Who owns our bodies? Human rights and the intersexed
Presentation given in Montreal, July 2006 during the Outgames
· Who owns your body?
At first, this question probably seems absurd because the answer seems obvious. However, this is a fundamental question that we all face today, especially the intersexed.
· Who is intersexed?
We are all born into a system in which our sex is defined by simply looking at the body, more specifically genitals. Everyone must have a male or female body. There is no other possibility. The power that doctors and the legal system have to determine the sex of an individual has very serious consequences which affect the life and the future of all children, not just those who are born intersexed. Let us speak about the birth of children with atypical genitalia. The bodies of such children do not belong to them because such bodies question the validity of the binary system which stipulates that everyone must be either male or female. Such births become social emergencies for parents and doctors and the social emergency immediately becomes a medical emergency in most Western countries where the medical technology to normalize them exists. This arbitrary decision concerning which of the two sexes to assign the intersexed child is accompanied by many treatments which in the past and even today to a certain degree are intended to result in both a normalized gender and sexual orientation of the child. We normalize the bodies surgically in order to facilitate the adjustment of the child into this heterosexist system in which people who are determined to be of the female sex are expected to meet the norms also established for this sex, that is, to be feminine and heterosexual – attracted to men. The same expectations apply to children assigned male, i.e., they are expected to be masculine and to be attracted sexually to women.
· The underlying homophobia implicit in the treatments
The treatments that are in effect to normalize intersexed bodies are a revealing symbol of the measures taken by the authorities to maintain compulsory heterosexuality in our societies. Current treatments of intersexed infants consist of making changes to their bodies by means of surgical intervention, in other words, mutilation, so as to make their bodies fit for heterosexual intercourse. These surgeries are often followed by hormone replacement therapy. All of this in order to force the child’s body into a binary system which rejects us and to which we must conform.
· The main problem that the intersexed face is the arbitrary division of sex and gender into two categories.
There are not just two preexistent sex categories. We often accept that gender is a social construct in that different social roles are associated with being a man or a woman in our different cultures. However, the study of hermaphrodites or the intersexed has proven that sex itself is also a social construct in that it is arbitrarily constructed as a dichotomy. Year after year, scientists and other researchers are coming up with other aspects or parts of the body which are sexed – genes, the brain, even the length of the ring ringer. The problem is that each time a new body part is found to be a sex marker; it is invariably classified as either male or female despite the evidence of many intermediate states along with a vast combination of all these different sex markers among themselves which makes sex a continuum, not a dichotomy. As we learn more about all the different factors which determine the sex of an individual and the possibilities of all the combinations of them within the same individual, hopefully we will eventually realize how absurd it is to suppose that everyone is standard male or female.
· Why do we feel that intersex is a human rights issue?
Everyone is affected by this binary system which requires conformity to the norms established for the two official sexes and not just those of us who are born with what the professionals call intersexed bodies. Why is it that the body of an intersexed child is considered sick and in need of treatment? Why is it that medical doctors have the right to make permanent changes to intersex infants’ bodies without their consent? And why is it that parents who are often not well informed of the consequences of many of these surgeries and other treatments have the right to make such decisions for the child? Who should have the right to decide the sex of the child, the doctors, the parents or the child? Is it the comfort of the parents or that of the child which is given more importance? We need more choices, to move beyond this binary system which is legally and medically imposed on all of us. For OII it is essential that the person in question and therefore the children themselves make this decision about normalization procedures for their bodies. The current normalizing surgeries and other hormonal treatments resemble genital mutilation which occurs in other countries for traditional reasons. In both cases, here and in other countries, it is all about conforming to beliefs that we feel are normal for sex and gender.
· Should we accept rigid, biological and essentialist definitions of intersex?
If we accept a fixed, biological definition of intersex, we are only creating another essentialist and reductionist definition to be determined and controlled by the medical professionals who are already an integral part of the heterosexist system which predominates in our societies. Without insisting on a third fixed category, intersex should be an option, another possibility for anyone. Just as we have no clear, essentialist definition of what a woman or a man is, we should not expect to have a fixed, essentialist definition of what intersex is. Many people in the intersex community insist on having the right to be men or women without essentialist definitions based on genitals and other sex markers. If intersex people are to ever be given this right, then why should everyone not have this same right, which would also include the right to be intersex or intergender?
What we wish is that everyone have the right to define themselves without any categories being imposed either medically or legally because we see no way to come up with clear boundaries that would make these categories definable.
· The Organisation Intersex International is opposed to all efforts to classify intersex as a pathological condition. Being intersex is not an illness any more than being male or female is.
To define intersex as a medical pathology is a very dangerous pitfall for the intersex community because it reinforces the need to treat us and to cure us. Being intersex or intergendered should be one existential possibility among others for deconstructing the current male-female, homo-hetero binary system which oppresses all of us.
· The body is the basis for the whole binary structure of sex, gender and sexual orientation.
Within the binary system which is the fundamental basis for heterosexist patriarchy, no ambiguity is permitted because otherwise, the sexist and very oppressive system would be destabilized. The body in such a system becomes an object of control used to determine who is granted the privilege of normalcy – in other words, to determine who lives up to the norms. We are using the word “normal” to mean only those who conform to the norms imposed by such a sexist system. For example, every person who is determined to have a female body is granted privilege within this system only by conforming to feminine stereotypes for gender and also conforming to heterosexuality and the same applies to those who are assigned male. All others, those who have bodies which do not meet the norms, those which have gender identities which do not conform to the norms or who do not act in accordance with the expected gender roles and those who do not have sexual attraction for those classified as the opposite sex, all of us, intersex, transgendered, transsexual and gays, lesbians and bisexuals are deprived of this privilege of normalcy and it all results from our bodies being classified within this heterosexist binary system.
The medical system is the institution which ensures the privilege of normalcy to the person who conforms to the heterosexist binary system. It is essential that the body of the individual actually be the property of the state in order to preserve this system. What we all share, those of us in the LGBT community and the intersexed is that we are all deprived of the privilege of normalcy that men and women who are considered “normal” have within this mutilating system. Without the normalization of bodies, the system would collapse. Therefore, in order to preserve this system, it is necessary that everyone be classified as male or female and that intersex people also be classified as one or the other and be diagnosed as suffering from an illness which must be treated without their consent in many cases so as not to jeopardize the system.
· In conclusion, what is important is that we be “people”, “persons” above all else and that we be granted equal standing legally with other people and that we respect diversity which is an integral part of the natural world.
The intersex community is caught in a complex labyrinth of legal and medical controls which render us invisible. Just as homosexuality before Stonewall was an illness, we in the intersex community are still considered ill, deformed and in need of treatment. Those of you within the LGBT community understand what it means to be invisible and to be deprived of the privilege of normalcy. We are here to ask for your solidarity in our struggle to be visible and to be accorded the same rights as other people in our different countries and cultures.
