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Intersexed People

            
             To better understand intersexuality a couple of items should be made more clear first. An intersexual is a person who has genitalia that is different from what has been established as being "normal". The terms intersexual or middlesex are often times either mistaken or synonymous with the term hermaphrodite. Advocates of raising awareness for intersexuality prefer not use this term for they believe that it is misleading and is inaccurate in what it implies an intersexed person to be. A hermaphrodite is mistakenly assumed to be an individual who has both male and female genitalia and is capable of reproducing by themselves. There are no known cases of this and the term hermaphrodite has been modified into true hermaphrodite. Even this modification is believed to be negative and restrictive both for intersexed people and in raising social awareness about the issue of intersexuality. The definition of true hermaphrodite is "individuals who have both ovarian and testicular tissue in their bodies and their external genitals are often a mixture of male and female structures" according to (Crooks and Baur, 1999. p.50). Individuals that would be considered to be true hermaphrodites are rare and there is very little information about them as with many of the other conditions that fall under the umbrella of intersexuality. .
             Intersexual's suffer a great deal at the hands of the medical community in much the same way that women and minorities have today and in the past. Unfortunately there seems to be little information about intersexed individuals within the general public as well as within the medical world. Virtually very little was known about intersexed people until the 1950's up until this point they were pretty much left alone (Coventry p.55). Research by a man named John Money who worked as a sexologist at Johns Hopkins University led to the conclusion that if an intersexed child's genitals were surgically altered by 18 months they would have "a life without undue problems"(Coventry p.


Essays Related to Intersexed People

1. Hermaphrodites

Critical Summary Article: "Queer Cut Bodies" By Morgan Holmes Intersexuality can be understood as people who were born with both male and female organs. ... "bodies [that] are neither male nor female make them clearly intersexed rather than confused or incomprehensible." ... His/her first argument was that the discovery of hormones created the assumption of intersexed bodies as "irregular". ... "The goal of surgery on intersexed infants is to produce adults who will function as either female receptacles for the penis, or male possessors of the penis." ... People should be able to cho...

  • Word Count: 577
  • Approx Pages: 2

2. He-Man and She-Rah or She-Man and He-Rah

It may be rare, but it is surely not a minor issue Intersexed infants are born and the decisions being made in regards to assigning a sex is quite a debacle. ... Through the medical management of intersexed infants, a sex is assigned through the social construction of technoscience determining sex. ... They hold power in and of themselves to shape human life and destiny" (Leonard, 23) through the birth intersexed infants. ... The majority of intersexed infants are assigned the sex of a female due to social construction of gender identity issues as many intersexed infants who may be born d...

  • Word Count: 1646
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

3. hermaphrodite

Most people assume that there are just two sexes, male and female. ... The trouble is that most people are familiar with the myth and not reality. ... Intersexed people have a very hard time with personal issues, which surround being born different. ...

  • Word Count: 403
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

4. Klinefelters syndrome

People with XXY are not hermaphrodites or intersexed - the Y chromosome(s) ensure that they will develop a penis instead of a clitoris, a scrotum instead of labia, and testes instead of ovaries (barring secondary abnormalities due to chomrosomal oddities or teratogenic exposures). ... A syndrome is a convenient label used for people who show a particular constellation of symptoms. ... I cannot emphasize this enough - because people do not read carefully! ... Not everyone with 44+XXY has the full-blown "classic" Syndrome, any more than people with HIV all have full-blown AIDS. There are many ...

  • Word Count: 1538
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

5. Surgical Sex Reassignment Should Not Be Done At Birth

As follow up is being done on patients who have undergone sex reassignment surgery, many tragic results are being uncovered.Although most of us think of sex in terms of male and female, the medical community has classified another group as intersexed. Intersexed people are all the people who don't quite fit the mold of male or female. ... Cases of intersexed children are one in two thousand in North America. ...

  • Word Count: 4442
  • Approx Pages: 18
  • Has Bibliography

6. The philosophy of a tomboy

Gender is very much about how people perceive us, and our behaviour (personality, identity and self-expression) determines how we will be "perceived." ... Few people actually do conform exactly to their predetermined gender role: A certain lack of conformity is not only expected, it is increasingly seen as welcome. ... Transgendered people who fail to behave within the acceptable range of behaviours expected of their gender roles are simply not tolerated in our society. This is the truth about the world in which we live, that it classifies people according to stereotypical beliefs. ... May ...

  • Word Count: 3294
  • Approx Pages: 13
  • Grade Level: High School

7. The Gay Liberation Movement from 1860 to 1971

Xavier Maine, the author of "The Intersexes: A History of Similisexualism as a Problem in Social Life-, which was published privately in Italy, lists "New York, Boston, Washington, Chicago, St. ... She wrote about the question of gay rights: I regard it as a tragedy that people of a different sexual orientation find themselves proscribed in a world that has so little understanding for homosexuals and that displays such gross indifference for sexual gradations and variations and the great significance they have for living. It is completely foreign to me to wish to regard such people as less ...

  • Word Count: 3713
  • Approx Pages: 15
  • Has Bibliography

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