The reason why I picked up Dreger’s new book is that I know her work on the intersex, and that’s a subject that interests me since the time I did research on it. So I wanted to give a brief overview of what’s happening in terms of intersex because this is a very important subject that doesn’t get discussed often enough.
Quite a few people (seriously, a lot more than you think) are born with genitals that don’t correspond to “the norm.” Of course, the question is who defines “the norm” and, more importantly, why it’s necessary to define it at all, but that question rarely gets asked.
When, for instance, a girl is born with a clitoris that is “too large”, the medical orthodoxy suggests that she might, as a result of this unusual characteristic, be too “masculine” and – oh, horror! – not want to play with dolls. And as a result of that horrible eventuality, she might not want to have babies when she grows up. And of course, this enormous tragedy needs to be prevented by operating on the poor newborn and slicing up her clitoris. I kid you not, this is the actual medical consensus.
Little boys with unusual genitals are subjected to the same shit, even though these operations often result in partial loss of function and a sky-rocketing likelihood of constant infection.
Mind you, these kids are initially absolutely healthy. The only reason to subject them to these operations (that often damage their health for life) is the medieval belief that “imperfect” sex organs will somehow prevent them from adopting very traditional gender roles in adulthood. Because people with “perfectly normal” genitals always invariably adopt the most traditional gender roles. Obviously.
Just think about it. Actual genital mutilation. Happens every day. On this continent. And we barely ever hear about it.
[To be continued. . .]
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