#intersex women

[desbianherstory]

Category: Woman (2022, dir. Phyllis Ellis). Stream here.

When 18-year-old South African runner Caster Semenya burst onto the world stage in 2009, her championship was not celebrated, but marred by doubt, her personal medical records leaked to the international media. The public scrutiny of her body, driven by racism and sexism, questioning the most fundamental right of who she is, a great champion. The International Amateur Athletics Federation (now World Athletics) then ruled that targeted female athletes must medically alter their healthy bodies in order to compete. Their naturally high androgen levels, 'deemed' a performance advantage. Category: Woman focuses on four remarkable athletes, from the Global South, forced out of competition by these regulations, the devastation to their bodies, and their lives. Equally arresting is their passion for sport is further emboldened by their conviction to stand up for their human rights. Following her award-winning film Toxic Beauty, filmmaker and Olympian Phyllis Ellis exposes an industry controlled by men putting women’s lives at risk while the policing of women’s bodies in sport remains, in a more nefarious way, under the guise of fair play.

Breaking from this blog's hiatus to post this in light of the racist bullying of Imane Khelif. I'd recommend everyone watch it (it's only 76 min) for an understanding of the issues at play - how the false, easily digestible narrative of "fairness" in fact means unfairness and racist mistreatment for these extraordinary women. Even the introduction is powerful:

"Some bodies are marked. The gender that goes unmarked as male. Women are maked in all the ways that they are different. The unmarked race is white. Some bodies that are black and brown and female have a particular kind of marking. These bodies are marked as insufficiently human. How do you castigate a category of people as insufficiently human? By throwing their gender into doubt."

Dutee Chand, India's first openly lesbian athlete is interviewed in this documentary about the racist mistreatment and scrutiny she received for these issues.

Please watch and spread!

[blackqueernotables]

Christine Mboma: first ever Namibian woman to win a women's Olympic medal and broke the world under-20 and African senior record.

[redditreceipts]

thoughts of intersex people on being used as a debate tactic by transgender people

intersex people face oppression because of their sexed bodies and therefore need to be included in feminist thought. For a long time, feminists have ignored the existence of intersex people, the political right sees being intersex as a disorder that needs "correction", and TRAs use intersex people as a tool to further their ideology.

in the intersex subreddit, I see A LOT of radfem talking points and critical thought. I really think that it is time for feminists to listen to intersex people and include them into our activism, because at this moment, the only people who even talk about intersex people are TRAs.

many intersex people are fed up with being used as a talking point, but apart from TRAs, there is no real alternative. intersex and radical feminist action have united goals:

rejection of beauty standards and practice of body neutrality

objection to surgical intervention on children for non-medical reasons

objection to oppression because of biological sex characteristics

material analysis instead of identity-based analysis

furthering research into bodies that are not those of men

[chinesegal]

Sometimes I just want to slap my dad in the face for being such a bigoted asshole.

Today I debated him about Imane Khelif's inclusion in women's boxing-he argued that she shouldn't be allowed because her XY karyotype.

He acknowledges the existence of women with XY chromosomes but since the prevalence is only 1 in 4000 individuals he considers the likelihood of her being a man is far greater-or at least he thinks there should be an objective criteria for inclusion in women's sports and chromosomes are the closest to perfect one there is, even if there are exceptions.

He said that he believes Khelif should compete in the male sports teams out of fairness to other female athletes.

I brought up how Khelif was raised as a girl and how unlikely it would be for her to be transgender in a country where it's illegal to change your gender and has no services for medically transitioning. She was assigned female at birth, raised a girl and even told she couldn't box because girls aren't supposed to.

(I don't believe that excluding Khelif would be justified even if she is trans, but my point was how humiliating and dehumanizing it would be for someone who grew up being told they couldn't do things because they're a girl and subjected to a misogynistic society to be told that you aren't a woman anymore).

(Plus, I felt that acceptance of trans people is another topic).

I asked him if he thinks women with XY-chromosomes should compete in the male teams, even if they have sex traits considered female including genitalia.

He replied "of course there are women with penises" which I found really strange because he's stated before that he doesn't consider transgender women to be women. I don't believe that genitals or sex characteristics determine your gender, but transphobes and conservatives in general tend to argue that your gender is determined by "what's in your pants" so I found that surprising.

When I asked him what he meant, he showed me the wikipedia page on intersex people. He mentioned that there are people born with ambiguous genitalia but that chromosomes are as close to an objective determinant of gender/sex as possible

It was then I asked him what he thinks is an objective qualifier of sex and gender since he said that there are exceptions to both genitalia and sex chromosomes-I said something along the lines of: "You've said that trans women aren't women because of having male genitalia, but there are women that do have male genitals as well as women with XY? Then what do you consider an objective determinant of gender/sex?"

To which he laughed and the conversation ended here.

[angelmelon]

thinking about how idiots who think every trans person becomes dysphoric at 3 goddamn years old is playing into stereotypes as much as they don’t want to admit it

A persons gender identity is much more complex than their suffering

a persons gender identity is much more complex than being given a pink toy as a toddler

[androgynealienfemme]

“SURGERY SHIFTS SEX OF WOMAN” Aug. 31, 1972

[jerrycummblr]

It's really simple. If you're born with a vagina and you naturally have elevated testosterone levels, you're a man. If you have a vagina and you take testosterone, you're a woman. But also if you have a vagina, you'll never be a man. But also if you have higher testosterone then you were never a woman. Woman never yes man a vagina testosterone no was an elevated. Vagina man.

[genderqueerdykes]

you HAVE to expand what your mental image of what a woman looks like in order to progress past trans/misogyny and intersexism. when you finally accept that "woman" does not have a set look or sound, you free yourself from the chains of both patriarchy and radfem ideals. "woman" does not mean thin, pretty, hairless, short, quiet, large breasted, hour glass figured, weak, submissive, high voiced, or small.

women can and do look, act, and sound like anything. cis, intersex, trans, butch, non binary, gender non conforming, detrans, or anything else: any woman can look, act and sound like anything. we are just as diverse as any other member of this population. in order to acknowledge this, we must let go of the concept that a woman "should" look, act, or sound like anything.

[spiderfreedom]

This has to be one of the worst cases of intersex abuse I’ve read yet. She was continually let down by the medical establishment and treated as a Guinea pig.

IN 1986, Sophie Ottaway was born with a very rare condition which required immediate surgery.

Cloacal exstrophy happens when the organs in the abdomen do not form correctly in the womb, resulting in babies born with organs such as the bladder or intestines outside the body.

Doctors had to operate to save her life.

Sophie was actually a boy, with a tiny, damaged penis but healthy testes.

But doctors advised Sophie’s parents that their baby’s male ­genitalia should be removed to avoid further complications.

The baby had to be registered by the following day, which meant they had to decide whether to tick male or female on the form.

Sophie’s parents Karen and John followed the surgeons’ advice.

“They were told not to tell me,” says Sophie, a warm and friendly 37-year-old who has since fully forgiven her parents for their decision.

“We are very close,” she tells me, “despite going through some rocky times in the past.”

Life changed for Sophie, who grew up in Beverley, East Yorks, when she was 22 years old and visiting her GP surgery for tonsilitis.

She says: “I saw on the computer screen that I had XY chromosomes, had been castrated hours after birth, and an incision was made where a vagina would be.”

Although Sophie exploded at her parents in the moment, she buried her feelings about it all until 13 years later when, hospitalised during a Covid lockdown, it was discovered she had developed sepsis that had ended up in her intestines.

‘I went into 13 years of absolute denial’

This was what led her to decide to speak out.

Sophie was already aware that many children and young people were being groomed in gender ideology, persuaded to take puberty blockers, then set on a medical pathway for life.

She says: “At age 11, as I approached puberty, they put me on oestrogen because there’s no ovaries, and no testes to produce testosterone.

“This is what doctors are doing now to kids who wish to change gender — putting them on blockers.”

It was a lie when Sophie was told she had to take oestrogen for life because her ovaries had been removed at birth as a result of damage.

Sophie was born biologically male. “So obviously there were never any ovaries,” she says wryly.

She adds: “The time to tell me and try to get informed consent was at the point we introduced the endocrinologist. This is the time puberty blockers are being offered to kids, so I make that connection with what’s happening today.”

When feminists and others critical of the medicalisation of children with gender dysphoria have said that these drugs and interventions are harmful, we are often labelled bigots. But Sophie is speaking from personal experience, in the hope that she will be listened to rather than dismissed and vilified.

About five years ago, Sophie chose to stop taking the hormones, because “I was adamant that many problems in my life were being caused by them.

“I was about 4st heavier than I am now, and I wasn’t eating badly. I was having bladder pain beyond belief.

“I had fatigue and was quite angry a lot of the time.”

By then, Sophie had been taking oestrogen for 20 years, and decided enough was enough. She was told she should keep taking it because it was for bone density, to which she replied that she would have regular bone scans.

Sophie had no choice but to go on oestrogen, because the doctors prescribed it to her as a child — but surely she should be listened to when she warns of the effects cross-sex hormones have on the body?

Now that she no longer takes it, all her symptoms have improved.

She says: “We’re selling this idea of perfection in the guise of changing gender. You’ve got all of these problems and might be struggling because you don’t fit in at school, or because you like boys’ toys and you’re a girl, or vice versa. As someone who knows all about decisions made under time pressure and who has paid the price, Sophie’s understanding of the sales pitch being made to children before puberty is crystal clear.

She says: “You’ve got a sale based on a time pressure.

“We’re going to push you through this for the puberty blockers, we’re going to make that sale.”

Keen to stress that there is a big difference between a girl behaving “like a boy”, wearing boys’ clothes and haircuts, Sophie adds: “Puberty blockers are a different level to how we dress and which toys we favour.”

The idea being sold is that gender reassignment is the answer to all your problems, but Sophie says: “What you get is genital mutilation, castration, and a lifetime of dangerous hormones, which was my experience.”

As she points out: “Children can’t vote, they can’t drink, can’t drive.

“But you can choose to do something life-changing.”

Sophie hopes that by speaking out and telling her unvarnished truth, some children — and parents — might make a different choice.

She says that when she found out that she’d been born male, “I obviously knew I had urological problems, and I knew that I had no vagina because of the surgeries.

“I didn’t address it at that point. I was 22, in second year at university.

“I had a plan of my life. And dealing with this monstrosity was not in the plan. I got up the next day and went to university.

“I still had the same connection with my friends. I was still the ­person I was 24 hours ago.

“But I went into 13 years of ­absolute denial.”

She never told anyone about it, not even close friends.

‘When I came out of hospital I was raging’

Then, during the pandemic, Sophie found herself in hospital a couple of times, and it all came crashing down.

She recalls: “They thought it was a kidney infection, but they couldn’t get to the bottom of it.

“When I was born they had fashioned some female genitalia. Brown putrid fluid starting leaking out of the hole and it would not stop.

“I presented at the hospital and I had to tell them for the first time about what had happened to me.”

When doctors examined her, they saw that there was something very wrong.

It turned out there was a mass in her abdomen, which was the neovagina — inserted when she was a baby — and left to rot.

Sophie says: “I found out from my mum that they had inserted it when I was two days old, and that one day it popped out and was found in my nappy.”

Surgeons replaced it during a later operation, sealed it up, and left it, which is why it led to sepsis many years later.

“No one had been told it had been put back in,” says Sophie.

Up until this point she had thought that the surgeon had simply operated to save her life — “which he did, but he also did a hell of a lot of other stuff that was unnecessary.”

What’s more, the doctors failed to do something that was necessary — namely, address the complex urological problems that have plagued Sophie all her life.

She says this “is one of the things that has the biggest effect on having any kind of intimate relationship. And yet the one thing that they could have fixed is my incontinence.”

She tells me: “When I came out of hospital, I was raging at that point.”

And she thought that by speaking out, she might be able to help those who think they are in the wrong body.

Sophie says: “A lot of them are being groomed to feel that way or question those thoughts in the first place by the school and the system and the media. Those kids need help.”

A much better solution, she argues, would be to divert funding currently being used for puberty blockers, cross sex hormones and surgery and ­allocate it to children’s mental health services and counselling.

Sophie says: “We can work with that person to find out why they are feeling like this.

“Then, maybe when they become an adult, they might be mature enough to be properly informed and consent to any changes to the outer body.

“It is often assumed I am transgender, but I really don’t like labels. I am just Sophie.

Poised for a backlash from the more extreme trans activists, Sophie makes it clear that she respects any adult’s decision to choose that path — so long as they are properly informed.

But she is clear that this is never appropriate for children.

“I don’t want this to happen to any other baby born with this condition,” she says.

“We have to find better ways to support kids to live in the body they are born with.”

Link | Archived Link

[sexypennymaykitten]

Who wants to play with me? I promise I will be rough❤️🥰🤗

[deathtokillian]

“Your body MY choice”

My knife YOUR life

[blackqueernotables]

Aminatou Seyni: track and field sprinter

[spiderfreedom]

Knowing that AFAB/AMAB don't mean female/male requires knowing a lot about intersex/DSD conditions. They are relatively rare conditions, so for 99% of people, AFAB/AMAB just mean female/male. (To understand what the male/female sexes are, I recommend this article.)

Learning about intersex/DSD (differences in sex development) conditions is something I've done piecemeal. I know about 5ARD because it's the condition Caster Semenya has. The Wikipedia page is pretty good. I recommend looking up lists of DSD conditions and reading about individual ones. If you can find biographies of people with these conditions, even better!

"Assigned X at birth" makes sense for people with DSDs because the doctors often literally assign a new sex for them to "live as." A male born with a deformed penis, for example, may be surgically altered to create a neovagina, and his parents may be told that he should be raised "as a girl" because it would be easier than being a boy with a deformed penis. As such, this is literally a case of a male being arbitrarily "assigned female at birth" because his genitalia is considered substandard for a male.

This applies in cases of ambiguous genitalia, too. Girls born with unusually large clitorises (clitoromegaly) may have them surgically altered to be "normal." The difference is they are female and assigned 'female'.

Note that most cases involve shortening or removing genitalia because, to use the cruel and crude phrases surgeons use, "it's easier to make a hole than a pole." As such, you will not find cases of neophalluses being given to infants. The surgery is always in the direction of shrinking, which is another reason that most mismatches between assigned and actual sex involve a male child being assigned female.

The majority of 'sex assignations' correctly reflect the sex of people. A very small number of people are assigned the wrong sex and then forcibly surgically altered because doctors have strict norms about what constitutes a 'correct' male. Another small number of people are assigned the wrong sex (almost always AFAB) because they have ambiguous genitalia and live in a region where they do not have the medical facilities to know that the child has a DSD. This is probably what happened to Caster Semenya.

So, the majority of these cases are a male who looks like a female due to missing or inverted penis. Most mismatches are therefore male/AFAB. I have only ever read of one potential female/AMAB case, which is this one, and it's contentious for a lot of reasons (reports are inconsistent about whether he had ovotestes or normally developed ovaries; patient was forced to have neovagina and live "as a woman" on doctor's recommendation).

I don't know if this sounds familiar to you - the idea that "failed" males (infant boys with small or deformed penises) are more like females, or should live as females? These DSD surgeries are sexist and do nothing but hurt little boys and girls on the idea that there is a "correct" type of male and female. Little boys with small/deformed penises have their genitalia removed and are lied to about their sex and made to live as girls. Little girls with large clitorises have their genitalia altered to be smaller.

The 'assigned X at birth' language reveals an important truth, which is that people with DSDs are medically coerced into surgeries that leave them with impaired functioning, and told lies about their biology.

Some of the people with DSDs end up being transgender - either they do not have the gender identity of the sex they were assigned, or they do not have the gender identity of the sex that they are. (The majority of transgender people do not have DSDs.) We should have sympathy for people with sex-incongruent gender identities, especially with DSDs. They should certainly never be lied to or forced into surgeries! However, regardless of their identity feelings, their sex is a biological reality that must be acknowledged in a medical and social context.

i hate hate hate hate hate hate being called an "assigned female at birth" i wasn't assigned a female I AM one

the doctor didn't decide i looked female enough to call me one when i was born, i am a female since the moment of conception

[feelingemotjons]

a black trans women is in need of help

@miracleon63rdstreet is a black trans women who has gone through absolute hell and back. She is currently in a lot of debt and she and her cousin don’t have enough money to feed her cats and her cousin’s kids. She is living with her cousin and her cousin’s electricity bill is due on the 10th

if anyone could give her money on her cashapp, venmo, paypal, chime, or gofundme it would be greatly appreciated

[thatdiabolicalfeminist]

Bigots denying a woman her womanhood aren't actually granting her the status of "man" esp with all its attendant privileges.

Degendering is a form of dehumanization. The goal of misgendering/degendering a woman is generally to treat her as a disposable object, unworthy of even the conditional and dubious "protection" that women are supposedly due under patriarchy.

If they actually saw her as a man she wouldn't be targeted in these ways, and "man/manly/male" would never be spat at her like an insult.

[secretlumi]

Wanna jerk off together 🙊