Intersexions Cafe

Ongoing investigation by OII

Mon Apr 21, 2008 3:32 pm by Curtis

Please share the DIRECT link to this investigation which is only beginning with all interested parties.
http://www.intersexualite.org/investigation.html

Deconstructing the Feminine Essence Narrative
Ongoing investigation by OII

Introduction

In the coming weeks, OII will be working with an informant who has primary sources and e-mails from the individuals involved in an attempt to deconstruct the “feminine essence narrative”, especially those associated with the Clark/Northwestern Clique. Why is OII interested in collaborating with this informant about an issue that at first may seem tangential to intersex? OII is convinced that this issue which at first seems unrelated to intersex really has serious consequences for intersex adults and children. Current protocols for the management of intersex children require a GENDER assignment as soon as possible and the same protocols prevent the child from having any input into the ARBITRARY decision. A gender assignment is not the SEX assignment. In other words, intersex children are assigned a GENDER, which is expected to reflect their gender identity, and many are assigned a "FEMALE GENDER", which is nothing more than an expectation that their lives will reflect a "feminine essence narrative".

However, the very people who are ardent defenders of the imposition of a female gender on many intersex infants, (with the expectation that their lives will be in accord with a feminine essence narrative), are insisting that no such concept really exists, despite evidence to the contrary. The problem is, that some intersex children, may very well have a firm female gender identity (or feminine essence narrative), but others will not, despite the fact that the expectation is IMPOSED on them without consent. If the child later insists, that the imposed female gender assignment is incorrect, as it does not match their true gender identity (or feminine essence narrative), the child risks being told that there is no such thing, (and that "it is not about gender"), despite the fact that justification for the gender assignment was the belief that "gender identity" does exist.

This is strengthened by the numerous investigations of gender outcomes in various intersexed conditions (e.g., virtually the entire August 2005 issue of Archives of Sexual Behavior is devoted to gender outcomes in intersex persons with various types of intersex variations), as well as the NICHD task force on psychosexual development, and the addition of an intersex (now DSD) committee, as part of the HBIGDA/WPATH.

Part 1

http://www.intersexualite.org/FEN1.html

Part 2

http://www.intersexualite.org/FEN2.html

Part 3

http://www.intersexualite.org/FEN3.html

Comments: 1

July 2008