#tw igm mention

[ghxst-system]

its so damaging when someone puts their internalised intersexism on u.

i remember having a panic attack when i found out, clearly unable to cope- and i was told that InterAct have "too broad" of a definition and that half of what was listed on the glossary wasnt even "really intersex"

i remember staring in the mirror sobbing after thinking id finally found answers to what the doctor had done to me [IGM] when i was 4, and that i finally knew why i always felt different about my body to my perisex peers.

only to then be told that because [TO THEIR KNOWLEDGE] i had no "mix" of male and female sex characteristics so i "couldnt" be intersex... i wont disclose my variation but that i have hormonal imbalances and my organs are entirely different from that of a perisex person.

[this was apologised for after a discussion, but the damage has permanently been done. i have forgiven this and will always forgive this, im just talking abt the affect it had on me]

i also have my own struggles with internalised intersexism, thinking im not "intersex enough" after this, but i will never put that on another intersex person.

[icannotgetoverbirds]

i may be biased but i think that dandelions should be symbols of intersexuality

dandelions:

belong in this world

are natural

are good for this world

are beautiful

are whole just as they are

are resilient

have been here for a long-ass time

will be here for a long-ass time

deserve to exist

dandelions are NOT:

unnatural

a new phenomenon

wrong

bad

dangerous

broken

something that needs to be changed

bound by society's ridiculous 'rules' that are based on incorrect, unscientific information

just like intersex people! Plus they're yellow like the intersex flag, so that's a bonus.

The moment you start drawing lines between acceptable and unacceptable for things that cannot be changed, it will inevitably lead you to find yourself on the wrong side of that line. When you draw lines between what bodies are acceptable and what bodies are unacceptable, you will inevitably find yourself placed into the unacceptable box.

Intersex bodies must be accepted as they are, must be held as just as worthy as perisex bodies, both for intersex people's sake and for the sake of human diversity.

These lines are not unlike the lines we draw between 'good' and 'bad' plants. We call plants that we don't want weeds, despite dandelions providing much more practical utility than a rosebush. And where does that leave us? In a world where dandelions are poisoned, uprooted, crushed, killed for the crime of growing wherever there is a place to grow. In a world where rosebushes could easily find themselves given the same treatment the moment they no longer provide value.

And for what? To uphold antiquated and incorrect ideas of the way the world should be, often at the detriment to ourselves and the world we live in? For the aesthetic?

And we do this with human lives, violently 'correcting' the 'flaws' that are perfectly natural through unwanted mutilation and medication.* Doctors do this to children, to literal infants, and it's perfectly legal. I find it telling that, despite its legality, those same doctors and hospitals tend to guard any records they might keep of such procedures, even from the parents and the child in question, quite closely.

Sorry this kinda turned into a rant. I just think the metaphor is really fitting, and I'm pretty passionate about intersex issues (being an intersex person myself), and I really like dandelions.

*There is nothing inherently wrong with wanting to adjust one's own body to what they themselves would prefer, regardless of the starting point and/or end goal. In addition, I recognize that certain intersex conditions require medical intervention for survival - that's not what I'm referring to here. What is wrong is forcing people into a false binary and abusing modern medicine to make an unwilling person fit into a box they don't want to be in. This is about autonomy and enthusiastic consent without undue influence.

[demiintergender]

im not gonna go into detail abt it bc its not anyones business lol, but i was talking to my therapist today abt intersex stuff bc its been on my mind a lot (and also i was asking for advice abt how to bring it up w my primary doctor to see abt getting hormone testing done) and like. the topic of what my genitals look like came up and its like. i mean i didnt show her obviously lmao but i described them and she was like "yeah ive literally never heard of that" and ive tried to look it up before and theres Zero information, and in fact when you look it up all you get is information about like the Exact Opposite of what im looking for lol. ALSO i have shown friends who used to do sex work and they Also said theyve never seen/heard of parts like mine. so im like. literally what the fuck lol

ik that genitals are gonna vary bc its all a spectrum anyways or whatever but its like,, w a lot of intersex stuff you see theres at least common experiences (ie; hypospadias, clitoromegaly, etc) and none of those descriptions fit me either like ive Never heard of anything similar and its So strange.

it makes me wonder if i had a surgery done as a child tbh, but i dont Think i have any scarring, and i did also ask my mom abt if i was in the hospital a lot as a kid or anything (didnt ask directly abt an operation when i was born bc i dont want her to ask Why im asking lol) and she said she probably took me to the clinic more often than my siblings but that doesnt necessarily mean anything. and Also im chronically ill so it cld have had to do w that, or my childhood asthma or anything else lol.

idk just thinking abt it. it kind of sucks that theres not any information abt it or whatever like. being intersex can already be such an othering experience but then for me to be literally the only person ive Ever heard of w this particular thing is. hard to deal with sometimes lol

[trans-axolotl]

i think that like. one of the most important if not the most important issue in intersex activism is medical autonomy and ending IGM and medical abuse like I very strongly believe that. but also sometimes I wish I would see like. other facets of intersexist oppression getting talked about more? like I don’t think that conversations about medical abuse and IGM are taking up TOO much space like i don’t even think we talk about that enough but I feel like oftentimes especially by dyadic people that’s assumed to be like the only issue that intersex people face when that’s like blatently false. i think there’s a lot of things we need to talk about as well-intersections with racism, sexism, transphobia, ableism-how those affect our experiences as intersex people and with intersexism. ending intersex hate crimes-i feel like we hardly mention intersex hate crimes ever and like that’s a huge problem. in some countries intersex infantcide is actually a huge problem and outside of those countries we don’t talk about that. also like. sexual abuse and rape is like a HUGE fucking issue for intersex people and i very very rarely if ever see anyone besides like a few other intersex people mentioning that. there’s like no mainstream dialogue about that at all (and people very very rarely mention how medical abuse oftentimes does take the form of sexual abuse especially when it comes to surgery and how some intersex people do conceptualize surgery as inherently sexually abusive.) 

idk like my point here isn’t like i think we should talk about medical abuse and IGM less my point is just that I wish dyadic people listened to us more when we do talk about the other ways intersexism fucks up our lives instead of just deciding that the only material manifestation of intersex oppression is IGM. and most of the time they don’t even care about IGM or intersex oppression so it’s like they absolutely need to listen to us about that as well but I’m just like. intersexism is so much more than a lot of dyadic people want to admit.

okay to reblog but if you’re dyadic don’t comment. intersex people feel free to add on or disagree. 

[ghxst-system]

loudly saying here am cistrans

if any followers are intersexist and dont like? leave. u not and never were welcome here

if someone come here say intersexist things? deal with it. get blocked.

my identity come with lots of trauma, my body come with lots of trauma from be intersex

am intersex, cistrans, intergender and transmasc. am not here to cater self to u. am here to exist as me, not who the doctors mutilated me to be or who was abused to be.

[icannotgetoverbirds]

okay but this is so fucking funny because cladistically speaking isn't it impossible to biologically define a fish with rules that include all fish and excludes humans

as far as fish are concerned we qualify, because the word fish represents a construct, not something biological

plus intersex people literally prove 'sex is binary' to be false by nature of their existence (intersex person here! fuck u) and your medicalized view of us is the exact kind of talk that doctors who perform igm speak with!

consider the fact that literally every human fetus starts as female physically. (it's why everyone has nipples!) are you about to call being male a medical condition just because it can lead to prostate cancer, testicular torsion, etc?

no, because being male is part of the status quo, what society has agreed is natural! intersex people are just as natural, even if we have medical conditions from or causing our intersexuality. but because of the way society has been built, we get (often violently) forced into binary boxes. and the way you talk, you seem to agree with that because your smooth little brain can't wrap itself around being wrong about something.

I'd just like to point out that there are plenty of intersex people that can and do reproduce and are fertile. Intersexuality is often passed down genetically (✋ my mom also has hirisutism, likely caused by the same hyperandrogenism that i have), in fact. Regardless, reducing people to whether or not they can make babies is kinda weird, my guy.

And are you really implying that intersex people are any less of men or women if they deviate even slightly from the perisex norm? You're really denying intersex people the right to self-determination? I'm not exactly surprised, but I wanna make sure I have that right, because that is not a kind stance to take.

I don't think it makes you very feminist to say that a woman who grows facial hair isn't actually a woman even if she was assigned female at birth. It also contradicts the transphobic insistence that transmascs are just confused women, since the HRT allows them to grow facial hair. So are they women, or are they intersex? The intersex community as a whole seems to agree that they're whatever the fuck they tell us, because it's generally agreed-upon that you can't transition to become intersex (the closest you can get is salmacian).

Also we just love (/sarc) the casual ableism of comparing people you don't like to people with a mental illness! You know that narcissists are often like that because they were victims of abuse, they are more vulnerable to abuse, and they are also perfectly capable of being safe and kind people, right? I doubt it.

And even if you don't give a rat's ass about mentally ill humans, maybe you'll prefer this validation for their existence: they're often better suited for jobs that require convincing people of things because of how good they are at being persuasive. they make very good entrepeneurs from what i hear, so you might be using a product right this moment that wouldn't exist without someone with NPD creating/innovating it!

Of course, you shouldn't require information like that to see them as humans worth being kind to, but maybe i can get you to move a step in the right direction on their behalf. I'd take that.

TERFs don't know biology

No one tell her about clown fish, the blue-banded goby, many cnidarians, green frogs (Rana clamitans), the common reed frog, and many, many more.

It's estimated upwards of 5% of animal species on Earth can change sex. (source link)

Some of these animals are one-directional, meaning they change sex once in their life. Others are bidirectional and can change back and forth between sexes rapidly - multiple times!!

Nature is literally transgender.

[here-be-bees]

Also some of us are intersex and agab/asab especially isn't a great indicator of really anything else for us. It doesn't describe our anatomical sex, it might not be the gender we were raised as, and it can't be used to determine if we identify as trans or not.

The only thing it really predicts is what kinds of medical interventions doctors may have pushed for us to have.

this might be slightly controversial but i really hate how bioessentialism has dug it's claws in trans spaces. we used to prioritize individual identity but now it's like afab and amab are the new mbti. yall put it in your fucking bios

[icannotgetoverbirds]

unfriendly reminder that conservatives are in fact the only ones giving forcing 'sex change' operations on literal infants if they're intersex. 100% agree with what you're saying but IGM is very much a real thing that happens. conservatives are, as usual, projecting.

While conservatives continue to shriek that "they" are giving "sex change operations" to "children" it's important to note the youngest age of anyone granted such a procedure is 17, the same age those same conservatives believe you're emotionally mature enough to kill people for the military.

[icannotgetoverbirds]

Show me an instance in which a TERF has argued against IGM. And no, saying "no cosmetic surgery for anyone ever" does not count. Believing doesn't do jack shit if you don't speak up about it. This is literally the first time I've seen a TERF engage with the topic. Genuinely, I'm curious to see if there are any instances and what the contexts of those instances are/were. Regardless, the fact alone that I've never heard of TERFs fighting IGM but I constantly hear them fighting gender-affirming care is telling.

And I'm not saying that every TERF is personally friends with a doctor who does IGM. What I'm saying is that TERF beliefs rely on gender essentialism and bioessentialism, the very same concepts that those doctors use to justify IGM. The Venn Diagram of TERFs and people who believe in gender essentialism and bioessentialism is damn near a circle.

As for being against medically unnecessary surgeries: Gender-affirming care is medically necessary for many trans people. The vast majority of dysphoric trans people can't just think their way out of dysphoria.

It doesn't matter how much therapy you give them (and I'm talking about scientifically-backed therapy, not conversion therapy - that shit's... awful, to say the least), they will still be trans. Either they get the treatment or they suffer without it.

I'm not very articulate about this, and I'm pretty sure this is a waste of time anyways, but if you take away one thing from this, I'd prefer it be the knowledge that sex itself is not binary - it's a spectrum. My existence and the existence of intersex people as a whole is proof of that. And no, you can't just shove intersex people into male or female labels - we just plain don't fit your boxes, and we shouldn't have to!

TERFs are never and can never be allies to intersex people by the way