#intersex surgery tw

[intersex-support]

Has anyone with ovotosticular syndrome ever had to have an orchiectomy?

TW: discussion of surgery

Hi anon,

I know two people in real life who have gotten an orchiectomy (and/or hysterectomy) and have ovotestes, and there are also a lot of case studies in the medical literature with the doctors talking about performing orchiectomies on people who have ovotestes. No one active on this blog has any personal experience, but if you have any specific questions I can try to pass them on to the people I know who had an orchiectomy. Or if any followers have relevant personal experience and want to send in an ask, please feel free.

Best of luck, anon, and please feel welcome to send in any other asks if there's any specific information you need that I can try to find!

[trans-axolotl]

Do forgive my ignorance but I was under the impression that only adults could be sterilized due to the full development of their sexual organs, So how are doctors sterilizing babies when they aren’t really developed?

Hey!

So yeah it’s true that tubal ligation and vasectomies are only done on adults. When I refer to sterilization of intersex babies, I’m talking about the fact that intersex surgeries often cause sterilization because they take out the testes or ovotestes or otherwise harm the reproductive organs in a way that makes having biological children impossible. This is not the same process as voluntary sterilization of adults like a vasectomy or getting your tubes tied, but it has the same result of sterilization.

Hope that makes sense.

[genderqueerdykes]

unfortunately, most intersex people are not told outright that they are intersex, in that verbiage, even by doctors or other medical professionals. most of us have strung together that conclusion through being told our specific conditions if we're lucky, or a piece or part of it such as being told a symptom, or even being told nothing at all. many intersex people undergo surgery at very very young ages and are never informed about it ever in life, and only find out by seeing scars, or never at all.

the only reason i discovered i was intersex was because of how apparent my condition made itself to me. i started growing a full beard during puberty and had some disruptions with my menstrual cycles that were so intense and severe i was having to stay home from school. i was told by the obgyn that i "produced too many androgens, and needed to be placed on estrogen to correct it." that's all they told me. by the way, the estrogen made things far worse for me, and the only thing that actually helped was starting testosterone HRT.

being intersex is for the most part a process of piecing things together. people are very hush hush about it for the most part and don't want to draw attention to it, so you have to be your own detective. you have to be your own advocate.

[uncanny-tranny]

Do you think that terfs will calm down with hating on trans women once womb transplants are a thing? Because their whole argument is that "trans women aren't women because no womb uwu"

No, because that frankly isn't their whole argument. They don't argue against trans women solely because "no womb," and if womb transplants were a viable and safe measure, that would absolutely not be a good argument to calm their grievances - a transphobe doesn't deal in a genuine care for others, it a disgust response.

Transphobes already have issues with trans women getting FFS, vaginas, and hell, they even have issues with trans women being fem (or masc), even if they say, "we're okay with gender nonconformity!" as a cover. Because, again, it is a disgust response that blooms in response to their own transohobia, it isn't about being able to debate them, really.

Additionally, with my experience of dealing with that kind of extreme reactionary transphobe, they don't fucking care if they're wrong. Like, do you know how many times I've talked to a TERF who tells me I only transition because of misogyny, only to then talk in circles once I say, "misogyny against me had only increased since I have transitioned to male, plus, I never faced misogyny before I transitioned," because again, it isn't about the trans people themselves per se, it's about this viseral disgust response. It is them trying to reason with their discomfort with hatred. That isn't going to go away when trans care expands or becomes even more advanced.

I really want to stress how important it is to not whittle their whole argument down to "[trans women*] don't have wombs," because you will end up missing a lot of trans people who are affected by this type of extreme reactionary transphobia.

[notabled-noodle]

fine and good: wanting a mix and match of surgeries and hormones (e.g. breasts and a penis and testosterone or no breasts, no penis, and oestrogen)

not fine, very bad: saying that you want your body to look intersex, wishing you were born intersex etc etc

[theforesteldritch]

Reading about how intersex athletes have been treated is so fucking horrible. The countless lies and human rights violations. The discrimination and how it's ruined the lives of so many people is so awful. There has been no apologies from any athletics comptetions or organizations. They have blood on their hands. Just a tw for intersexism and mental health issues and suicide in the next paragraph because it can get pretty heavy.

Annet Negesa, who was a middle distance runner. She was suddenly barred from competing due to her hormones. No one told her why. She was then told she needed to take medication to lower her testosterone, then what she was told was switched. She was lied to about a surgery that she was told was like an injection and would let her compete again. She woke up with scars and had had a gonadectomy. That violation of basic human rights and medical ethics combined with inadequate postsurgical care basically ended her career. She deserves justice. She deserves apologies from the Olympics and everyone single doctor who was involved in it, and compensation and the promise that it should never have happened and will never happen again. She. Needs. Justice.

Pratima Gaonkar needs justice. She was a rising track and field star. After forced sex verificatiom she killed herself. The way media and news treated her after her death was disgusting. She deserves and needs justice. Her family deserves justice.

Santhi Soundarajan had her medals stripped and was treated as an outcast after forced sex verification showed she had androgen insensitivity syndrome. She was treated as an outcast, her gender was mocked. She's spoken out about how much discrimination she's faced, and how badly she's been treated. She now works as a coach, but was barred from competing. She deserves justice.

Caster Semenya deserves justice. Francine Niyonsaba deserves justice. Margaret Wambui deserves justice. Barbra Banda deserves justice. Beatrice Masilingi and Christine Mboma deserve justice.

The racism and intersexism and horrible human rights violations and medical abuse these women have faced for the supposed crime of being intersex and good at a sport is horrible. They deserve justice, but the organizations that perpetuate these atrocities don't seem to care. It's so fucking horrible.

[mushroomnoodles]

FAQ

this is just for some of the more frequently asked questions. i am gonna try to put things bluntly here to try and minimize any confusion, especially if folks are using a translator. tw for mentions of death and genitalia

is simon/betty trans?

up to you on simon. i don't have a preference. but most of my bettys are AMAB trans women, some have bottom surgery and some don't. of course, i have some personal headcanons on some of them, but again, nothing is "op canon" in that regard.

how did simon give birth to morri?

well, if you hc him as trans, that makes things easier, but either way he just gave birth to morrigan how a regular human being would.

if you hc him as cis, then simon would have been given the full internal AFAB equipment upon impregnation by GOLBetty- uterus, ovaries, etc- with the external equipment coming in courtesy of morrigan around month.. 6-7? that's right, i took his penis priveliges. sorry king.

what gender is morrigan?

morrigan is nonbinary and intersex, and uses any pronouns. morrigan chose to develop into a human body rather than a more cosmic-entity type one as to not scare simon.

does morri have a voiceclaim?

sure does! it's shadow milk cookie from cookie run kingdom! here's a vid.

is GOLBetty alive/did she reincarnate?

i'm aware GOLBetty probably did reincarnate at the end of F+C s1. buuuuut my GOLBetty never unfused. she simply went back to sleep after impregnating simon. if someone's interested in me going into detail about how i interpretate my GOLBetty and how she thinks/functions i'll probably do that.

can GOLBetty-

when/does simon die?

he lives for about 250 years after giving birth to morrigan. the cosmic energy radiating through his body ran out, and he essentially instantly died as his organs stopped working. like someone entered /kill simon_petrikov into the world console. from there he either eventually reincarnates, or morrigan finds some way to replace him or raise him from the dead.

morrigan was the physical age of 13 when simon passed, by the way. the older morrigan gets, the slower they age.

does morri ever meet their mom?

yes, they do. by the time they do meet her, however, GOLBetty is in a deep, deep sleep.

morrigan has a complicated relationship with her, especially as, due to simon's stories of her as a human, they see her in this overglorified light. they also consider GOLBetty to kind of internally be two separate entities- GOLB and betty, rather than a fusion of the two made into something slightly different.

do you do fpreg?

nope. fpreg actually is really uncomfortable for me for some reason lol, like.. INTENSELY uncomfortable. activate fight or flight mode uncomfortable. no idea why, i know it's silly, but i can't interact with it, can't draw it, won't draw it.

[kingcaspian43]

[tw: swearing]

Happy Intersex Awareness Day!!

i made the symbol (that is usually a circle) a heart because you guys are lovely and i added the patterns because you guys are cool :D

sorry this is a simple design, it was on very short notice. like here i was shitposting about femboys and my non existent boyfriend and it’s intersex awareness day? i need to add it to my calendar so i have a warning next time!

fr tho to any intersex people reading this i love you <3

but on a more serious note:

i know someone’s probably thought of this before, but isn’t it funny how TERFS talk about “genital mutilation on children” (even though trans people who get gender affirming surgeries are full grown adults) and then don’t give a fuck about surgeries preformed on intersex babies, without their consent, that genuinely harm them?

wait it’s not funny it’s fucking sad.

[intersex-questions]

tw// IGM

Hey, I have a question. Is IGM only done to babies, or can they be done after the child has gotten older?

Also, is it possible for IGM to happen(as a baby) but not be put on their medical book? Like the doctor does the surgery, then writes down that their genitals are male/female.

IGM (intersex genital mutilation) absolutely can and does happen to individuals older than babies. It happens to children, teenagers, and adults. Many individuals undergo "corrective" surgery to their genitalia under the guise of being told it is medically necessary, they'll be infertile otherwise, they can't have sex otherwise, and more.

And yes, that is possible. Although it shouldn't happen, doctors absolutely can and do medical procedures or similar things without listing them or being explicit about what they are. This is medical malpractice, but it does happen. And, often when things like IGM do happen to babies, they don't share the real/true/actual reason behind the mutilation/surgery and instead say it is medically necessary.

[intersex-support]

Hope this isn’t too NSFW and I’ll be blunt about it but if an intersex person had their dick removed as a baby and then go on testosterone will they grow a T dick? (Asking as a possibly intersex trans masc person who possibly had their dick removed as a baby)

content note: discussion of genitalia, surgery, medical language

Hey anon,

So unfortunately, I don't think we know the answer to this question, and this is something that is likely going to be different for every intersex person who's gone through surgery. It will probably vary a lot depending on what your specific variation is and what surgery techniques were used. There are several different types of "clitoral reduction surgeries" that use different techniques, and there's a difference between recession clitoroplasty and clitoroplasty with reduction, for example, in terms of how nerves are preserved or not. This article talks about how people with CAH who underwent an incomplete clitoral recession then later had clitoral growth due to testosterone at puberty, so it certainly seems possible that even some people with CAH who survived surgery, could potentially experience growth on T. (TW for cissexist language, intersexism, and photos of surgeries in that article).

Long story short: it's something that is in theory possible, but would depend a lot on what your intersex variation is, what surgeries you've been through, and some other factors. That might be something you would need to talk to endocrinologist about while you were getting hormones prescribed to better understand your specific case.

Best wishes, anon, and feel free to reach out if you have any other questions or need support.

💜💜💜

[acorpsecalledcorva]

Lmfao, so for whatever reason I decided to look at the DID tags on twitter, probably as a form of digital SH and the first post I see on there annoys the fuck out of me

TW for discussion of self harm and self injury

Ok so first thing I see is this

And this is definitely a touchy subject subject for me, I get hyper critical when I see it discussed, especially since some early conversations with my therapist. Even before that discussion though I've always hated the way self harm is discussed even if I couldn't articulate those feelings.

And that's because abstinence as a moral imperative might be the most damaging ideology to ever worm it's way into society.

I mean, even the title of that article "First, Do No Harm, Not Even to Yourself" is soaked in moral judgement, "hurting other people is wrong and bad, right? So why would do a wrong and bad thing to yourself? You wouldn't download a razor blade" and it doesn't even make a proper argument on the moral philosophy of harm, she merely attempts to imply immorality by association. Hurting others is wrong because it violates their autonomy, your liberty to swing your arm ends just where my nose begins, right? It's about consent. In BDSM, a sadist may physically hurt a masochist because they have consented to it being done to them. Similarly, gender affirming care doesn't violate the Hippocratic Oath no matter how strongly a transphobe feels about it because informed consent is given to the treatment. Conversely, genial reconstruction surgeries performed on intersex babies or even infant circumsions should be considered a violation because consent has not and cannot be given.

But how does this apply to self-harm? It's your body, it's your autonomy, you aren't violating shit. Even being in a system no single alter has complete authority over the body, it's still possible to come to a consensus without unanimous agreement because guess what? Making decisions while having conflictual feelings or being in two minds is a perfectly normal human experience.

Am I saying you should self harm? No. Of course not. I'm simply saying that self harm is not an immoral act and I will remove the personhood of anyone that tries to weaponise shame in this way against people who almost certainly feel an incredibly painful and torturous amount of shame and guilt already.

The article is also vaccuously lacking in substance. The author seems to think this 'gotcha' is a sufficient argument but itself, checkmate traumatised liberals, but obviously needs to generate ad revenue through scrolling so offers 8 "new realities" to help reinforce a morally pure and healthy mindset.

1. Feelings are survivable and containable

Uhhh sure, they can be, if you have the right coping mechanisms to deal with them. You can't just tell someone to forgo the coping mechanisms they already have without successfully replacing them with something equally or more effective though. The whole point of dissociation from trauma is because certain feelings ARE deemed to be unsurvivable by the brain, you're not weak minded for thinking so.

2. We have art, reading, distractions, therapist, meds

Yeah no shit, that's not always enough though and you haven't failed if you try them and they don't work, the coping mechanisms have failed, not you.

3. We deserve to feel better

So true! Self harming makes me feel better when emotional distress is overwhelming me, I'm glad we agree

4. We don't need to guarantee pain

You know what guarantees pain? Shaming yourself out of using a coping mechanism without addressing it's root cause, but that's ok because feelings are "survivable" right?

5. We don't have to hurt via self-abuse

I actually don't know what that's supposed to mean, I can hurt myself without hurting myself? I don't have to self harm? I know I don't have to, but I can if it's better to do so than to not

6. Our trauma is over, why continue it?

First of all fuck you, retraumatisation is a very well noted trauma response, but so is shame and guilt so who's really continuing our trauma here?

7. We don't have to stand vigil over pain to honour abused parts

EXACTLY! That's what coping mechanisms are for, hey guess what coping mechanism can be really effective at temporarily relieving emotional pain? I'll give you a hint, it's not reading.

8. We will honour our abused parts with self compassion, understanding, acceptance, and encouragement

Once again so true! I will be compassionate to abused parts, understanding and accepting of the coping mechanisms they choose, while encouraging exploration of healthy alternatives without shaming them if they don't work.

Her website is littered with BuzzFeed style listicles of "25 ways to avoid self injury and prevent self harm" "25 more ways to avoid self injury and prevent self harm" "another 25 even more ways to avoid self injury and prevent self harm" and like, sure, they're all perfectly fine distraction techniques but what really pisses me off about the wording of these is that they're framed as ways to distract yourself from the urge to self harm, as though the urge itself is what's wrong, and not the pain and hurt that the urge is a response to.

Just watch one more movie bro, trust me bro, this next one will be the one that makes the pain go away bro just trust me one more movie bro.

I have wasted so much fucking time hating myself and shaming myself and feeling like a failure for breaking my streak. Torturing myself during some of the most emotionally distraught moments of my life because "it doesn't matter how much pain I'm in I can't give into the urge, I can't do that, no matter what I mustn't ever do that" imagining how much worse I'll feel when I punish myself for being too weak.

Do you know what I do now? I take note of the feeling, give it space and allow it to be present and I make a bargain with myself. I will give myself 2 hours to distract and soothe from the emotional pain that I or another part is experiencing, and if that doesn't work then we'll self harm with no shame or judgement. And you'll never guess what, I haven't even come close to self harming, and that's great! And maybe sometime it won't be enough and that'll be fine too, it'll just mean I really needed to. The parts that want to self harm feel respected and listened to, my hurt and abused parts feel seen because I'm paying attention to them and not fighting with the self harm part and we all get to move through the experience with grace.

8. We will honour our abused parts with self compassion, understanding, acceptance, and encouragement

Fucking damn right I will, in every way I can.

So yeah, that was my first 5 seconds on DID twitter how was your day?

[adaginy]

[Prompt+part 1] [Part 5]

Part 6 (tw: ableism [mostly by aliens], oversimplification of human sex/gender, brief references to "historical" racism/transphobia/assholeness-to-intersex-kids, reference to "present" enbyphobia.) --- Jana was kicked back, feet on eir desk, reading about Peprine evolution and biology. Shit was WILD, like if octopuses had bones between the hydrostatic squishiness. Bones-ish. And the bones weren't connected to eachother. Peprine leaned against each other as comfort/affection, if they were showing affection, but hugging was right out -- maybe this was why.

Jana had met plenty of alien species by now, and was pretty good at not being openly fascinated by them. Most followed a pretty similar pattern -- bi/tri/quadrilateral symmetry, one or two organs that did the thinking, at least one sense that responded to light/radiation and one for at least some range of sound -- but there was still so much variation, even before meeting ones that broke the "rules". Ey'd never be able to research all the species, but for friends (and now family) it was worth the time.

The door to eir quarters opened and closed, accompanied by a noise unfortunately similar to a dog about to reject its dinner. Kiddo was home early, shaking its head to clear the dark blue liquid seeping down its ears. "Oh no, hon, what's wrong?" Jana grabbed a towel and knelt, and Kiddo flopped against em. "I went to an electrics class today and it was supposed to just be class but they brought out some pieces for us to practice assembling which I CAN'T and so the teacher said I could go home early if wanted because his tablet said my Elder was home and then Binn commented about you being human, that I wasn't supposed to have an Elder, I was supposed to be left behind--" Ohhhh ey was going to going to get that brat in such deep doodoo. "--And it's right, because I can barely feed myself so I'm so small and --" Jana put eir hand over its mouth, gently. "Binn is not right. Binn is wrong. I'd get in a lot of trouble for saying this, but all the Peprine are wrong, okay? There is NO reason to leave you behind. Your problems are easy to fix and for humans, on Earth, it would be a crime to just, just, to not-fix them like that." Ey patted its back carefully, not wanting it to think ey was going for a hug. "There are some things I want to show you, alright? I want you to understand that this isn't a problem." Ey took eir glasses off. "Look through these. Does everything look weird? I don't know how your eyes work, if it's the same enough." Kiddo barely held them up to its face before getting that melty nauseated look. "Why do you wear distortion goggles?" Jana took them back, blinking as ey put them on. "My eyes are wrong in the other direction. Things that other humans can see far away, I can't. But when I put these on, how wrong they are cancels out how wrong my eyes are. And we've been doing this for a thousand years -- way before we got to space. Before we even knew that planets go around stars. It's so easy! We can do it for babies who don't even know that their eyes are wrong, a medic can look in their eyes and make these for them." "You have to wear those forever, though? What about your children, in the future? "Some of it's genetic, some of it's not. It's really common. It doesn't matter if I pass it on to children, because they can also wear glasses. And I don't haaaave to wear them forever. If I wanted to, I could get surgery to fix the shape of my eyes. But I don't because, again, these are so easy." Ey took Kiddo's two-fingered hand. "This happens with humans sometimes too. I don't know about Peprine, but for humans it's not genetic at all. It's just bad luck. And even if it was genetic, we've been fixing this for hundreds of years too, or at least making it less-broken. Look." Ey reached up to their desk for their tablet and showed it a drawing of a pirate. "You see there?" "He's holding a hook?" It had re-flopped and was now nearly snuggling against Jana. "Well, he's not holding it. He doesn't have a hand -- this is from human violence time, it was lost to injury -- so the hook is on a cup and the cup is tied or suctioned on to the stump where his hand used to be. It's not as good as a hand, but it could open the old-fashioned doors of the time, hold things down, pick certain things up, pick up a bite of food. It was a lot better than nothing. And this was almost a thousand years ago, too. None of the human tribes had explored the whole planet yet. And it wasn't long before people made stump-cups where you could take the hook out and replace it with a food-utensil or a pen, a writing utensil. Or ones with fake hands just for looks. By the time we were going to our own moon, we had ones people could open and close for more picking-up, and then ones that could do this with fake fingers," Jana opened and closed eir fingers stiffly, "and now we have ones that can do everything a hand can do and even send feelings back to the wearer. It just has to be taken off and charged after a while. Your people have been in space longer than ours and can't be arsed to give kids fake hands? That's ridiculous."

"... Yeah, but..." "No 'yeah but.'" "But I'm... we aren't supposed to be this way. It's not just Binn. Everyone says." Twisting ears. Jana sighed, knowing. "'Everyone' as in all the Peprine you grew up with? The ones here, too?" "Well, except Binn, not since I got here. But when you adopted me, and they were telling you to leave me. She called me a castoff." It flinched even repeating it. "I guess that's a really mean word in Peprine, isn't it?" "The meanest. Binn said it too." Ey was going to have so many words with Uvair about the language she was teaching her fucking brat. Kiddo scooted away. "You're getting really hot, doesn't that mean you're sick?" Kiddo had been taking a lot of the dealing-with-humans classes, which Jana was usually happy existed. "N- Y-- It can mean that. I'm not sick." Ey took a deep breath. "Human rage." Bitter, personal. "Not at you. At Binn. At Uvair. I can control it, though." Clenching and unclenching fists. "I need to stand up for a bit, though." Kiddo scooted off; it had heard enough about human rage in those classes. Jana futzed with eir water line, overriding a safety setting, until it gave nearly-boiling water. Ey pulled out a box of tea from a storage compartment. It was an herbal de-stressy tea eir mom liked, and she always sent it in care packages despite Jana insisting space wasn't actually that stressful. Ey started it steeping and sent a note to Mom to say the introduction call was going to be delayed. Sugar. No milk. Mug in hand, Jana sat on the floor again, leaning against eir bed. "Okay. You can sit with me again, or lean if you want, just be careful, I don't want to spill this on you. Or grab a pillow if you want to sit on that. ... I have human facts to tell you about." Jana took a deep breath in preparation and sighed it out as Kiddo sat on its cushion. "This is starting out disconnected but I promise it gets there, okay? So. Humans... Hm. Peprine all have a pretty similar ... they have similar breeding abilities. All partners give genetic material, all partners receive genetic material, all partners make a baby Peprine. And humans aren't like that. Half-ish of humans, males, breed by giving genetic material; half-ish of humans, females, breed by taking that material and combining it with their own and making the baby. Or they could, if they wanted to, they're the right age, all that stuff." That was almost certainly covered in intro classes, but Kiddo might not have gotten to the more advanced stuff yet. "And sometimes someone isn't male or female -- complicated human body stuff, humans used to get really up in arms about it, even operate on babies and little kids without telling them it was to make them look more male/female or waiting to see what they wanted, but now we understand that it's normal and we shouldn't freak out."

Jana paused, considering eir words again. "There's a second concept, boy or girl, that's sortof... how you feel about being male or female. For most people, they're fine with it. Male boys, female girls, it's so common that people will use the words interchangeably, they'll assume if you're male you're a boy, vice versa, same for female girls. Sometimes, though, a female will realize they're a boy, or a male a girl, and so they'll live like the other thing, maybe get surgery or adjust their body chemicals so they can really become the other thing, the one they're supposed to be. And humans used to get REALLY LOUDLY up in arms about that, or even violent to people who wanted to change over, but now we accept that too." Jana's fingers drummed on the side of eir mug. "Humans have always been like that, I guess. We used to get really angry about people having different skin colors, or being from different tribes or territories, just... so many stupid reasons to hate other people. And there were disabilities that humans were shitty about, too, like not having any sense of sound, until we learned better, learned handspeak or how to replace the sound-sense, learned to accommodate other disabilities. No-one hates other humans about those things now. But sometimes it took decades or centuries for us to learn better, and some things people haven't learned very well." "Like this. Sometimes, someone will be male or female, but they won't feel like a boy OR a girl. Just neither, or both, or fluctuating between. And that's still something humans argue about, whether that's okay and normal like being born in-between male or female, or whether 'we aren't supposed to be this way'. But that's me." Ey shrugged, draining eir tea. "I'm not a boy or a girl. That's why I came to space -- after meeting aliens who are all one sex, who have no gender, who have 3 genders or 8 sexes or so on, most humans get over it. But back on Earth, or in long-time all-human settlements... That's also why I don't talk to my father, my male parent. My female parent broke up their TAOL unit because she refused to be with someone who was so mean to me. He told me to choose, to stop being a freak, 'we aren't supposed to be this way'." Woof. Ey didn't talk about it a lot. Didn't have a reason to, but also just didn't. "So. Listen." Ey put the mug down. "The best way to respond to someone saying that there's something wrong about the way you are, the way you were born, is to tell them to -- in a lot of human languages it's something like 'go fuck themselves,' it's much ruder than it probably translates. Or to tell them to their face that you hope they die in specific horrible ways, but that might be a human thing. You don't listen to them. You prove that you are supposed to be that way. You live a happy and successful life and watch them get angry that you're thriving while doing something they think you shouldn't do."

Ey learned forward, putting one hand on Kiddo's shoulder and taking the towel with the other, wiping up the 'tears' newly coming from its ears. "That's what you're gonna do, okay? What we're gonna make sure you do. You're gonna get big, get giant even, strong, smart. An expert electrics-worker, if that's what you want. A fake hand that's cooler than a real one, if you want. Living your best life. Everyone who has ever called you that word is gonna wish they were even half as awesome as you are. Okay?"

"Okay," Kiddo answered, warbling more than usual. "I don't know if I want to try to work in electrics though, if it takes a fake hand." "That's your choice." The human hug instinct was hard to suppress here. "But, if you don't want a fake hand -- I miiight have found another option. Maybe. We'd have to check with the medics. Did you know that in my mouth, I have a muscle that works a lot like yours do? No hard part inside, but squishy and fluid-moving." Ey stuck out eir tongue. "... I don't want a human mouth muscle instead of fingers, either." "Ha! No, you can't have it anyway, we need it. But check this out: Humans like to mess with their bodies, even when we don't have to. Have you covered piercing or tattoos in class?" "Yes...?" Human conversation habits were so strange. "Some people do more complicated things. And one thing -- not very common, I doubt there's any on board, let me pull up this holovid--" The projection showed a woman laughing, sticking out her tongue, waggling the left piece, then the right. "See, it's supposed to be one piece. Some humans get them surgically divided because they think it looks cool, and because then they can do that. And I wonder if -- we would talk to the medics, I promise, this is not a time for humans' experimenting habit -- if the end of your arm could be divided along the muscle lines to give you nubbins. Let you pick stuff up, at least." "Oh... Huh." It tensed and un-tensed the squashy "palm" of its fingerless hand. And then the hand with the 2 fingers. Non-emergency surgery was an almost entirely human idea, but... well... maybe?

[Part 7]

[mogai-reblog]

(tw genocide and intersexism)

i think more perisex ppl should know and understand that there has been a genocide going on far far longer than the past few years. For decades, no, over a century

on intersex ppl

Genocide is the intentional destruction of a group of people. This can include killing members of the group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group, preventing births, and forcibly transferring children out of the group. All bc of their real or perceived membership of the group.

All of these, except for the last one, happen to intersex ppl in some way.

We are subjected to abandonment, neglect, infanticide and murder due to being intersex. We face genetic de-selection along with sterilization. We also, as a lot of people know, are usually mutilated, SAd as newborns, and receive involuntary and coercive treatment. We are treated like we're inherently disordered if our intersex aren't taken away, purposely making parents afraid and accept whatever abusive treatment and surgery the doctor suggests. We do not get body autonomy. Many of us purposely avoid care for fear of medical discrimination and due to medicalization and few receive adequate care, as many lack understanding about our bodies and examinations that may cause physical harm. Then ofc all the hate crimes, including the idea that a conbination of "male and female brains" (which obviously dont exist) would produce a sex criminal. 60% of intersex ppl have thoughts about suicide, 42% have thoughts about self-harm, and 19% had attempted suicide on the basis of intersex discrimination. We are not taught about our own bodies then shamed for not knowing. In 2013, four elite woman athletes were subjected to sterilization and genital mutilation after testosterone testing revealed they were intersex.

Even within the queer community, we are only used as human shields against people who want us all dead and by Perisex trans people admitting that they lie to people who want us dead that they're just like us for the false hope that they'll love them. That they're the exception.

But of course, we were never really human, right? We're all just a bunch of freaks.

[oh-nowo-i-got-uwu]

I know that pride month is over, but not my mind.

The probability of these characters being ftm. tw (mostly in Riddle's part) transphobia, internalized transphobia.

You've been warned.

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Riddle -in short, No. Riddle's mother is a Bitch, and I doubt that she would accept that her "daughter" is actually her son. She might accept outside, but would give Riddle internalized transphobia. Constantly misgendering him and using the term "biology speaking" at him, telling him that it's a phase or something.

Trey -he gives me straight, cis ally vibes, but, the possibility is that of 50 or slightly more %. If anything he's a straight trans masc. His family might be a bit confused, but they got the spirit.

Cater -highest probability of anyone else in Heartstybul. Started in his first year of NRC. Even if he does wear feminine clothing, he's still masc and no one can tell him otherwise.

Ace -same with Trey, but with a slightly higher chance. His brother has absolutely told his parents what transgender means before him.

Deuce -the second most probability, his mom and grandma support him wholeheartedly.

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Leona -in all honesty, a low maybe. Im wondering if I'll have to be comparing all their behaviors to the animal counterpart. He probably started Testosterone in like, in the middle of his third year of middle school. His brother and his wife celebrate his coming out every year, even when he's gone. They call him to celebrate, Cheka never understood why but, doesn't care.

Ruggie -high key? Highest of Savanaclaw. His grandma supports him in anything and everything. Even when they were tight on money, she still payed for his treatments.

Jack -he's like Trey, low probability. Like, I can see him supporting transpeople by encouraging them to work out. Giving them work out advice. And if he is trans, he probably started in mid-to-late middle school.

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Azul -tbh all of the octotrio could be. Like it'll depend on his merforms and how he compares to his mother. Cause I'm pretty sure that female octopuses are gendered by size, like many other fish.

Jade & Floyd -doesn't know what fucking gender even is. Doesn't care either. The only probability is how high is their murder count.

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Kalim -another low probability, but will support anyone who is. If you tell him you want to start T, he'll pay for it. Want top-surgery? Bottom-surgery? Boom. Paid for.

Jamil -like a 0.5% more than Kalim, but, doesn't care for your problems. He'll take care of you if you ever get top-surgery, by like giving you food and medicine for your recovery.

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Vil -y'all know this bitch has the highest probability. He doesn't hide it, nor does he want to. He is the second most queerest person in NRC. Hears or sees anything transphobic in a 100meter radius will get annihilated immediately.

Rook -first most queer out of all NRC, would you be surprised? I wouldn't. Hunts down any homophobic and transphobic comments. Can and will fistfight anyone who misgenders.

Epel -yes, most toxic masculine trans man you've ever meet. Will start T soon, just needs grandma's permission. Grandma supports her litte cinnamon apple fritter until the end of time.

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Idia -stinky gamer transperson™️. His parents were very proud when he came out in his third year of middle school. Took the 'Am I Gay?' quizes that give you any lgbtqia+ results.

Othro -he is robot, does not have gender.

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Malleus -I personally believe that all full fae are intersex and therefore have no gender roles. Mfer didn't know what gender was until NRC.

Lilia -doesn't give two shits about it. Mans OLD, and A FAE. Didn't know what gender is. The first time he encountered it was in war. A human soldier commented how a 'woman' shouldn't be on the battlefield to Lilia, then go gutted by Lilia.

Silver -didn't grow up with that concept. Everyone serves the royal family in Briar Valley. Like Malleus, encountered it in his first year over NRC.

Sebek -vaguely grew up with the concept because of his paternal grandparents. Didn't understand and never will. His father was so proud of him when he came out and threw him a party.

[butchbarbieagainstterfs]

also it should go without saying but I'm very pro hrt, with all the given instructions. nothing is without a risk and the benefits of hrt outweigh the risks by a lot. hrt is also completely reversible or almost so, you just need to... stop taking hormones and the effects will just naturally reverse, depending on how much you've taken them for it can take longer but it will eventually. it's one of the safest medical procedures we have now.

(tw death mention here)

for example, the antipsychotics I take have a side effect of "death". just that. sudden death. people aren't forming a cult who's only vocation is to take away antipsychotics to people who need them tho?

^^^^^^^^

Yeah, like hormones and surgery absolutely have risks but so does anything medical. But the person is fine more often than not, it’s just a thing for doctors to keep an eye on.

Trans people, especially trans kids, regularly have to see doctors to check for these things (as do I as an intersex person) so anything bad happening can potentially be caught early.

[burning-thistles-bt]

tw: mentions of real animal death

cw: descriptions of animal genitalia

I have only ever (knowingly) dealt with two intersex animals at the shelters I've worked at so I tend to base any of my intersex animal characters (ex.: Airleap) on them and...

one of them just died :(...

the first one was from a while back, a little gray and white kitten who had mutated genitals that caused his penis to be "at an angle" so to speak. one of his testicles were missing and he lacked any urethra so we had to cut a hole for him. previously he had issues urinating (obviously), but now he's a perfectly happy kitty who, as far as we last know, was adopted out happily with no issues save for minor leaking sometimes

the other was very recent, a black lab adult pup who came to us and was misgendered as a female at first, but then was discovered to have not only an underdeveloped penis and testicles but also a uterus. everything seemed fine with them until this morning their spay incision burst, which was awful in of itself, but then it was realized that urine was spilling into the uterus, especially during heat cycles, and that infection had been building for their entire life. it was so severe that they had to be euthanized for quality of life concerns (the infections would be constant; there was little to no way they could be prevented without extensive, expensive surgery that the shelter can't cover).

I'm no stranger to animal deaths, working in a shelter environment, and I don't normally talk about them like this, but I felt it was... important to mention, because, at least in my fandom circles, I have seen a lot more of a push for intersex characters and talking about intersex people in general. But I feel like what is often neglected is that it's not just another "queer label." It's not like being gay or lesbian; those are neurological, mental, emotional---they're labels to define your sexual or romantic attraction. Being intersex is physical. While it's identity is apart of the LGBTQIA+ community, I feel like it is distinctly different in a way I just can't find the words to describe, nor do I feel I have any authority as a cisgendered person to claim, but...

It's not just a label. It's what they are. It's what they deal with.

As far as I have come to understand, intersex is a wide spectrum, with things as minor as---for a cat example---XXY chromosomes classifying as intersex, because, on a biological stance, they are technically portraying both male and female characteristics, even if the only physical female characteristic is the tortoiseshell patterning, and the rest of their body and genitals follow male characteristics. For a human example, I have seen some say that cis females able to grow a beard can classify as intersex, as they are presenting stereotypically physical male characteristics. But on the farther side---and what I think some people often claim "all real" intersex people are---there are hermaphrodites with both male and female sex organs. And then there are those in-between, with underdeveloped female or male organs, or some combination of what's previously been stated. There are many varieties to intersex.

But I think that's as far as people ever think about it. Being intersex is natural, and being intersex isn't wrong, but I don't think people ever want to talk about or acknowledge the medical side to being intersex.

And I did too. Even though I knew (or was told) sometimes "there were complications" and "well sometimes doctors will stitch vaginas so that the baby presents as only male which can lead to issues later on," I didn't really absorb that there are real medical concerns that can come with being intersex.

Not for every intersex person. But for those like Nova the dog? ...There certainly can be. I remember thinking, briefly, after I had suspected and then it was confirmed that Nova was intersex, "I wonder if she'll have any urination issues like Roman (the cat) did?" Before I dismissed it because "no, no, she looks and acts perfectly fine, so therefore she's fine. And even if she does, Roman was fine, so she'll be fine too." And while I certainly couldn't have changed Nova's fate considering how bad the infection was already, I wish I had said something and brought it to earlier attention.

I'm not sure if there's any lesson to this but...

I want to encourage intersex positivity. But I also want to encourage talk about all aspects of it, rather than just as a "label" people use. I'm no expert on it, and my experiences with beings who are intersex only lie with animals not people, but I thought it was worth saying something on what I have experienced, because it's real. Being intersex is real.