#actually intersex

[ipso-faculty]

Perisex allies: stop this shit

CW: intersexism

Came across this infographic during some google image searching and I'm still kind of a state of despair about it because it's not just offensively wrong about what intersex is, it was used to teach university students about queer issues:

Alt text: LGBTQIA+ are defined one by one. Intersex is defined erroneously as "These are people who were born with genital organs of both sexes (male and female). It is a genetic condition."

It's one thing for your rando perisex person to be getting this wrong on social media. It's another thing entirely when it's professionals getting this wrong in an educational setting. 😩 And that this infographic appears in a peer-reviewed publication. 😩

It's even worse to know the students that were taught with this infographic were medical students, who will be the ones traumatizing intersex people for decades to come 😩

It's so wrong in so many different ways:

Intersex is not limited to people with genital differences. Most intersex people have intersex variations that are not apparent at birth, with puberty being the most common time of life for variations to present. Many people find out in adulthood having no outward physical differences.

Of the intersex people with genital differences, they do not have two sets of genitals. Most genital differences are still recognizably female or male (e.g. spadias), and those who have ambiguous genitals have one set.

Intersex is not "male parts + female parts" or even "intermediate male/female parts", it is an umbrella term for anybody whose primary/secondary sex characteristics don't line up with what is expected for male and female bodies. Some intersex variations make women look more feminine, or make men look more masculine.

Defining intersex by genital differences doesn't just exclude most intersex people, it also sets the tone that we are defined by our genitals. To be publicly intersex is to have non-stop DMs about your genitals. This sort of framing sets up openly intersex people for invasive questions and harassment, and it keeps large numbers of intersex people from coming out.

Many intersex variations do not have a known genetic basis. Many intersex variations are caused by exposure to certain hormonal levels in the womb. Certain medications when taken during pregnancy can trigger intersex variations.

While bodily variation is necessary for being intersex, the social experience of stigma, discrimination, isolation, hyper-medicalization, and hyper-sexualization are all just as much a part of being intersex.

📣 Perisex allies: this is shit you can stop. When you see other perisex people parrot this sort of misinformation, correct them. Direct them to look up resources written by actually intersex people.

Here are some starter resources to give:

Intersex explained by Hans Lindahl

Media and style guide by IHRA

FAQ by intersex-support

A recent post I did compiling information for trans people who want to be better intersex allies

[azuremist]

TME and TMA as intersexist terms: as written by an intersex transfem

I’ve had a few different people in my inbox asking me why I view these terms the way I do. In particular, why I claim it’s intersexist. So, I thought I’d lay out a few examples, so everyone can understand where I’m coming from.

Imagine an intersex woman. She was assigned female at birth by her doctors, and was able to go about her childhood as a woman with no inclination that anything was amiss. Sure, she didn’t experience certain parts of puberty, but puberty was different for everyone, right?

But, later in life, she learns she has Turner syndrome. This is an intersex condition where a woman has only one X chromosome, rather than the usual two.

Soon after she learns this, she finds that laws are being made to attempt to keep trans women out of women’s spaces (often specifically sports) which use chromosomes as a defining factor of womanhood.

Would this intersex person be considered “transmisogyny affected”? She has been raised as a cisgender woman with no problems regarding being ‘clocked’, but she is also a direct target of transmisogynistic laws. She lies in a gray area.

Now, let’s go to another intersex person. Imagine an intersex man with PAIS. AIS is an intersex condition where babies are born with testes and XY chromosomes, but their body is immune to or can’t respond to androgens (which includes testosterone). Intersex people with partial AIS (PAIS) often develop a vulva and clitoris during puberty.

This intersex person identifies as a man, and he was assigned male at birth. However, his body does not produce testosterone, and he went through a feminizing puberty. To the average eye, he appears to be a woman now because of this.

Would this intersex person be considered “transmisogyny affected?” He was assigned male at birth, and now appears to be a woman, much like many transfems. However, if many saw how he looks now, stating that he is a male, they would probably clock him as transmasc. He was raised as a boy until puberty, and then faced astrozcization from his peers when he began a puberty that feminized him. What he was facing was a form of intersexism where transmisogyny was playing a huge part. Does his childhood matter? Can one become TME over time, when they were TMA as a child? Again, he lies in a gray area, where the answer is not quite so simple.

What about the “opposite”, per se — an intersex woman who had a masculinizing puberty? She has aromatase deficiency, which means that many ‘male’ hormones (which would usually be converted to ‘female’ hormones) would remain unconverted. She identifies as a woman, and was identified as a female at birth and was raised, until puberty, as a female. But now, she would be clocked as a trans woman upon looking at her. What does that make her? Is it different from the previous example? How and why? This intersex person also lies in a gray area. How she should be described with these terms is not clear.

And keep in mind, these are all relatively simple examples. All of the examples I listed self-identify as cisgender. But there are intersex people who are trans in any direction you can imagine.

If that last example identified as a trans woman, because she is now clocked as one, would you be able to say she’s wrong for that? What about if she identified as transmasculine, because of her experience with puberty? What if she’s multigender, bigender or genderfluid, and says she’s both transmasc and transfem because of her complicated experiences? Would that make her a TMA transmasculine person? But I thought that transmascs were all TME? That’s how it’s so often framed, anyway.

The reason why these questions are so difficult to answer is because these terms were not made with intersex people in mind. Very real intersex transfems were pushed to the wayside in favor of centering the perisex view of transgenderism. Intersex people are nothing but an inconvenient little afterthought, annoying perisex people with their demand for “inclusion” and “consideration”. (As per usual.)

You cannot simply make a new gender binary and say, “No, really, this time everyone fits into these two categories! Forcing people to confine themselves to these two rigid labels which are shown as opposites, and as never interacting, will definitely include everyone this time!!” No matter what the contents of the new binary is, it’s not going to work, because sex and gender alike are too complicated for that. There will always be people in the gray area.

This isn’t even getting into the fact that these terms, for all intents and purposes, seem to have been popularized by and associated with the Baeddelism movement around 2017, which was essentially “Radical Feminism 2: We’re Trans Women, So It’s Fine!” This movement is known for chronic villainization of trans men and non-binary people who aren’t transfem. (They act like this with cis people too, but noticeably less so than they do with non-transfem trans people. How curious.) Think along the lines of how regular radfems treat all men (and who they deem to be men) as inherently morally disgusting scum who deserve to be attacked.

Methinks that maybe these terms aren’t the neutral, fact-based descriptors of oppression that many people nowadays tout them to be, considering that.

So, yeah. “Transmisogyny exempt” and “transmisogyny affected” as terms: not even once. Listen to intersex people, stop trying to make sex and gender into binaries, and for the love of God, stop drinking the queer seperationist koolaid!

[satellites-halo]

"we need more weird queer people" y'all can't even handle intersex people wanting to call themselves queer (for being intersex)

[identitty-dickruption]

intersex people (including myself) can say again and again and again in as clear language as we can “Please Do Not Fetishise Our Bodies” and “This Is What Fetishisation Looks Like” and there will always be some fucking dyadic person absolutely RACING to tell us how much they don’t value our opinions

“I’m not fetishising being intersex I just wish I was intersex because it would be fun to have both a penis and a vagina”

“yeah I’m normal about intersex people! they’re really attractive/interesting/fascinating!”

“isn’t it so cool how some people are just naturally nonbinary. like your body is nonbinary. which means a nonbinary intersex person is cis”

shut up shut up shut up leave us alone fucking hellllll

[intersexability]

Here’s your friendly reminder that AFAB and AMAB are meaningless and obsolete terms!

[intersexcat-tboy]

Maybe it's being intersex maybe it's being trans but I think the "force feminize our femboys, real femboys take e" jokes are all absolutely disgusting. I understand it's a joke about trans women eggs but it does not rinse the rancid taste from my mouth.

I was forced against my will to be feminized. I was traumatized, watching each day my body further betray me. Trans femboys exist. There shouldn't be barely ironic jokes about forcing or pressuring people into transitioning. Not in the sense of "one trans person represents all of us to bigots" but in the "we are fucking trans and should understand being against forcing someone into a gender. It's not funny just because you have the power" way

[inhumanliquid]

"Just because there are people suffering with intersex conditions-"

I personally would be suffering a lot less if it weren't for you, actually. Please bury yourself in molten steel.

[ftmtftm]

I'd like to ask for some help from any intersex followers I have (or any intersex folks who come across this post!)

I've been struggling a lot to find proper terminology for intersex issues in my research because Google is all gunked up and Tumblr is just as hard to parse through.

So, if anyone could point me in the direction of any good literature by intersex authors or any good online resources (especially that define terminology) that would be incredibly helpful!! I'm still doing work myself but any sort of direction would be wonderful!

(tl;dr I want to be a better ally to intersex folks in trans feminist conversations about sex/gender and approach my own theory with intersex experiences in mind better! So, any and all resources would be appreciated!)

[thee-radio-host-is-a-kookaburra]

i think we should start telling all the tme/tma mfs to put whether they're isa (intersexism affected) or ise (intersexism exempt) in their bios

[metaphorically-speaking]

yeah you're a boygirl fagdyke etc etc but are you normal about intersex people

[ipso-faculty]

Is saying "intersex and/or mesosex" the same way of saying "trans and/or nonbinary"? Sorry I'm trying to (un)learn, I don't want to be seen as insensitive

No, mesosex should be thought of as a subset of intersex. I'd just say intersex. 👍️

I'm gonna give you a wall of text of context so upfront a TLDR: 😅

TLDR: positioning mesosex as in between perisex and intersex is like positioning bisexual as in between queer and not-queer. Intersex people are organizing for inclusive views of intersex and trying to create a middle ground between intersex & perisex plays into conservative efforts to divide and conquer us. 🧑‍🏫

So a big difference between being intersex and being trans/nonbinary comes from the role of medicine being far, far more powerful in its control and oppression of intersex people. In a lot of ways intersex is more like disability than like other queer identities. So much of intersex identity is gatekept by doctors. Intersex people are often told they're intersex by a doctor in a context of telling them they are disordered and broken. Fostering community amongst intersex people is hard because so many of us have been conditioned by doctors to think of themselves as rare freaks.

Right now we in the intersex community are fighting a kind of desperate battle for people to understand that it is intersex people who decide who is and isn't intersex, as opposed to it being up to doctors. And the intersex community consistently says that people with PCOS, Poland Syndrome, or even no diagnosis, who feel that their experiences line up with being intersex are intersex.

Meanwhile TERFs and other conservatives are pushing real hard to keep the definition of intersex as narrow as possible. They don't want intersex people to be common or for us to find community. They're invested in a narrative that intersex people are rare, and are disorderd men/women.

Right now, the track record of treating mesosex as not intersex has unfortunately been that it reinforces those conservative narratives. It's gotten used to imply that people with PCOS aren't really intersex, that they are mesosex instead. Same for undiagnosed intersex people. 😭

Even though this is not what I intended for the term, seeing what's happened with it in the wild it's been honestly scary and upsetting seeing this term get weaponized against an inclusive view of what intersex means. (And more experienced intersex folks raised concern about this well in advance 😨.)

Intersex being an umbrella category I think there is value in having microlabels within the umbrella category, which is why I updated my definition of mesosex rather than abandon the term altogether.

But yeah I would definitely steer far away from treating mesosex as though it's in between intersex and perisex - it's really not at all analogous to being nonbinary. I'd say a better analogy is that treating mesosex as if it is between intersex and perisex is like treating bisexual as being in between queer and non-queer.

The stakes are political inclusion and organizing - politically speaking, any effort to create a group between queer and non-queer generally serves to weaken the collective organizing of queer people. Same deal with intersex. Hope that clarifies things. 💜

[incognitopolls]

AGAB = assigned gender at birth

–

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

[intersex-support]

It is October 26th, intersex awareness day! Intersex friends, today is for us. I'd like to share this quote from Sean Saifa Wall:

"By connecting with other intersex people, it literally saved my life, because we had the constant script that we are alone, that we are rare. I think intersex activism, and intersex justice actually lets people know that we are not alone” -Liberating All Bodies: Disability Justice and Intersex Justice in Conversation.

We are not alone. We are valuable, and our intersex identity is worth celebrating. Our community knowledge, care for each other, and solidarity is worth celebrating. Our intersex joy is worth celebrating.

When so many of us experience trauma, violence, and isolation, awareness days can bring all sorts of emotion to us. There is room for all of the messiness--whatever being intersex means to you is important, and you deserve the space to express yourself.

Feel free to add on this post and tell us how you're celebrating intersex awareness day today--whatever that looks like for you.

For anyone who wants to learn more about intersex, check out this post and our resources.

[identitty-dickruption]

it’s not intersexist to want a neutral body, mixed sex characteristics, or a version of HRT that is neither fully masculinising nor feminising. however. the reason you may be getting called intersexist for this is the way dyadics talk about these kinds of transition goals… can be intersexist

so. these phrases are not okay:

“I want to be intersex”

“I’m transitioning to have an intersex body”

“I’m becoming a hermaphrodite”

“I’m jealous of intersex people”

“intersex people are transition goals”

instead try:

“I would like to have a sex neutral body”

“I’m transitioning to be both male and female”

“I would like to have a mix of genitals and secondary sex characteristics”

or literally anything else that doesn’t bring intersex people into it

you can have your goals. every person deserves to be able to transition in a way that makes them happy with their bodies. just be aware that you are not intersex, and our experiences are not yours

[intersexability]

I genuinely think we need to stop using the terms AFAB and AMAB, at the very least as commonly as they are currently used. There are times when those terms are helpful, but most of the time, they really aren’t and just perpetuate unnecessary division, a false binary, and intersexism

[doberbutts]

Hello friends I am here with an interesting inquiry.

I have a trans fem friend who thinks she may be intersex and would like to know where to start as far as finding this out. She is looking specifically for intersex resources regarding penis and testicle variances, as well as things that may be passed from [cis] mother to [trans] daughter. She requested, specifically, if a intersex trans fem or otherwise intersex trans person who knows more about that particular set anatomy could get in contact with her or if someone had any resources to this particular demographic.

If you are that person or you know where she could find that person, PLEASE let me know. You could send a dm or an ask if you don't want to talk publicly about this sort of topic.