Gender Trouble

i came across this fantastic diary by an intersexed person at daily kos. it never ceases to amaze me that the medical establishment and parents of intersexed children are willing to subject infants to a series of radical surgeries in order to force the child into one category or another, all because of the fear that the child will be teased in school or that they will never have good, stable relationships. in fact, the surgery itself not infrequently makes it impossible for the intersexed individual to experience sexual pleasure as an adult.

if i were an adult who discovered that i had been coerced into one gender or another because it was unclear whether i was male or female at birth, i would be livid. something so fundamental as gender identification cannot be coerced, and it shouldn't be. the shame is not in the condition, it's in the way people treat it. subjecting a small child to years of unexplained trips to the doctor where their privates are examined repeatedly is a surefire way to ensure a lifetime of shame and stigma related to their gender identity and sexual function *anyway*.