doctors have a interest in “curing” intersex children. that is the main and oftentimes only purpose of intersex medical treatments, to “cure” a problem that doesn’t exist. I think this is best understood with the larger framework of the ideology of cure: the medical industrial complex is set up in a way where cure is defined as eradication and prioritized above all else, and things that disabled people might want or need (accessibility, freedom from pain, political power) are dismissed as insignificant unless they help promote cure. The ideology of cure is part of the reason why we are sold prenatal genetic testing for Down Syndrome and eugenic abortion, why we are sold skin lightening creams, why the diet industry exists, why homosexuality was in the DSM: the ideology of cure is a deeply, deeply ableist, racist, oppressive structure that is integral to the way the medical industrial complex operates. And the ideology of cure is why intersex medical abuse exists.
Most “treatments” that make up the standard of care are treating cosmetic issues rather than legitmate, life threatening issues like salt wasting crisis. And even the treatments that provide life saving care are often wrapped up with other interventions that provide no benefit and are focused on “normalization.” Look at any of the rhetoric that doctors use in their research studies and private letters: they blatently admit that most interventions have no necessary function besides normalization, and are very clear on their racist, ableist, homophobic, standards for “normal.” As an intersex person, when you go to the doctor to try to get the help you might want (having some type of stable hormone levels, addressing anemia, dealing with adrenal crisis), much of the time you are also coerced or blatently forced into other treatments such as hair removal and nonconsensual hormone therapy. The first concern of doctors is usually trying to make you as dyadic as possible, whether or not you’ve expressed interest in those treatments. The medical industrial complex does not want intersex people to exist, and as a result there is a whole industry and people who have built careers off of surgically and hormonally trying to force intersex people to be as close to dyadic as possible, nevermind the harm this causes to us.
Intersexism does not exist in isolation: much of the stated reasoning behind intersex medical intervention is to prevent children from growing up to be gay or trans. The only intersex adult considered acceptable is one who is able to have heterosexual sex, have biological children, and who is gender conforming. None of this is hidden: I have had all these things said to me by my doctors, and much medical literature is very blatent about their reasoning for things like sudden hormonal intervention and surgery. (Look up anything about dilators and intersex children to see how bad this gets–major content warning for child sexual abuse.) Much of intersex medical experimentation is tied to the incredibly violent, antiblack history of medical experimentation in gynecology. Things like the hirituism scale often use explicitly racist language to discuss body hair, and white supremacist beauty standards are embraced by doctors in the way that they suggest treatment. Intersex bodies are seen as a threat by doctors, in many ways because we challenge the status quo by existing naturally: to let us grow up healthy would be to admit that biological sex is a social construct, and would prevent them from trying to shape us into their ideal, white, heterosexual, cisgender, compliant as-close-to-dyadic-as-possible adult.
Intersex medical abuse is particularly violent and blatent, but it is not an anamoly in the way that the medical industrial complex works. All disabled people are fucked over by the ideology of cure, not just intersex people. And part of this violence is the way intersex people are encouraged not to identify as disabled. The medical industrial complex is happy to label us disordered, sure–but not disabled. That is very intentional: they want us to buy into the idea that we need to be cure-eradicated, but don’t want us to feel any type of community, solidarity, or political power. Disabled community is fucking powerful, and intersex people having access to this type of community is such a threat to intersexism. Having access to our own self-identification, advocacy, and autonomy, directly challeneges the ideology of cure that wants us to label ourselves as disordered in a way that only the medical industrial complex can “fix.”
Intersex people do not need to be cured. And in order for us to actually fight against the violent harms that we are facing, we need to understand why they are happening and who else these systems of power are harming. Intersex medical abuse needs to be understood not just as a one-off issue of doctors abusing power, but rather as a prominent example of the harms that the medical industrial complex causes by being oriented around cure.
Okay to reblog by anyone, and here’s some sources if you want to learn more:
Brilliant Imperfection: Grappling with Cure by Eli Clare
List of Academic Studies about intersex medical abuse
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