In a time where gender and sexuality are being explored and questioned more than any time period in history, the biological anatomy of intersex is talked about more. Intersex is when a person is born either with ambiguous genitalia or chromosomes other than XX or XY. Doctors cannot tell if the newborn is female or male.
It is evident to some people, now, that gender is not binary. It is more than male and female. Gender lies on a spectrum and gender expression, biological sex, sexual orientation and gender identity are not mutually exclusive.
However, people still view sex as binary. This is why intersex children are often made to fit into either the male or female sex category.
In the mid 1960s, Bruce Reimer was born with a “damaged” penis. Psychologist and sexologist Dr. John William Money encouraged Reimer’s parents to raise him as a girl because he couldn’t have the ideal genitalia of a male. With the consent of his parents, Reimer had a surgery has an infant to construct female genitals and was given hormones throughout his adolescence to have feminine characteristics.
The case of Reimer became what Money called the John/Joan case. Reimer unknowingly became Money’s social experiment and the results of the experiment were used to justify sex reassignment surgeries in children born intersex.
Reimer’s identity did not correspond with his gender expression, and at the age of eight, Reimer began living as a male. Reimer lived a traumatic life due to the reassignment surgery that tampered with his identity as a newborn and lead to depression and death by suicide.
Money’s theory to justify sex reassignment surgeries is that if a newborn is given a sex and raised according to that sex, they will grow to be heterosexual and have no identity issues.
Although Reimer’s case does not support Money’s theory, the theory is still used in medical institutions. Doctors sometimes do not inform parents of the reality when their newborn’s body is intersex. Instead, they express to the parents that their newborn has a deformity that can be fixed through surgery.
Parents who are uneducated give consent to have the genitalia of their newborns tampered with because it is suggested and encouraged by doctors to “normalize” the child, which often leads to more surgeries along the way and/or mental health issues.
Medical institutions need to continuously upgrade their philosophies and procedures as concepts progress. Doctors should be doing research on how tampering with newborn genitalia is unethical and dangerous for the sake of the child.
Intersex is not a deformity; it is just a rare anatomy of genitalia.
Intersex should be taught in educational institutions so that once those students become parents, it is not a surprise to find out that their child can be intersex. It is crucial and essential for people to talk about these concepts.
In reality, it is not an issue to be born intersex. The response to those who are intersex is where the issue lies.
Understanding gender and sexuality is another great way to be able to understand how being intersex affects the gender and sexuality of a person. People need to start educating themselves and others more on the human body and the multiple ways it can exist.
Learn more about sex and intersex individuals on RethinkingGender.com.
