moving Trans History Forwards youth panel hosted by the Transgender Archives (look them up if you don’t know), and upon looking at their saved stories found multiple instances of them claiming intersex stories (sometimes graphic) to be TRANS stories. They were very obviously glorifying the “transition” of intersex infants, yet there was no mention at all of the word intersex or even h*rmaphrodite for that matter (shocking considering the time period most of the stories were from). 

What this tells me is that intersex people have been included in LGBT+ history and spaces whether we choose to be or not. It literally is not our choice to be included because we will be forced into said category by LGBT+ dyadic members, by doctors, and by society at large. So we can choose to not label our experiences as LGBT+ if we so choose, that is not up to dyadic LGBT+ members to decide, but the moment you make fun of it as if it is some funny internet discourse you are telling intersex people that you don’t give a fuck about us or our oppression. AND since recently we got an ask about this, I am not saying it is a choice to be gay (as an umbrella term) or trans, what I am saying is that intersex inclusion is not as easy as people are treating it.

This is not about if or if not you should include an I, but what I AM saying is that you have to really look at it and consider why you talk about intersex inclusion the way you do and the implications in that. What I’ve said here is not even surface level of intersex history.