Today is Intersex Solidarity Day, sometimes also known as Intersex Day of Remembrance. The 8th of November was chosen because it's the birth day of Herculine Adelaide Barbin (1838-68). Born intersex but assigned female at birth, Herculine was aware of her sexual ambiguity. Brought up a Catholic and educated at an all girls convent school, she, nevertheless falls in love with a schoolfriend. After leaving school at 17 she trains to be a teacher. And there again she falls in love with a woman. However, on experiencing excruciating pains she visits a doctor who discovers she's intersex. Then for some reason she goes to confession which, apparently, Roman Catholics do routinely but when she confessed her pseudohermaphroditism to the bishop he wished to break the sacramental seal and refer her to a specialist doctor. As a result, Herculine is reassigned a male despite having a small vagina and a very small penis. Furthermore, she is legally pronounced male and forced to live as a man. This was probably a fitful reaction to her being a lesbian rather than actually believing she was a male. Herculine/Abel found this change of identity difficult to live with and it's assumed she/he took her/his own life by inhaling gas from her/his stove. However, it could have just been a faulty stove, since, living in poverty meant she couldn't afford a new one!
In her memoirs she uses female pronouns when referring to herself prior to the legal declaration that she's male at which point she refers to herself in male pronouns. However, her own self-identification remained female.
Foucault famously published Herculine's memoirs together with an introduction in 1977 entitled 'Herculine Barbin: Being the Recently Discovered Memoirs of a Nineteenth-century French Hermaphrodite'. It appeared in English in 1980.
The word 'hermaphrodite' is no longer in use because scientifically speaking it refers to an organism that produces female and male gametes (sex cells). So, it's considered a discriminatory and disparaging word to use with reference to intersex people.
The story of Herculine raises questions.
1) As Foucault points out in his introduction to Barbin's Memoirs: Why was intersex such an issue in the 19th century when in the Middle Ages intersex individuals were given the right to decide which sex they wished to be once adults? A more enlightened view than even today, although not a perfect system. It stiffled gender fluidity and non-binary identities as well as gay relationships because you were stuck with one of the binary sex options you'd chosen as an adult prior to marriage. They were then expected to marry the opposite of their chosen sex. This also had a knock-on effect on bisexuals.
It was, indeed, as a result of the bias of scientists that we ended up with Intersex being a problem and the notion of binary being the norm. This notion of binary was challenged in the latter part of the twentieth century and discredited but some are still trying to bring this outmoded, backward notion of binary back into fashionable ideology in the twenty-first century.
2) Why was the term 'disorders of sex development' introduced in 2006 to refer to intersex (a word already introduced in the 1990's) and hermaphroditism, a vague term at the best of times?
In 2006, 'disorders of sex development' was introduced as a term to refer to intersex (a word introduced in the 1990's) and hermaphroditism. The word 'disorders' is an objectionable one to describe people who have been around since the beginning of time. It also implies that these people need to be corrected to become 'normal'. Whatever normal means! Reis (Elizabeth) maintains that the word 'disorder' should be replaced by the word 'divergence' of sex development'. Here's an excellent abstract for an article she wrote on this topic: Reis.
Intersex people are still suffering genital mutilation as babies and children by doctors to make them conform to the gender binary. This not only causes unwanted, unwarranted, non-consensual physical harm, even to this day, but also psychological and emotional harm. This is strikingly portrayed in the memoirs of Herculine.
The Malta Declaration (2013) called for the end of discrimination against intersex including medical/psychological intervention and putting an end to the abortion of intersex foetuses. Funny how suddenly abortion is fine as long as it's an intersex foetus!
How can the UK not adopt The Malta Declaration? It's had nigh on 8 years to implement it! 😠Surely, this makes intersex people even more vulnerable to 'conversion therapy'. Although intersex people have few rights in the UK, nevertheless, in 2018, they were given the option to identify as female, male, diverse, or no gender at birth (parental consent) or later. Currently, a charity is being set up to support all intersex individuals irrespective of race, sexuality and circumstances. It's called 'Intersex Equality Rights UK': Intersex Equality Rights UK
Here's a link to details of The Malta Declaration:
Trans people have also suffered, and still do, from the same labelling and prejudice which causes immense harm both psychologically and emotionally.
3) Why was there such a strong negative reaction against lesbians in France in the 19th century?
Was it due to France being a Roman Catholic country?
Was it due to France being a culture which emphasizes heterosexuality?
Was it and indeed is it, not just in France, a form of misogyny?
After all, sex between women doesn't involve anything that heterosexuals don't also engage in. The same is true of gay men. (Heterosexual sex is quite a broad term covering a wide spectrum of activity.) So the only difference is that the two people are of the same sex. In simple terms, we are all human beings, whether heterosexual or a member of the LGBTQIA community. So it makes no difference who you are in love with, or what their gender identity is, you're still in love with and having sex with a fellow human being, irrespective of their biological divergences. And since we are supposed to be rational, empathic human beings with sexual needs we make love for pleasure not just to procreate. Animals are the ones who have sex to procreate.
For further discussion, see:
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