On intersex erasure and genital "mutilation"

[la_vie_noire]

Kynn very well points on the cisprivilege that is going on with this outrage over "genital mutilation". TRIGGER WARNING: POST TALKS ABOUT GENITAL RECONSTRUCTIVE SURGERY.

It's really an intersex issue that everyone is choosing to forget.

Here is a wonderful anonymous comment that points a lot of the issues here and everybody who is not an intersex person should read. Because as informative and useful lizardspots's post is with all the mess that this has become, it also reeks of cis privilege:

Children should be allowed to decide for themselves if they want genital reconstructive surgery, and which gender identity they wish to align themselves with. While doctors may be right in some cases, in a large number they are not, particularly because they decide the child's gender identity largely based on the size of the cliterophallus. Most cases have nothing to do with the chromosomes of the child and everything to do with the heterocentric notion that the child, if allowed to be 'male' will have an unhealthy sexual life because his penis will not be able to pleasure a woman because it is too small.

It is far, far more traumatizing to be given a gender identity you do not want and to have your genitals hacked apart before you are really cognizant of them as an adult. Many, many intersexed could have had much happier lives with genitals closer to those that they really wanted, and happier childhoods without the pressure to conform to an applied gender identity that did not fit them. This also touches on transphobia, because many people cannot deal with the idea that a child should be free to choose what gender they ascribe to. Contrary to what may be a common belief, if a child is given guidance about the nature of their genitals, they'll deal with it pretty well. Children are really more flexible and strong than most people given them credit for.

Also people? Terms like "normal" and "anormal" aren't neccesarily "neutral," "right" or devoid of any demeaning/discriminating connotation just because they are used regularly in medicine. God knows that in this context, with intersex issues, they are definitely not that.

Something about scientists: most of them are privileged people who don't live completely dissociated from their environment.

Comments

[spiralsheep]

Thank you for this post. I was rly upset by the erasure of intersex people in many of the posts discussing this issue.

[vi]

Thank you for linking this; I'm listening and learning.

[jlarinda.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm so the issue is not with how wrong the study/procedure is, but with why people're getting outraged?

[la-vie-noire.livejournal.com]

Have you read the links? It's a procedure that is mainly done on intersex people.

The problem here is the actual erasure of the people who get this procedure on. 1)The facts that a lot of people talked about are completely wrong, 2) It's not okay for cis people to get outraged without even knowing what is actually happening to intersex people. Heck, most of them aren't even mentioning them and knowing why these procedures are done.

The experiences of itersex people are always erased, regardless of what cis people feel about this, they aren't the ones getting this procedure. Privilege.

[jlarinda.livejournal.com]

Commented just as you did D: ;; I did read everything now, yeah I get it.

[la-vie-noire.livejournal.com]

Ah, it's okay.

[jlarinda.livejournal.com]

Mind if I link to this instead?

[la-vie-noire.livejournal.com]

You can link Kynn's post, she puts it a lot better.

[jlarinda.livejournal.com]

'Kay, will do.

And thanks for linking it in the first place.

[la-vie-noire.livejournal.com]

No problem really, on the contrary.

[jlarinda.livejournal.com]

W-well, posted a new entry, hopefully it's fine :|;;

[la-vie-noire.livejournal.com]

It's fine, I'm glad you posted it.

[jlarinda.livejournal.com]

Oh sob nevermind, I missed that there're two links where you say "it reeks of cis privilege" and I now read those comments and fdjskgj yes orz

[bell]

Thanks you. I was reading the comments to some of the posts (and GOD some people were DEFENDING the procedure) and it wasn't until intersex people were mentioned did I realize the cisprivilege going on, including my own framing/understanding of the problem, for which I am sorry. I've corrected the language in my post and linked to this one.

[bell]

Also, I am reading the discussion in lizardspot's posts, and the defense of offensive medical language ("normal," "true," etc) is annoying me. Perhaps these terms have specific meanings in medicine, but they also carry the pejorative connotations from other uses of the same word-- and I wouldn't be surprised if the medical terms either came from or influenced the pejorative language. Given that doctors have so much control over a person, and given that doctors can carry harmful notions just as much as anyone else (thinking, for example, that a child must fit binary sex standards), I do think it's important to be as careful as possible with medical terminology.

[voz-latina.livejournal.com]

jaysus h fucking christ on a popsicle stick. I am so glad I missed this shit.

I have no fucking words beyond being grateful there were folks here to fight for what is right. Thank you.

[la-vie-noire.livejournal.com]

*hugs* I'm glad you missed it.

[secondsilk.livejournal.com]

I heard that this was happening and I was appalled and kind of disgusted, but I also didn't quite believe it, it was unfathomable. To learn that the procedure is about "normalising" the genitals of children with intersex conditions made such horrific sense. I want to smash things, now.