| Title | : | Contesting Intersex: The Dubious Diagnosis |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1479887048 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781479887040 |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 240 |
| Publication | : | First published September 11, 2015 |
In Contesting Intersex, Davis draws on interviews with intersex people, their parents, and medical experts to explore the oft-questioned views on intersex in medical and activist communities, as well as the evolution of thought in regards to intersex visibility and transparency. She finds that framing intersex as an abnormality is harmful and can alter the course of one’s life. In fact, controversy over this framing continues, as intersex has been renamed a ‘disorder of sex development’ throughout medicine. This happened, she suggests, as a means for doctors to reassert their authority over the intersex body in the face of increasing intersex activism in the 1990s and feminist critiques of intersex medical treatment. Davis argues the renaming of ‘intersex’ as a ‘disorder of sex development’ is strong evidence that the intersex diagnosis is dubious. Within the intersex community, though, disorder of sex development terminology is hotly disputed; some prefer not to use a term which pathologizes their bodies, while others prefer to think of intersex in scientific terms. Although terminology is currently a source of tension within the movement, Davis hopes intersex activists and their allies can come together to improve the lives of intersex people, their families, and future generations. However, for this to happen, the intersex diagnosis, as well as sex, gender, and sexuality, needs to be understood as socially constructed phenomena. A personal journey into medical and social activism, Contesting Intersex presents a unique perspective on how medical diagnoses can affect lives profoundly.
Contesting Intersex: The Dubious Diagnosis Reviews
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One of my favourite "conspiracy theories" is that a large percentage if not the majority of humans have non-binary karyotypes.
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Just noticed that Goodreads seems to have eaten my review from a few years back, but it's available on my website -
http://www.bogireadstheworld.com/nonf... -
In Contesting Intersex, Georgiann Davis examines how intersex is defined, experienced, and contested in contemporary US society. She argues that power rests in diagnostic labels, tracing the emergence of the disorder of sexual development (DSD) nomenclature when referring to intersex individuals. Davis relies on gender structure theory (see Risman 1998) to argue that intersex is a problem because it disrupts the traditional gender order and the “ideology” of gender, sex, and sexuality as binaries. An interesting read for anyone who wants to deepen their understanding of gender.
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A fantastic sociological study of intersex (which is so much more than just ambiguous genitalia!), the harms caused by the medical system, and the activism by intersex people and their families. In this moment, as legislatures work to take away the right of trans children to autonomy over their bodies, we should remember that intersex kids have never had autonomy over their bodies: that for many of them, they were surgically "assigned" a genitalia at birth that did not match who they turned out to be. Children, like adults, have a human right to their autonomy.
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** Read for my 2021 gender and sexuality comprehensive exams **
An interesting study of intersex conditions, some of those who live with them and the often unnecessary medical interventions that only serve to harm intersex children. This book was a good mix of qualitative research, some historical/contemporary intersex issues and theory, though I wish the author had focused a bit more on the former. It was really interesting to hear about the experiences of her participants. -
Great book even better knowing that I’m learning from the author of this book. Gives you a perceptive about intersex and gender that is very really seen unless learned from in a college setting
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Interesting theoretical frameworks, great information for someone who knew very little about intersex traits, pretty repetitive
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I read Contesting Intersex for my Sociology of Gender class. Having next to no prior knowledge regarding intersex individuals and the intersex community, this text supplied myself and my class with a more than adequate representation of what intersex/DSD is. Also, my class was lucky enough to have a video lecture with Davis, which furthered my admiration for her and the progress of the direction she is pushing wide spread intersex advocacy.
