#they're going to go the way of the circular file cabinet

[wrangletangle]

I'm confused about how it can be arbitrary to define sex as binary. Obviously intersex people exist, but it's not normal for our species and usually hinders the person's reproduction (purpose of sex organs). Aren't you implying that very consistent anatomy should be ignored because of few anomalies? Isn't it okay to recognize it as an abnormality, but one that generally doesn't harm the person and shouldn't be "fixed" without their consent? Abnormal =/= bad but a general binary definitely exists

Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that I accept that you’re genuinely confused and not baiting. (For the record, you sound like a top ten list of queerphobic dog whistles, but you could possibly be doing that by accident. It’s happened before to well-meaning folks over-exposed to bs.)

No argument about “normal for our species” is EVER going to fly with me. Ever. Lines about reproduction have been hurled at queer people for far longer than I’ve been alive, and they’ve always been wrong. We find more and more queer animals in the wild the more years that go by. So nope, no armchair biology here. Actual biologists would laugh long and hard because:

All the species we’re most closely related to use sex as a social bonding tool

Numerous individual mammals and birds have been observed in queer relationships

Sex organs are messy things and some species happily switch ‘em up

We don’t all need to reproduce in order to continue our species

Plenty of intersex people can reproduce, not that they need to in order to be considered “normal”

“Obviously intersex people exist” - how about 1.5+% of the population, close to the number of autistic people. Feelin’ it now?

Also, our lines are absolutely arbitrary. The US has a 2.5 standard deviations rule. This refers to the size of the penis/clitoris at birth. It’s literally a size rule that determines whether doctors will offer or even strongly encourage surgery on an unconsenting infant in order to force their visible external sex organs to conform to an imaginary gender binary. (These offers are often accompanied by scaring parents that their child will be an unhappy outcast forever if they don’t do surgery now now now.) It says nothing about chromosomes, internal organs, hormones, etc. There are a whole lot of ways to be intersex, and a lot of them show up during puberty (which is another common period of forced surgeries). So yes, if you’ve never heard of micropenis, maybe you wouldn’t think it’s arbitrary, but it absolutely is. It’s forced conformity.

“very consistent anatomy“ AHAHAHAHA Omg, where did you get your science education? Human anatomy is in no way consistent, most especially in primary and secondary sexual characteristics. I have read treatises from the 19th century talking about women with 2-inch clitorises, so this isn’t some BGH-driven wild side - it’s normal. I have seen women (not on hormones) with beards. Vaginas come in a wild variety of shapes and sizes, some of them structured so that penetration is painful, some so it’s impossible. Cis women are often born with 1 or 0 ovaries. Uteruses are not uniform in structure or even presence - cis women are born without them sometimes. The urethra effing migrates, I stg. Boobs come in every shape and size, including virtually nonexistent. Body hair and hip width and everything else we associate with “female” varies so widely as to basically be useless as gender indicators, even among cis people.

But you know what? Even if all that weren’t true, I would never call someone “abnormal” or an “anomaly” for being a small population. Less than 2% of the world are redheads - do you call them anomalies and abnormal and say we shouldn’t adjust our understanding of hair color and genetics to account for them?

As for “hindering reproduction”, you can fuck all the way off on that one. First of all, involuntary sex assignment surgery is often what renders intersex people infertile - many intersex people actually are fertile if left the fuck alone. Second, there are a lot of things that can hinder reproduction, and everyone involved is still a human being. We don’t suddenly pretend they don’t exist because of that, or that everyone who can’t or doesn’t have kids is suddenly some bizarre outlier who shouldn’t be counted in our understanding of the world.

In conclusion: Do not come onto my blog and try to medicalize intersex people’s bodies or treat intersex people like freaks or call them abnormal. Intersex people are people, are part of the normal variation of human bodies, belong in our queer community, and aren’t going around calling you an anomaly. Even if, by throwing around fake biological assertions, you make yourself sound like a fundie.

Also no, the gender binary doesn’t exist and is made up. Go read a Queer History book on constructions of gender, I don’t have time to teach you a full college course on tumblr dot com.

Further Reading:

Medically Unnecessary Surgeries in Intersex Children in the US (Human Rights Watch)

I was an intersex child who had surgery. Don’t put other kids through this. (by Kimberly Zieselman)

What Will Malta’s New Intersex Law Mean for the Rest of the World? (Vice)

(As a side note, I’m turning off anon asks for a few days. I suspect radfems are going to come calling, and I want to force them to name & shame so I can take screenshots, laugh, and delete their asks like I usually do.)

#intersexphobia #queer community #queerphobia #terf warning #or at least the rhetoric of one #wt answers #i ain't going to entertain the rest of these #they're going to go the way of the circular file cabinet #so don't bother siccing your legions #i am an old battlehand #and i honestly could not care less about what radfems think of me