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16th September 2009 | Uncompleted

Radical Disagreement Reframed Metaphorically through Intersexuality

Relevance to faith, ethics, policy, and ways of knowing

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Introduction
Varieties of intersexuality
References

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Introduction

This exploration is essentially a sequel to that on the binary logic of "us and them" (Us and Them: Relating to Challenging Others, 2009). There reference was made to the subtleties of intersexuality highlighted in this period by the widely publicized difficulty of determining the gender of Caster Semenya, a world record-breaking athlete who had run as a woman.

The question here is whether the recognized tangible intermediary conditions of intersexuality -- a challenge to the absolute distinction made between male and female -- offer ways of thinking about other radical polarizations. Clearly society has a very heavy investment in the binary distinction between male and female, whether in sport, salary scales, skin colour, "two culture" frameworks, or mutually challenged civilizations. This is notably evident in civil status registration and associated institutionalization (schools, prisons, military service, religion, etc) -- but is most ironically evident in public toilet facilities. As under the apartheid regime of South Africa, people have to choose how they "pass" as one or other -- or have that determination made for them.

And yet the complexities of the reality of intersexuality highlight the possibility of more complex classifications in many such domains. What is it that enables reflection on intermediary conditions? The issue in what follows is not the specifics of intersexuality but how it might be used as a metaphor for more general reflection -- especially in the light of learnings from the problematic dynamics associated with intersexuality.

Whereas both the productive and dysfunctional dynamics associated with polarized perspectives are well known, those associated with intermediary conditions are not. Is it possible that there may be fruitful insights between the polar extremes. In a period in which the world is preoccupied by extremism in various forms -- in which it has invested heavily -- is it possible that intermediary conditions may offer new possibilities to otherwise blocked situations?

Varieties of intersexuality

It is perhaps not surprising that there is no universal classification of conditions of intersexuality. It is perhaps not surprising that three months was the time required by the International Association of Athletics Federations to determine whether Caster Semenya was female or male -- or otherwise. This of course raises the question of how facile is the assumption that any individual is simply one or other extreme, rather than a mix that may be neither suspected nor immediately visible.

Part of the problem is the degree to which people are socially conditioned to expect that someone should be either one or the other. The two extremes are "normal". Anything otherwise is "abnormal" and is typically surgically corrected and/or otherwise disguised.

		Ovaries / Testes	Androgen / Testosterone	Wolffian Ducts	MIS (Müllerian inhibiting substance)	Mullerian Ducts	External genitalia	Puberty
Normal Female Development	XX	ovaries develop	no androgen produced	Wolffian Ducts regress	no MIS produced	Mullerian Ducts develop	external genitalia are female	feminizing puberty	.
Complete androgen insensitivity syndrome (CAIS) development	XY	testes develop	androgen produced, but body can not respond	Wolffian Ducts regress	MIS produced	Mullerian Ducts do not develop	external genitalia are female	feminizing puberty without menses	.
Partial Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (PAIS) development	XY	testes develop	androgen produced, but body partially unresponsive	Wolffian Ducts develop minimally	MIS produced	Mullerian Ducts do not develop	external genitalia are ambiguous	feminizing puberty with estrogen therapy	partial masculinizing puberty with testosterone therapy
Complete Gonadal Dysgenesis	XY	streak gonads	no androgen produced	Wolffian Ducts regress	no MIS produced	Mullerian Ducts develop	external genitalia are female	feminizing puberty with estrogen therapy	.
Partial Gonadal Dysgenesis	XY	partial testes determination	variable amount of androgen produced	some Wolffian Duct development	variable amount of MIS production	some Mullerian Duct development	ambiguous external genitalia	feminizing puberty with estrogen therapy	masculinizing puberty with testosterone therapy
5-alpha-Reductase Deficiency	XY	testes develop	testosterone but no DHT produced	Wolffian Ducts develop	MIS produced	Mullerian Ducts regress	ambiguous external genitalia	feminizing puberty with removal of testes and estrogen therapy	testes left intact, partial masculinizing puberty
Complete Testosterone Biosynthetic Defect	XY	testes develop	no androgens due to enzyme deficiency	Wolffian Ducts regress	MIS is produced	Mullerian Ducts regress	external genitalia are female	feminizing puberty if given estrogen therapy	.
Partial Testosterone Biosynthetic Defect	XY	testes develop	partial production of androgens	some Wolffian Duct development	MIS produced	Mullerian Ducts regress	ambiguous external genitalia	feminizing puberty with estrogen therapy	partial masculinizing puberty with testosterone therapy
Micropenis	XY	testes develop	androgens early in fetal life, deficient later in fetal life	Wolffian Ducts develop	MIS produced	Mullerian Ducts regress	micropenis	feminizing puberty if given estrogen therapy	partially masculinizing puberty if exposed to testosterone
Timing Defect	XY	testes develop	androgen produced at incorrect time	Wolffian Ducts develop	MIS produced	Mullerian Ducts regress	external genitalia range from female to ambiguous	feminizing puberty with estrogen therapy	partially masculinizing puberty with testosterone therapy
46,XX CAH	XX	ovaries develop	no testicular androgens but excessive adrenal androgens produced	Wolffian Ducts regress	no MIS produced	Mullerian Ducts develop	ambiguous external genitalia	feminizing puberty if treated with cortisol	.
Klinefelter Syndrome	XXY	small testes at puberty	often decreased androgen production	Wolffian Ducts develop	MIS produced	Mullerian Ducts regress	male external genitalia with small penis	.	masculinizing puberty with possible decreased androgen production
Turner Syndrome	XO	gonadal streaks develop	no androgen produced	Wolffian Ducts regress	no MIS produced	Mullerian Ducts develop	external genitalia are female	feminizing puberty with estrogen therapy	.
45,XO/46,XY Mosaicism	XY	partial testes determination	variable amount of androgen produced	some Mullerian Duct development	.	some Mullerian Duct development	ambiguous external genitalia	feminizing puberty with estrogen therapy	masculinizing puberty with testosterone therapy
Normal Male Development	XY	testes develop	androgen produced	Wolffian Ducts develop	MIS produced	Mullerian Ducts do not develop	external genitalia are male	masculinizing puberty	.

The issue has been more recently dramatised in public debate through the cases of Conchita Wurst (winner of the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest), and of Chelsea Manning (Chelsea Manning sues US military over denial of gender dysphoria treatment, The Guardian, 23 September 2014).

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References

C. Cooky and S. L. Dworkin. Policing the Boundaries of Sex: A Critical Examination of Gender Verification and the Caster Semenya Controversy. Journal of Sex Research, 50,, 2013, 2, pp. 103-111

Anne Fausto-Sterling. Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality. 2000 [text]

Dan Christian Ghattas and Heinrich Bã¶ll Foundation. Human Rights Between the Sexes. 2013 [text]

Morgan Holmes (Ed.). Critical Intersex, Ashgate Publishing, 2009 [contents]

Katrina Karkazis. Fixing Sex: Intersex, Medical Authority, and Lived Experience. 2008 [text]

Organisation Intersex International Australia, Submission on the ethics of genetic selection against intersex traits. April 2014 [text]

San Francisco Human Rights Commission. A Human Rights Investigation into the medical "normalization" of intersex people. [text].

Leonard Sax. How common is intersex? A response to Anne Fausto-Sterling. Journal of Sex Research 39, 2002, pp. 174-9 [text]

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