Although intersexuality is something that has been around for a very long time, I haven't really looked far into the topic, so I don't know anything past the basics about it, which, to me, simply consists of the definition and how sometimes doctors "fix" the babies when young and choose a sex for them and how that can sometimes cause problems growing up and life in general. That's about the extent of my knowledge. Therefore, I really did enjoy reading The Five Sexes by Ann Fausto-Sterling. She was definitely beyond the 90s.
One section in this article that really caught my attention was work from urologist Hugh H. Young of Johns Hopkins University, specifically one of the cases he studied. The way the person, Emma (whom I will use feminine pronouns solely because the article says she grew up as a female and doesn't specify that she would definitely rather it be otherwise, so I'm going to assume it would be okay for me to refer to Emma as a female), explained the way she felt about whether or not she would ever surgically remove her vagina and how that would affect her life:
Her blunt honesty really speaks to me. It shows a different way of viewing how someone feels while going through such a terribly hard and complicated decision involving her own body rather than the typical "this isn't exact right so let's fully transition," or something along those lines. Although slightly humorous thinking about Emma having a husband AND girlfriendS, this quote makes perfect sense to me.
"Intersexuality itself is old news. Hermaphrodites, for instance, are often featured in stories about human origins. Early biblical scholars believed Adam began life as a hermaphrodite and later divided into two people—a male and a female—after falling from grace. According to Plato there once were three sexes—male, female and hermaphrodite—but the third sex was lost with time."
More people need to learn about this. It's all very interesting.
One section in this article that really caught my attention was work from urologist Hugh H. Young of Johns Hopkins University, specifically one of the cases he studied. The way the person, Emma (whom I will use feminine pronouns solely because the article says she grew up as a female and doesn't specify that she would definitely rather it be otherwise, so I'm going to assume it would be okay for me to refer to Emma as a female), explained the way she felt about whether or not she would ever surgically remove her vagina and how that would affect her life:
"Would you have to remove that vagina? I don’t know about that because that’s my
meal ticket. If you did that, I would
have to quit my husband and go to work, so I think I’ll keep it and stay as I
am. My husband supports me well, and
even though I don’t have any sexual pleasure with him, I do have lots with my
girlfriends."
Her blunt honesty really speaks to me. It shows a different way of viewing how someone feels while going through such a terribly hard and complicated decision involving her own body rather than the typical "this isn't exact right so let's fully transition," or something along those lines. Although slightly humorous thinking about Emma having a husband AND girlfriendS, this quote makes perfect sense to me.
"Intersexuality itself is old news. Hermaphrodites, for instance, are often featured in stories about human origins. Early biblical scholars believed Adam began life as a hermaphrodite and later divided into two people—a male and a female—after falling from grace. According to Plato there once were three sexes—male, female and hermaphrodite—but the third sex was lost with time."
More people need to learn about this. It's all very interesting.
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