From: Eric Watt Forste (arkuat@idiom.com)
Date: Wed Feb 02 2000 - 20:25:41 MST
At 09:22 PM 3/01/00, KAe wrote:
>right now, we are taking intersex
>children and forcibly rendering them into one of two established
>gender schemas. That trend belies any possibility of greater
>expression and freedom for voluntary enhancements.
Damien Broderick replied:
> This worries me. My impression is that intersex phenotypes are
> basically developmental *errors*. They are not emergent wonderous
> mutant alternatives. Not even the starting point for a viable
> parallel community like deaf or dwarfed people. Do we decline to
> intervene with hydrocephalic babies, on the grounds that it's mere
> prejudice against Greys that makes us normalize the vast-headed?
Um, I know I'm way behind and this point has probably already been
addressed, but since I have moved among the viable parallel community
made of intersex people (yes, it is a very small one), many of whom
now suffer sexual dysfunction not resulting from their congenital
condition but from postnatal genital mutilation (i. e. attempts to
"repair" them), I must differ with this.
And I doubt my friends who were born intersex would much relish
being compared to hydrocephalics.
-- Eric Watt Forste <arkuat@idiom.com>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 15:26:36 MST