Intersex Denial and Duality

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Sun and moon, black and white, love versus hate, what a binary world we live in. Opposite one another there is contrast, opposing forces so in need of the other, yet so far apart. In Stanley Kubrick film “Full Metal Jacket” Joker, after some hesitation, explains to the Colonel that he wears his peace button along with the words “Born to Kill” on his helmet band as a symbol of the duality of man. In Book IV of Metamorphoses, Ovid pens, that Salmacis forces herself on Hermaphroditus and asks the gods to join them into one being. I want to note here that the Greeks used deities to explain the unknown and things they feared. I do believe that our society is not much better, we play God in order to change the mysteries we find unacceptable. Our society demands that we be either or, yet the human condition is twofold. We are so hung up on dichotomy; we must separate and group in society. Along comes something that cannot be categorized and we have to act quickly to put it in an acceptable category. Ambiguity is unacceptable in a society where one must conform to its binary rules. How does this attitude affect those born into western society as intersexuals? Research suggests that intersexual children should undergo surgical transformation procedures in order to prevent both physiological and psychological disturbances during development.

This question has been raised in many forums and debated at international conferences and moratoriums. Puritans, god fearing people are we, in the book “Intersex”, the author Harper (2007) cites professor and social activist Kathy Dreger who wrote “in terms of sex, we have much in common with the Victorians”. Her words resonate throughout the community close to those with disorders of sexual differen...

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...ere all somewhat girly for at least the first six weeks of our existence. Additionally we all have gonads, chalk up one more for our female counterparts. Women are born with XX karyotype and men are XY. The genotype to which we are born determines the development of the gonad into either a testes or an ovary.

In cases of CAIS, although physically female, the sufferers are born with an XY karyotype, there is a failure of the development of external male genitalia due to the body’s inability to process the hormones which cause the transition into male hood. In this case the internal gonadal system is male (testes) rather that female (ovaries) and until puberty, without other evidence may go unnoticed. A diagnosis during puberty is usually initiated by concerns due to lack of menstruation, stunted growth of female breast or typically male facial hair.

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