Op/Ed

Toeing the Party Line

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  “Lies, damn lies and statistics” ~ attrib. Benjamin Disraeli “My point, however, is that intersexuals are not as rare as people may think” ~ Anne Fausto-Sterling Who is privileged enough to hold forth on who is, and is not, intersex, and what even intersex means, if it is understood at all, was long ago…
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Say my Name: politicisation of the body and the legitimisation of institutionalised violence toward intersex children

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There is no surprise that clinical psychologists hold conferences, nor that they write up their conclusions of the meetings and debates they attend. Except that something at a conference in 2000 held by the Tavistock/Portman clinic caught one of the attendees askance: a conference on gender identity entitled “Atypical Gender Identity Development: Therapeutic Models, Philosophical…
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A Narrative fed by Comfortable Assumptions

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The often assumed belief that addressing gender pronouns is a desired end game for addressing intersex activist’s concerns needs to be repeatedly challenged, especially so when articles are published in press that fail to acknowledge the continuing human rights abuses of intersex infants and young children. There is little comfort in later being able to…
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Starry, Starry Night – the short life of Herculine Barbin

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Starry, Starry Night – the short life of Herculine Barbin

Herculine Barbin’s birthday – commemorated every year as Intersex Day of Remembrance Almost 150 years after Herculine’s death intersex people ourselves are reframing the language and understanding about what it means to be intersex, what it means to embody diversity that remains both known of, yet unspoken. It is intersex advocates and activists who are…
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Lazy Sunday Afternoon*

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Idly musing on a sunny Sunday afternoon about the current positions shared by clinicians working within intersex medicine, and advocates striving to change those parameters Clinicians – we will talk to you – these are our terms: current clinical protocols. Advocates – we will talk to you – these are our terms: change the current…
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On the Turning Away – A Brief Exploration of Medical Ethics

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Philip Zimbardo is an American psychologist. He was detailed to investigate the abuses – long denied – committed on prisoners at the Abu Ghraib detention camp. In his report he describes the phenomena whereby apparently otherwise “good” people do very bad things, in this case, the crimes committed in Abu Ghraib. “Good people do bad…
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