Something that has been helpful for me when having conversations about what counts as intersex is to really engage in enquiry about what the label means and how we're using it. To me, it's been more helpful to think through questions like:

What purpose does labeling a variation as intersex serve?

In what ways is societal understandings of "typical" changing?

Why was the label of intersex created and has our use of the label shifted?

What ways are we building intersex community? What do we want intersex community to look like?

How do our experiences of oppression impact our understanding of intersex as a term?

What sources are we drawing from when we develop definitions of intersex?

What is the history of the way intersex has been used?

What ways has intersex community been exclusionary in the past, and is that in line with our current values?

Definitions of intersex have always been tied up with what the medical world decides to classify as differences of sex development, but especially in the past twenty years as intersex community has grown more connected, we've started to have a lot more self-determination in our communities. But I think a lot of people still really have a misconception that intersex is a biological "third sex" that is strictly medically defined, and that there are clear cutoffs between intersex and endosex.

Instead, I'd like to bring in the concept of compulsory dyadism to introduce a framework where intersex is an intentional political label used as a way to build community for the people whose variation of sex characteristics are most impacted by the stigma and violence associated with compulsory dyadism.

Sex diversity is not just limited to intersex people. Even within the boundaries of dyadic/endosex bodies, people have variations like different amounts of body hair, penis size, hormone levels, breast size, as well as things like disabilities affecting any of those traits. For example, very few people actually have all the "ideal" traits that line up with this constructed idea of an endosex body that has the exact "correct" amount of estrogen, the right size chest, the ability to bear children, "normal" periods. Many endosex people might have a variation in one of those aspects at differing times during their life, such as during menopause, for example. And this framework can help us understand how diagnoses such as endometriosis are not intersex, but people might still notice overlaps in certain experiences.

But the reason that not everyone is considered intersex and the reason that having a separation between endosex and intersex is important is because of the stigma and violence associated with straying further and further from that dyadic norm, and intersex is a label used to describe people who are the most impacted by that stigma and violence. We have been socially labeled as "deviating" the most from the "normal" sex binary, and consequentially face intersexism both on a systematic and personal level. Our collection of sex variations becomes located entirely outside of the sex binary, and as a result, we often face curative violence, social stigma, and systematic exclusion from many parts of society.

This definition isn't a perfect definition. I think we need to have room to develop more nuance around the fact that many intersex people might not feel like their experience of being intersex has brought them any personal stigma or violence, as well as understanding that there isn't going to be a universal intersex experience. Even when discussing how intersex people are the most impacted by compulsory dyadism compared to endosex people, I think it's important to recognize that within the intersex community, our additional intersecting identities are absolutely going to influence our experiences with oppression and that it's vital to intentionally uplift the members of our intersex community who are most impacted by oppression. In the United States, the creation of the sex binary was an explicitly racist process, and racialized intersex people are subject to additional layers of stigma, violence and scrutiny. (Check out chapters 4-6 in the book Cripping Intersex by Dr. Celeste Orr for a really in depth discussion of how antiblackness and compulsory dyadism are forces behind why the Olympic sports sex testing has pretty much exclusively targeted Black women from the Global South, regardless of whether or not they are actually intersex. Also recommend reading The Biopolitics of Feeling: Race, Sex, and Science in the Nineteenth Century by Dr Kyla Schuller.) I also have talked with many intersex people who are tired of us always being represented through trauma narratives in the media, and who want us to be able to build a definition of intersex that isn't based around violence or tragedy. And I think that's really important that we also share our stories of intersex joy, and pride, and healing. I think that claiming intersex can be something really radical, and that's super valuable to me.

Overall I think that if we build our discussions around who is intersex on concepts to do with our social and political location, and take into consideration concepts like compulsory dyadism, sex diversity, and disability, we are going to be able to understand why any of it matters better than if our determinations of intersex identity are based solely in medicalized concepts of a third sex.

TL;DR: Although endosex people also have diversity when it comes to sex traits, intersex is still an important label that not everyone can claim. Compulsory dyadism is a force that affects all of us, but intersex people are the most impacted by compulsory dyadism and face intersexist stigma and violence for our intersex variations. As a result, intersex is an important label for us to claim so that we can build community and solidarity around our experiences. I think it is better understood as a sociopolitical label that describes the relationship between our biological bodies and the cultures we live in, rather than as a medicalized term that described a coherent "third sex."

other intersex people feel free to add on to this post-I'm only one person without all the answers, and would love to hear other perspectives!

Leo!!💙💗🤍💗💙

small reminder this pride season that in the natural world you will find examples of animals changing their sex [such as the peacocks, or those lions], or being multiple sexes [such as bilateral gynandromorphs], or similarly being what you want to call "naturally nonbinary" or "naturally trans".

it's fun to use these wonderful creatures as trans and nonbinary iconography, but please! don't forget your intersex siblings in your excitement. those are intersex animals, not trans or nonbinary

sincerely, a perisex bigender constantly bummed at the missed opportunity for cool pride art

don't know who needs to hear this but being queer isn't a competition. if you're a homosexual transgender woman that doesn't make you "more queer" than say a straight transgender man or a cis bisexual person or a heteroromantic asexual person. this is not a hierarchy, this is a community. these labels aren't stars on a uniform determining your rank; just because you have more doesn't mean you are somehow superior to the other queer identities, they belong in the community just as much as you do.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

goodreads

Middlesex tells the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides, and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family, who travel from a tiny village overlooking Mount Olympus in Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit, witnessing its glory days as the Motor City and the race riots of 1967 before moving out to the tree-lined streets of suburban Grosse Pointe, Michigan. To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret, and the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction. Lyrical and thrilling, Middlesex is an exhilarating reinvention of the American epic.

Mod opinion: I've read this book for a college course on trans stories and I didn't really like it (the other book we read in its entirety for the course was stone butch blues though, so it had tough competition, but I really did not enjoy middlesex because it treats the intersex character horribly). Also note that this book is heavily criticised by intersex activist for its interphobia and fetishization of intersex bodies.

hunter being a trans guy is so funny because like

possibility 1:

wittebro was a trans guy living in 1600s connecticut and nobody batted an eye

possibility 2:

belos makes hunter and is like "aw shit, this one's got the wrong bits. oh well, guess i'll raise it as a boy anyway. luckily those loathesome 'transgender' witches have invented potions for this- y'know, if i don't kill him before he reaches puberty"

possibility 3:

belos makes hunter and is like "aw shit, this one's got the wrong bits. guess i'll have to deal with a girl for the next couple decades, it'd be too much work to kill and remake this one just because it came out wrong."

and then hunter gets older and is like "uncle, i wanna be a boy"

and belos is too busy being like "all according to keikaku" to be transphobic about it. task failed successfully.

its actually funny bc a lot of health forms now are like give us ur ‘chosen’ gender versus ur assigned sex its so important so we treat u correctly 🥺 . ok good anyway we wont read any of that and make assumptions and also not take any sort of human variability into account 👍

Usually, I would’ve done some kind of selfie yesterday on Trans Day of Visibility, or even back in the winter on Intersex Awareness Day, but I’ve been too busy photographing the cats. These shots I took just now didn’t turn out quite the way I wanted, but they’ll do 💙

tfw you agree fully with OP but they push the complains about terms like tme/tma as being ~ transmascs complaining they’re being labelled as tme ~ like terms like tme/tma aren’t disgustingly intersexist and while there are some people who do complain because they’re being labeled “tme” (I may not have ever seen this ever but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a possibility it happens) I and many others don’t fuck with it because it’s fucking intersexist and trying to dismiss that as an actual real issue with the terminology is dishonest. Get real.

90% of the people who use intersex people as talking points have never talked to an intersex person in their life

I think it's so funny when Christian flat out reject the concept of being intersex like oh so me and about 2% of the population aren't real but you expect me to believe homeboy's gonna come back after (holy) ghosting us for over 2000 years?

There is pretty much no intersex rep available. I’m not talking about not enough: it is almost impossible to find good, accurate intersex rep. Like I can find NONE. One of the biggest things I’m facing with going through my teenage years and being diagnosed as intersex is that there is almost no one I can relate to when it comes to puberty and growing up in media or around me, especially because my specific condition is pretty rare. It just feels so lonely. My perisex friends are supportive and stuff but they just can’t understand what it’s like because they don’t have that shared experience. I think especially intersex kids need books and rep to make sure we see people like us and to help us feel confident in our bodies and how we’re not broken. Pretty much the only rep I’ve seen so far isn’t great, and it’s usually aimed towards adult audiences.

Intersex people deserve representation. We deserve community.

perisex person: “I’m an intersex ally! DNI intersexists!”

intersex person: “Hey, so, you’ve actually been saying and doing some pretty intersexist stuff. I don’t know if you realize, but some of the stuff you say actually harms us a lot-“

perisex person: “OMG you’re LITERALLY a TERF!!! GOOD intersex people WOULD NEVER call out my intersexism!!!!! GOD you’re so ENTITLED. I bet you aren’t even a REAL intersex person, you probably just have PCOS or something. Actually, I think YOU’RE the REAL INTERSEXIST here. I actually LISTEN to intersex people!!!”

Happy disability pride month to any disabled intersex people, whether you are disabled by your intersex variation or something else. Disability pride month can be for us, too, and we are allowed to be proud of being disabled and proud of being intersex!

i’m curious

yadda yadda reblog if you wish it’d make me happy. happy pride month!!!

Fuck it. Post WIP of Zelda Sophonts.