The Pros And Cons Of Intersex People

Many misconceptions about Intersex people originate from a lack of knowing the definition. Intersexual is defined as “A child with gonads (testes or ovaries) of one sex, but ambiguous external genitalia. May also be referred to as a disorder of sexual development”(Carroll, 2010). This definition can lead to confusion as well. Intersex people posses both female and male genitalia, but it ambiguous, not two fully formed genitalia. The picture from the textbook of intersexual people help to show how the ambiguous parts aren’t actually odd looking. It just doesn’t look a definite penis or vagina. The journal of Pediatric Urology however does a good job defining intersexual, when explaining what term to use when referring to intersexual people: “The term Disorders of Sex Development (DSD) is proposed, as defined by congenital conditions in which development of chromosomal, gonadal or anatomical sex it atypical”(Hughes, Houk, Ahmed, Lee, 2006). This definition explain how it biological and why people are

born intersex. Often times, movies and folklore writing portray intersex people as freaks of nature or super unnatural. In addition, the derogatory term like hermaphrodite that pop culture has used to define intersexual people creates a barrier between intersexual people and those who aren’t. Being intersexual does not change one’s personality or identity; therefore, they shouldn’t have this pre-established barrier hindering them from assimilating into culture. Which emphasizes the stereotypes that add to the misconception of what exactly intersexual means. People are scared of the unknown and the myths heighten all of the fears people have about intersex people. With knowledge comes understanding and with understanding comes acceptance.
We began our discussion with how exactly the gender of the child is determined. Do the doctors determine a child’s sex? Do the parents determine a child’s sex? Does the genitalia determine a child’s sex? All these questions of who determines the gender of the child lack the input of the actual child. However, I will focus on who has input first.
To begin, doctors have a huge influence of what the parents do. Often times, parents are ignorant to the situation and trust the advice of health professional. However health professionals are following set system. Often times, due to the ambiguity and easiness of creating a vagina, intersex children are default to female: “female sex was assigned to 54 of the children and male sex to 5”(Slijper, Drop, 1998). This is because the internal organs matched female while the external was ambiguous, but I would also say this is due to the fact making a hole is easier than creating a fully functioning penis. Complications could happen hinder the normal growth of the penis, while the vagina is much more internal and easier to hind defective aspects. However, these doctors that are making these gender decisions and advising parents have their own bias. Doctors are people too, their word can be taken as advice, but when it comes to controversial issues it’s best to research.
The next group that puts input on the child’s identity is the parents. Parents want to protect their children from any struggle in life they can. Although I do not agree with the parent decisions, I understand why they would make feel the need to make extreme decisions. However, by doing so, it make it seem as though the child is broken and needs to be fix as if it’s unnatural which creates shame: “There’s also a shared experience of shame, secrecy and disconnection borne of being treated like a physical mistake”(Kinsman, 2014). So by parents thinking they are limiting the child’s emotional struggles, they are creating an entire new set of struggles—a paradox.
Lastly, and last to be thought about is the child who actually has DSD.

Often times sex assignment surgery is done at an age too young for the child to determine his or her gender. However, according to journal archives of sexual behavior, many children have the sex assignment surgery before they reach one year old (Slijper, Drop, 1998). Most surgeries occur at four months and six months in order to watch how the clitoris forms. My group and I discussed how if they wait a year, they might as well wait until the child is three or four and can actually determine the his or her own gender. The biggest concern I predicted would be explaining to caregivers, who change the child’s diapers, the child is intersexual and what that entails. After one year old, the child is potty trained, so others will not sea the child’s genitalia. So why not wait, the change wasn’t initial, so what does an extra few month or years mean? This allows the child to have agency over his or her

body.
Despite who feels they have the knowledge to choose a child’s gender, gender is defined internally. Gender is a deep feeling of identity that each person has, it’s more than the genitalia a person possesses. Although gender is a big part of identity, it’s only a small part of a person. One should not only be defined by his or her sexual condition. People don’t go up to people and ask what genitalia they have, so why is it such an important thing to ask intersexual people. Essentially, one should not have to tailor his or herself in order to make it more understandable for others. People should accept other people’s differences.
Moving forward to the life of the intersexual people, many intersexual people have a different life experience than most. For example, intersexual people often feel isolated when in the dating scene and do feel as though they belong. In addition, they are afraid to be intimate because of fear and pain (Kinsman, 2014). One of the most alarming aspects is the fact that intersexual people often have to fight the battle of a transgender person. When their surgery occurs for completely different reasons. Not to mention the psychopathological problems that comes from being transgender. It’s report that 39% of children have severe general psychopathology. In order to counter balance the negative effects of being transgender, as a society, we should become more accepting. As a society with should talk about things that relate to sexualities and relationships, sex should not be a taboo topic.
The coffee talk assignment allowed me to communicate my thought of intersexual people with a group of people opening to talking and understanding the issue. The group members however did not prepare topics or provide insight on their articles, but we still had the opportunity to learn and discuss about the topic. I think for my group it was more of how the newfound information changed our perspective rather than explaining why our articles was interesting or taught us something new.
After reading my article, I realized just how many mistakes about gender could be made based on the current methods. As a group, I realized that there is no easy solution or better way to handle it. It’s a very controversial topic and sensitive because there is no right way to handle the problem and decisions on behalf of, so the true wants and desire are unknown. I believe the steps that need to be taken are acceptance. Unlike other controversial topics, this is a proven and irrefutable fact, the children were born with different chromosomes that led to ambiguous genitalia. No one can debate that, so I believe all we can do is accept and not judge.