Intersex

When I was little, I used to watch this Taiwanese drama with my mother. It was a drama that composed episodes of short, real-life stories. I remember one of the episodes was about this little girl who was treated horribly by her parents due to their discovery of her intersex conditions (her ambiguous genitalia and etc.) She was called "monster" by her own family and the people from her village. She eventually left the village and moved into a temple and live a life of a nun. Many of the female Buddhists trusted her a lot because she was a nun (at least she appeared to be one). However, no one knows that she was actually a lesbian (I don't exactly know or remember how her sexual orientation was defined in the drama); therefore, the female Buddhists were willing to spend a night at the temple after a long day of worshipping. Then, the nun would used this opportunity to rape these female Buddhists. The drama ended with the conclusion that all intersex people are homosexuals and they are all suffering from serious mental illness. At that time I didn't think much about such conclusion and "accusations" about intersex people, but after this week's (week 8) lessons, I realized such statements are very harmful, unfair, and are just simply wrong.

In the reading "ISNA Materials," intersex is defined as "a general term used for a variety of conditions in which a person is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn't seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male." In other words, intersex people are the ones with "ambiguous genitalia" that makes it difficult for the doctors to assign a gender right after birth. However, it is also explained in the reading that surgeries are required to make the genitals look "more normal" (to look either like a female's genital or a male's genital). In the drama, the main intersex character was not given any surgical treatment to help her (him) with the ambiguous genitalia. Therefore, the main character should not have the ability to perform sexual intercourse using her (his) male genital as described in the drama. This would be another example (after countless examples) of media giving out misleading information to its audiences. People were being informed by this drama that intersex people are monsters and they are born with the ability to have sex both as a woman or a man, and even more ridiculous they can/will use this ability to rape both men and women. I am very shock to find myself living with such a misleading concept up until today.
I agree with many of the ideas from the Patient-Centered Model recommended by ISNA. I think it is essential to let the child choose for her or himself at a mature age whether she or he would prefer to have the surgical treatment to make the genital look more like one of a female or one of a male. It is the child's life; therefore it is totally reasonable to let the child make such decision. Furthermore, letting the child make the decision can avoid future conflicts, both internal or external. For example, if the parents of the intersex child made the decision to make the child completely a "girl," then what happens when what the child really wants is to be a boy? The child might not feel normal about him or herself, worse, what if other people around the child started to call her (him) a lesbian because she likes girls? Therefore, I think it is important that parents give the intersex child as much care as possible without further intervening with how the child should feel (whether more like a boy or more like a girl).

picture siting: blog by Desiree and Lars