Interdisciplinary and Global Perspectives on Intersex

✍ Scribed by Megan Walker (editor)

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2022
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 289
• Edition: 1st ed. 2022
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This edited collection interrogates how social and cultural representations of individuals with intersex variations impact how they are understood and treated from legal and medical perspectives across the world. Contributors consider how novelists, filmmakers, artists, and medical professionals have represented people with intersex variations, and highlight the importance of ethical representation and autonomy to encourage wider cultural and medical knowledge of intersex variations as a naturally occurring phenomenon. The text also examines the ways in which individuals with intersex variations are represented and viewed in India, Italy, Pakistan and Israel, as well as how this impacts decision making for the individuals, families and medical providers. This book argues that reactions to intersex variations will not change unless they are no longer presented as treatable disorders. It positions representation at the forefront, shifting the emphasis away from a concern for maintaining gender norms to upholding the human rights of intersex people.

This volume will be of interest to researchers and scholars in intersex studies as well as policymakers and activists.

✦ Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Contents
Notes on Contributors
List of Tables
Chapter 1: Introduction
Objectives
The Field of Intersex Studies
Contributions
References
Part I: Representing Intersex
Chapter 2: Intersex in Fictional Films Throughout History: Towards a Cinema of Inclusion?
Background
Intersex or DSD: A Brief Introduction
Middlesex and the Challenge of Representation
The Power of Images and Study Aims
Methods
Results
General Film Characteristics
Narrative Representation of Intersex Variations on Screen
Coming-of-Age Story4
Modern Myth-Telling
Camp-Horror Tales
Visual Portrayal of Intersex Variations on Screen
The Metaphor of Liminality
Fascination with the Corporeal Dimension
Traditional Gender Roles and Sexuality
Animals as Allies, Animals as Alter Ego
Discussion
Limitations
Conclusions
References
Chapter 3: ‘Declining to Describe’: Intersex Narrators and Textual Visibility
‘The Uninvited Act of Looking’: Normativity and Representation
Middlesex’s Disembodied Narrator and the Objectification of the Experiencing-I
The Refusal to ‘Help Visualise’: Ethical Erasures in Confessions of the Fox
Conclusion
References
Chapter 4: The Importance of Narrative in Intersex Representation: A Literary Reading of John Money’s Case Histories
The Cultural Role of Myth: Hermaphroditus and Modern Intersex Narratives
John Money: The Author-God of Intersex Representation
Conclusion
References
Chapter 5: Toxic Sexing: Aaron Apps’ Intersex Poetics in Our Chemically Altered Age
Toxic Exposures
Transsex Panics
Toxic Becomings
Pure Sex
Mourning a Toxic Planet
Frogs and the Inevitable End
References
Chapter 6: ‘This Is What I Am and Who I Am’: Exploring Authorship and Ethics in Intersex Research and Reflective Diaries
Introduction
Intersex Life Writing
The Importance of Methodological Decisions
Interviews in Intersex Research
Intentions Behind Methods
Power and Control
Diaries in Research
Experiences of Diary-Writing
Conclusion
References
Chapter 7: When Bioethics Fails: Intersex, Epistemic Injustice and Advocacy
Introduction
Interview
Conclusion
References
Chapter 8: Afterword to “Representing Intersex”
Conclusions
References
Part II: Global Intersex
Chapter 9: Examining Autonomy and Consent in Gender Assignment Decisions on Intersex People in India
Introduction
Autonomy
Power Dynamics in the Medical Complex
Consent Process
Doctors as Research Participants
Impact of Intersectional Axes of Marginality on Doctor-Patient Relationships
Concluding Remarks
References
Chapter 10: An Apparent Paradox: The Bio-medicalisation of Intersex Variations in Italy
Research Framework, Methodology, Definitions and Terminology
An Apparent Paradox: Biological Variability and ‘Normalisation’ of Intersex Bodies
Protocols and Practices in Italy Within the International Context
Concluding Remarks: A Matter of Human Rights
References
Chapter 11: A Critical Analysis of the Transgender (Intersex) Persons Act, 2018, in Pakistan Versus United Nations Recommendations
Introduction
Analysis
Conclusion
References
Chapter 12: Towards an Inclusive Approach to Harmful Practices: The Case of Western Elective Surgeries on Intersex Children
Introduction
Historical Background
Main Features of HTPs
Harmfulness
Traditional and Cultural
Critics of the Approach to HTP
Elective Surgeries on People with Intersex Traits
Harmfulness
Cultural and/or Traditional
Conclusion
References
Legal Sources
Chapter 13: The Geneticisation of Intersex Bodies in Israel
Introduction
The Medicalisation and Geneticisation of Intersex/DSD Bodies
The Medicalisation and the Geneticisation of Intersex/DSD Bodies in Israel
Methods
Control and Lack of Control of Intersex/DSD Bodies
“PGD Is Preferable to Pregnancy Termination”
Certainty and Uncertainty in Genetic Diagnosis Practices
Discussion
Appendix
References
Chapter 14: Western Management of Intersex and the Myth of Patient-Centred Care
Introduction
A New Care Standard
Patient-Centred Care
Team Characteristics
Medical Overreach and Psychological Disengagement
Implications for Childhood Genital Surgery
Conclusion
References
Chapter 15: Global Intersex, an Afterword: Global Medicine, Connected Communities, and Universal Human Rights
Nomenclature
Global Medicine
Connected Communities
Universal Human Rights
References
Index