#intersex anon

[bonefall]

i dont think people are upset that the erins "weren't creative" enough with Moonpaw, they're upset that she's just. not a chimera. thats just a longhaired tortie and they justified it with chimerism. which is extremely insensitive because chimerism is a real medical thing that can cause issues in every species, including humans for those that dont know, and thats like. a big thing.

like, yay some disability rep (depending on how they write it. it wont be good. ughh) but like. its not going to be considered a disability when it can be in some cases. they are just going to say "ohh shes so special!!" like some people say with autism in this age (the infantilization of it) and its gonna be. weirdddd

anyways. sorry for ranting in your inbox.

Hey. Woah. THIS is insensitive and I don't know where you're getting this from. NONE of the three types of natural chimerism are a disability and it is extremely rare that fusion chimerism leads to medical complications.

Do not spread misinformation about a genetic condition because you're annoyed about the writing team confusing a common tortie fur pattern with chimerism. THEIR mistake is ultimately harmless. What YOU'RE doing is stigmatizing.

Quite frankly, after seeing a bunch of posts and receiving several asks about this, I don't think half of the people who are getting mad actually know anything about chimeras. I sure as fuck hope it's just ignorance, and that you aren't out here trying to call the state of being intersex a disability.

But I can fix ignorance. No need to assume malice. I will explain what chimerism is, and why you should stop going around implying it "causes issues in every species."

Chimerism is when a single individual is comprised of cells from two or more fully fertilized zygotes. There are two BROAD types of chimerism;

Artifical

Natural

Artifical chimeras are common with the advent of modern medicine. Ever had a blood transfusion? Organ transplant? You are a chimera. Or at least were for a while.

THIS can lead to complications and can cause disability, but it's not what Moonpaw is. She would be a type of natural chimera, which in and of itself has THREE subtypes;

Micro chimerism

Blood chimerism

Fusion chimerism

Microchimerism is so common that I could make a Your Mom joke out of it. It's caused by the passage of cells between the fetus and placenta during pregnancy. Everyone who has ever been pregnant is a microchimera.

While it can lead to complications, it can also be beneficial. Pregnancy could be considered a type of temporary disability, but no one would expect disability rep from every character who had ever given birth.

Blood chimeras are common in species whose twins typically share a placenta, such as cows and marmosets, but very rare in animals like humans and cats which usually don't. It occurs when tissue between two twins is exchanged through the umbilical chord. This type of chimera often ends up with a mixed bloodtype, hence the name.

This is the cause of freemartinism in cattle, when fraternal cow twins cause a sister to share her brother's hormones and act more like a bull. A type of intersex condition, not a disability-- so I sure HOPE you aren't trying to imply THIS should be "disability rep."

And even in the other case, would you automatically expect disability rep from a character that has two blood types?? No. Just like you wouldn't automatically expect disability rep from every character that had ever been pregnant, or every character who had ever needed a blood transfusion

And lastly, the one that Moonpaw ACTUALLY is. A fusion chimera. These are created when two fully fertilized zygotes fuse into a single individual.

These are extremely rare because you can't usually TELL when an individual is a chimera. There is no obvious physical difference between the "halves," with some cases of doctors insisting that patches are just weird birthmarks. They live their entire lives with normal health problems like non-chimeras. It mostly causes complications when DNA testing results in a false negative-- because the offspring of a fusion chimera occasionally end up being their genetic nespring.

Or, the two "halves" are male and female, causing gonadal differences. These people aren't disabled, there's nothing wrong with their bodies, but they're subjected to unneccesary cosmetic surgeries as children because they are intersex.

Say it. SAY IT. INTERSEX. I N T E R S E X. IM GRABBING YOU BY THE SHIRT AND SHAKING YOU THEY ARE INTERSEX.

Can some intersex conditions cause disabilities? YES. Are intersex conditions inherently disabilities? NO. Even when you're discussing infertility as a disability, tread VERY CAREFULLY because intersex people are fighting very hard to lift the stigma over their bodies.

Speak with care. Do not equate being intersex with being disabled. They are two different things.

You can be both and sometimes one could contribute to the other, but BEING intersex IS NOT a disability.

VERY rarely, even MORE rare than standard chimeras which are already very very rare and massively underreported because they are so unremarkable, a fusion chimera will happen LATE in utero. THIS can contribute to a chronic autoimmune condition where the cells reject each other, which is a disability.

And by rare I mean one case. Literally one. Of the 50 reported fusion chimeras in the review I'm referencing, Taylor Muhl was the only one with this. 4 were discovered via congenital abnormalities (unknown if connected to the chimerism b/c they were only tested because something was already wrong), 17 had fertility issues, and the remaining 28 didn't report immune conditions or birth defects but INTERSEXUALITY.

ANOTHER condition is often lumped in with chimerism, by people who do not know what chimerism is, which is mosaicism. Mosaicism, when there are two different sets of genes resulting from the same zygote, is NOT chimerism. MOSAICISM can be a cause of disability. CHIMERISM is usually not.

(Read the review in depth, as it includes mosaic cases for the sake of completion.)

They can both be fertilization errors, but are not the same thing. Follow me, I'm only going to woefully simplify a complicated topic once,

CHIMERA = Two zygotes in one body

MOSAIC = Two bodies in one zygote

CHIMERA = usually fine

MOSAIC = usually bad

And the last possible places you could be getting the idea that chimerism "causes disability" from, to my knowledge, is 1. This study that says the loss of a twin in early pregnancy increases the chance of congenital defects in the survivors (has barely anything to do with chimerism, this link is tangential, vanishing twin syndrome does not necessarily mean it was absorbed by its sibling)

Or, 2, this study of several animals where they correlated rates of benign tumors to % of chimerism based on SPECIES. BLOOD chimeras. It's COWS AND MARMOSETS AGAIN. The study ITSELF calls for further targeted research of chimerism cause of susceptibility to cancer.

It couldn't even link new growths or malignant tumors to chimerism in the mammals of its study. WE'RE mammals.

Correlation does not equal causation. Statistics 101.

So no. That's not "a big thing." Chimerism is fine, they're just very likely to be intersex if they're a fusion chimera of a male and a female zygote. Do not imply intersexuality is a disability. Please get mad about the actual ableism in the series, not the team being clueless about tortie patterns.

Also everyone say you're sorry to intersex Moonpaw. I better see you people making intersex Moonpaw pride flag edits as penance IMMEDIATELY.

UPDATE: Anon apologized! Growth! I still think this is an important post, especially in the context of the wider fandom conversation, so I'm leaving it as-is. Please feel free to reblog.

UPDATE 2: Clarification on infertility as a disability because I didn't word myself very well in one section!

[cyndi-yeah-that-one]

Your PCOS is intersex post is great and I kind of want to add on since some people seem to not be understanding it.

PCOS can be misdiagnosed as CAH, which is a medically recognized intersex condition. These people who say PCOS isn't intersex really makes it feel like someone who goes 20, 30, even 40 years being diagnosed with CAH, only to later find out it was PCOS MUST have the intersex label revoked.

Or how about people who have CAH and were misdiagnosed as PCOS for years and then find out they're intersex and the amount of identity confusion that could cause?

If PCOS can be so easily misdiagnosed as CAH and vice versa, how is one intersex and the other isn't? I've seen so many stories of them being misdiagnosed (both ways, might I add) and I'm sorry, but if they're that easy to misdiagnose as each other, then I don't understand how one is intersex and another isn't.

I don't have much to say outside of preach sister

(gender neutral version of sister. Sibling doesn't have the same ring. Brother doesn't either)

[the-intersex-experience]

transfem intersex experience is feeling really ashamed of having gynecomastia and wanting surgery to make it flat and then realizing youre transfem and actually growing to love it

.

[intersexcat-tboy]

Looks transandrophobia is real because we're trans but can you stop tagging things with cringe ass shit like "menslib", cis men are already liberated and need to be taken down a notch

This ask was received a few minutes after this (link) was posted from queue

The flattening of intersex men's experiences to just be of those of "cis men" is not lost on me

Disabled, unhoused, neurodivergent, queer, and moc all need liberation. Men's lib includes trans men as well. The patriarchy holds us ALL captive

So, no 💖

[wc-confessions]

wtf is "intersex" and why are people shouting that certain cats (or sometimes ALL CATS??) are it???? Is this a gender thing that I'm ignorant of? Cuz that's cool I'd be happy to learn- but google says intersex relates to the actual physical body parts, and I'm just- Why do people care about this??????

Gender is one thing- affirming that shit correctly is SUPER important and I love the different hc's and interpretations there in ALL fandoms tbh, not just wc. But the actual physical body parts- how is that relevant. Why does anyone care. What are you using that info for. Why are people thinking about different body parts for these cats????.... Like why does a calico like Redtail HAVE to be intersex- does that mean something OTHER than Redtail having both male and female body parts??????? AND WHY IS THAT IN MY HEAD. I've never heard of an intersex pet cat in reality, even after working at the vet, is this just a genetics thing????

Like sure being able to have children can sometimes distinguish a character in terms of whether they will adopt or carry kits- but otherwise... why do people care what's swinging between the legs? What value is that info? Are these people DRAWING GENITALS OR SOMETHING??????

(Sorry if this ask is kinda iffy. I 100% understand if this ask gets deleted)

male calico cats are all considered intersex. the calico coat pattern is directly linked to two x chromosomes, which is why most calicos are usually female. male calicos have the xxy chromosomes which makes them intersex. redtail is intersex.

-mod ashensky

[sister-lucifer]

💸⭐anon again!

Intersex flag dividers, please :) the yellow flag with the purple circle :D

I love the one that's in a post with your Wales one but I adore variety

💜💛Intersex Dividers💛💜

please like, reblog, & credit if you use!

[DIVIDER REQUESTS ARE OPEN!]

DNI: TERFS, endo, proship, pro ana, nazi, MAPs, zoophiles

tag list: @ghostboneswrites2 @savanaclaw1996 @lordhavemercyyyyy @odysseuscore @bloodythornsandskulls @und3ad-mutt

[if you’d like to be on the tag list for dividers, please leave a message in my inbox]

[intersexfairy]

would a castrato/eunuch be intersex by nowadays standards?

idk i just live here. i dont know enough about the history. and i dont quite like applying modern terms to roles & identities meant to be understood in the social framework of their time + culture.

but as a related thought. if a change in sex characteristics is like... a genuine choice made my someone, i feel that fits more under the trans umbrella. if not, intersex umbrella. or maybe a third more nuanced thing not yet popularized. this is a general POV, nuance exists, and i am just one person and can be wrong.

[looks-to-the-moon-cock]

Me: hey so that character from that anime has intersex symbolism and such, here's some links as to why.

This fucking jackass: you're fetishizing Japanese people.

Me, Leaning in real close (text in bold): If you're implying intersex people don't exist in Japan. I will boil you down into a broth for my cats.

[gettinontopic]

How am I racist? Other people are constantly trying to get through to you about transmisogyny and you instead choose to constantly try and hide behind being black, acting like that makes you immune from transmisogyny. You can still hurt transfems of any race with the way you talk about opression. You think men are an opressed class who's so so victimized by the mean women and fems of the world that you wont listen to those same actually opressed women.

Maybe if you were more willing to listen onstead of bloack a bunch of us every time we disagreed with you, you would u deratand how you're perpetuating more misogyny than any trans woman/fem whos using a few words not perfectly.

Btw, the standards you put on our words isn't fair and then you turn around and demand we be okay when your word litteraly implues we can opress you.

You should be ashamed of yourself.

How are you racist? How are you r a c i st?? You have to be kidding me! This must be a joke. Your laugh of the day. Your haha of the week.

I d not hide behind being black. Youre sick for implying that. Like many black people before me I beg my community to remember the nuances that come with my race when they talk and a bunch of them spit in my fucking face. They tell me they want the right to opress me (As if their whiteness doesn't already allow that) or they try and argue how another class of trans women is still below me in their sick opression math. They are not below me because this is not a ranking of who has it worse. Me and trans women are working together to rid the world of transphobia.

I have never on my ENTIRE blog said that men are so opressed by women. Words in my mouth moment!! I have said that the patriarcy, a system of opressions, opresses men and encourages the worst in human behavior to survive and be safe.

Those womens opression doesn't matter more than mine. All of our opression matters equal ly. We are all fighting for our rights and safet. There is no reason we need to form a line and force someone to wait a turn. I am not speaking over woman to call out the abuse to to trans men, trans masc, and other nonbinary people. Nor is it speaking over women to make sure intersex voices are included and heard when its said that negtive stereotypes and standards of men hurt them too.

Funny you claim I block all of you but you seem to have no clue how many have me blocked on the word of a racist discourse blog or who blocked me after I rightfully call out their racist remarks. It grossed me out that you assume I can't hold good faith discussion and not that maybe some of you blocked me first for talking at all. Also lmao guilt tripping me for using my block feature to keep my spaces safe and comfortable. Why, did I block your main and you've bee seething?

I'm not bothered by a few incorrect words. I'm litterally pissed at the racism, exorsexism, and blantant transphobia thats been thrown my way and the way of many other trans people at this point in an attempt to stop us from speaking about opression that affects us.

*Slow clap* What standard? The standard not to write transphobic ass shit about trans men/masc? Where you blantanly lie about our experiences ? To the point you're also lying about our nonbinary experiences? To the point where your lying about intersex and multigender and even sometimes other different trans womens experiences? I watch this happen in resl time and you have the audacity to ckme in my inbox and tell me I'm word policong you? Right before admitting you don't want us to have our word bc you still won't learn it's definition!! Fuck.

I am proud of myself. I am so proud of my beautiful nonbinary black fucking ass that you WISH you could have what I do.

[twinkfrottage]

can i request goblincore or like. forest grunge blinkies or stamps!! i love your intersex stamps sm waahh

TIP JAR | CASH APP

[cyndi-yeah-that-one]

what anon(s?) probably doesn’t understand is that PCOS is a diagnosis of exclusion. a lot of intersex people get slapped with the PCOS diagnosis just because of a lazy doctor who doesn’t want to do the excluding. I know people with PCOS with high T who don’t even have cysts on their ovaries.

I didn't even know this to begin with, but you raise a good point!

[anti-terf-posts]

I love being intersex!!! I love my facial hair and my thick body hair. I love my high pitched voice and I love my curves, I love my hair and my eyes and the tilt of my nose and I love how feminine yet masculine I look!!!! I love how being intersex has given me a more interesting relationship with gender. I love how my body looks and feels. I love everything about being intersex, because sometimes it might be up to me to make that intersex joy I love seeing, but damn if I'm not doing it!!!!!!! I love how maybe being intersex made me trans or maybe it didn't! Who knows and I think that's beautiful!! I am who I am despite everything and they wish to tear my body apart, force me onto medications and sedate me for surgeries to make me "normal", but I am here and I am laughing and loving and living proudly because how better to spite them than to fully enjoy life as an intersex person?

ok this made me cry a lil 😭 /pos

I'm so glad that you're able to find happiness in a body that society tells you "isn't normal" 🥹 every intersex person deserves to feel that way, because it's something to be proud of! each of you are an amazing person, so never forget that ❤️

[zarnzarn]

https://www.tumblr.com/zarnzarn/765463941817253888/after-the-events-of-three-in-the-morning-safe?source=share

Does this mean that none of the female Olympians gave Athena the talk. Also Athena doesn't get periods?

thats the thing, whos out here about to talk to the proud goddess of wisdom, who is already full-grown and walks around with her head high, favoured by the tempermental stormking and twice as snappy, cold and unfriendly?

(Metis had warned her, before she used the last of her essence to push Athena out. Be careful, she had cautioned, already fading. Her mother rarely smiled, and did not smile now, a hand on her cheek the extent of her dying affections. If you were a full woman, he would have not given you a second thought. A son is prophesized to be his downfall, and a son you will never be. Still- you have been born half a man, so you must be careful and cautious, never falter, NEVER reveal your true nature. The others will never help you. You will be on your own. Survive.

I understand, Athena had said, straight-backed. Then she had turned and left.)

she never bleeds, understands vaguely it is one more aspect of a full woman that she has not been born with. does not give it much thought, other than hiding it. there are strategies to plan, after all, and she has no time for these kind of things.

[the-intersex-experience]

As much as I want to I've never used the intersex label. I've always been scared that I'd be told I'm not "intersex enough"

But in all the research I've done, pcos is intersex. It makes the most sense.

On a more positive note, I've been loving the facial hair I get. I think it's cute.

.

[intersexcat-tboy]

fucking hate how even some (perisex) trans people shit on us claiming we're not actually trans or alternatively that we should be grateful or feel lucky cuz our sex has been forcibly and violently reassigned after birth already

i didn't consent to have some surgeon cut part of me out so they could force me into a binary box

i wasn't broken but they decided to break me before i could even speak a single fucking word

fuck everyone who fetishizes the genital mutilation they did to us

— an intersex cat

🫂

[billi-ashli]

This is not meant to be hate I'm just trying to understand your bio- how are you nonbinary but cis and also transsexual? Also what do you mean by homosexual lesbian gay man?

im intersex so i dont fit neatly into trans or cis labels so im kinda both at once and non-binary is my gender :)

im a gay man cuz im mlm and im a lesbian cuz im wlw :)

i hope i answered ur question <3