Intersexuality Flashcards
Why have hermaphrodites been considered a problem?
- challenge the notion of binary construction of gender and how there is only two genders
- problem understanding how to raise the child, society treats children differently based on their gender
- inconvenience for parents because they do not know how they are going to present the baby
- destroys what we know about gender and sex
Why is the intersex baby considered a medical emergency?
- decisions are made that the child must leave the hospital as a sex
- medical practitioners are not comfortable with intersex babies in general
- notion that right from birth we have to decide which of the two binary categories the baby fits into
- governmental bureaucracies
- use the excuse baby will get bullied if one sex is not determined
- parents have to believe in the sex of the child to socialize it properly
What is the theory of intersexuality management?
- extraordinary advancements in surgical techniques and endocrinology
- feminist movement (need to focus on socialization > physical features)
- psychological theorists focusing on ‘gender identity’ as distinct from ‘gender role’
- as a result of these three factors, intersexuality is now considered a treatable condition of genitals, one that needs to be resolved expeditiously
- if gender can be constructed, it can be de-constructed
What was Money and Ehrhardt’s theory of gender?
- experts must insure that the parents have no doubt about whether their child is male or female
- the genitals must be made to match the assigned gender as soon as possible
- gender appropriate hormones must be administered at puberty
- intersexed children must be kept informed about their situation with age-appropriate explanations
- Moneys theory is now standard practice for intersex kids
What is used to determine if the kid should be male or female?
- Gonads, genes and hormones are looked at
- the main deciding factor is the size of the penis
- if the penis is micro, it is too small to be a man
- decision is very much culturally based when it is stated to be scientifically based
How do you normalize intersex conditions?
- physicians teach parents normal fetal development and explain that all fetuses have the potential to be male or female
- physicians stress the normalcy of the infant in other aspects
- physicians imply that it is not the gender of the child that is ambiguous but the genitals
- physicians tell parents that social factors are more important in gender development than biological ones
Define medicalization
- is a social process through which a human experience or condition is culturally defined as pathological and treatable as medical condition
How are intersexuals treated?
- there is rarely any success cases
- it is okay to raise an intersex kid
- they are treated as a mutant case at first
How are human rights connected to intersex kids?
- human rights are basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled
- aims to identify the necessary positive and negative prerequisites for a universal minimal standard of justice, tolerance and human dignity
- human rights advocates seek the strong protection of human rights through their effective realization in each of these ways
What are the 3 components of intersex treatment that seemed extraordinary for medicine?
1) in cases of intersex clinicians were intentionally withholding and misrepresenting critical medical information
2) otherwise healthy children were being subjected to procedures that risked or sometimes negated sexual sensation, fertility, continence, health and life, simply because their bodies do not fit social norms
3) the near total lack of evidence indeed total lack of interest in evidence that the concealment system was producing the good results intended
What ideas does Dreger reject?
- intersex is so freakish it calls for extraordinary behavior on part of the clinicians
- clinicians treatments of intersex is appropriate because it looks like behaviours we find other realms of medicine
- treatment of people with intersex has been problematic enough that it helps us see what other parts of medicine might need immediate revision to effect truly human care
who created the ISNA?
Cheryl Chase
