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Three Interlinking Factors In Intersex

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The term intersex comprises of those individuals who are regarded complete or partial hermaphrodites, or those individuals with indefinite genitals regardless of blatant genomic and/or biological sex (Fausto-Sterling, 2000: 22). Simply put, intersex refers to individuals physical sexual organs do not comply with the standardised norm of male or female.
Question 2:
Kessler (1990) claims that attitudes towards the condition of intersexuality are mainly influenced by three interlinking factors: firstly, the development in surgical techniques and endocrinology; secondly, the influence of the feminist movement that has throughout time came to question the valuation of women in regards to reproduction functionality; and lastly, the psychological …show more content…

For instance, Kessler notes that female genitals are able to be reconstructed indistinguishably to represent regular organs. The second factor relates to the argument from feminist expeditions (For example, the S.H.E (Social, Health and Empowerment Feminist Collective of Transgender and Intersex Women of Africa). with the cause to contend that the presence or absence functional sexual organs should not be the only decisive conditions for gender assignment. Finally, the last factor contends that the term “gender identity” separates the idea of oneself being associated to a gender, and the social expectations and behavioural effects of what is assumed a specific gender should …show more content…

Only in the exception of a dire medical life or death emergency which would require sexual organ surgery should ‘management’ of sexuality be considered; unless that be the case, intersex people, like all individuals, should be given the opportunity to live the life they wish to live, including making their own decisions regarding the notion of sexuality separate from societies standards of sexuality.
Question 4:
Kessler, throughout her study of the relationship between sex and gender, maintains that sexuality is neither fixed nor amendable, but rather constructed in what would fit into the ideals of societal standards. I agree with this assessment as the dominant nature of sexuality is now being questioned and poses a great challenge to this idea. The argument that sex is a socially constructed ideal poses a critical challenge to the categorisation of women and the relevance of a two-fold sex/gender

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