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“where’s the love for intersex?”

2009 February 4
by Anne Dalke

Some of you may have seen the article in yesterday’s Philadelphia Inquirer: “Big Man (okay, the only man) on Campus,” about how happy James Merriam is to be the first guy to live @ BMC in ten years (though, the article notes, “that doesn’t include the transgender students on campus”). It also doesn’t note the likelihood of the sorts of conditions we’re viewing/reading/talking about today. My son (an ’07 HC grad, whose girlfriend–also an ’07 HC grad– is intersex) first noticed this article on runnerunner, where a goat flagged the line from the Inquirer article, “Merriam… possesses something that no other student living on campus has: a Y chromosome,” and responded, saying: “I doubt that. where’s the love for intersex and genetic sex disorders?”

The hermaphrodism that Michelle describes (not to mention the technology as an extension of humanity that Alex celebrates) is closer than you think! Another, related (and important!) question I have, for aaclh, has to do w/ how she would apply her ideas about passing-as-lying to surgical corrections for intersex, dwarfism, cleft palates, etc….?

3 Responses
  1. J S permalink
    February 4, 2009

    this article was extremely offensive. it equated male gender identity with having a y chromosome. i thought we’d made some progress since the fifties.

  2. February 4, 2009

    I agree with JS. I couldn’t even finish it. He’s considered a “sluice for testosterone” and lives among the “fluctuating hormones” of 1300 women. Bleh.

    And don’t even read the comments–they’re even more offensive.

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  1. The Mainstream Media and Transgender Issues | Gender and Technology Spring 2009

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