#altersexuality

[thisis-intersexism]

Hello everyone. We just wanted to inform you all that this blog will no longer be receiving submissions and will be discontinued.

This isn’t an easy decision at all. We have been contemplating this decision for months. But we decided that this is the best decision for our own mental and physical health. It’s not just this blog either, but the majority of social media we engage in.

We are pretty sure we’re fully done with it this time. We deeply appreciate all of you and your wonderful words, and am so proud of you and the work we did together to uplift each others voices. I will deeply deeply miss you and running this blog. But there has been so many issues, so much infighting, so much bearing on our back that I simply, for my own sake, can’t keep working on this blog.

I have contemplated giving this blog to someone else to run, but we are unsure of who would be up to do that, let alone trust to run this blog. It has a lot of influence in interblr, that is a fact. At almost 2,000 followers, it’s a heavy burden to trust someone with this. So, for now, after the queue runs out, that’s it. The blog wont be posting anymore. Im sorry.

I want you all to know this; the world, it’s so much larger than the internet. There are mountains, and valleys, and oceans, and creatures and people that won’t read a hateful tumblr post or tweet and decide not to embrace you. You are a part of this universe, and the universe wants you here. Don’t give up. You are worthy of everything you want, everything you strive for. I believe in you.

Thank you so much for the, admittedly, short time we had together. Ashé.

link to the original pinned post [link]

[thisis-intersexism]

is it intersexist for me (agender) to wish i was born intersex (in the same way a trans man might wish he were born male)?

yes, wishing to be intersex in the same sense as transitioning is intersexist for a lot of reasons.

for one, it sort of sets up this idea that intersex is its own isolated sex in a trinary with female and male, which is not how that works. I'm assuming you want to be intersex to have little to no sex characteristics, but that is just one way to be intersex. there are plenty of different ways that I'm sure would make you dysphoric.

another is the fact that that's simply not how the word works. the word is an umbrella term for sex characteristics that you are born with or naturally develop, and perisex is the same. you can be perisex and transition to have little to no sex characteristics, and you can be born intersex and want to transition to have more androgenized or estrogenized characteristics.

wanting to have traits that some intersex people naturally have? this, in my opinion, is not intersexism because our bodies are pretty cool and wanting to look like us is pretty awesome, and wanting to look a certain way that makes you happy is never wrong, it's just the language you use and how you use it.

I'd recommend researching altersex, that may be something that works for you! it's an identity for people who want/transition to have a mixture of or a lack of different sex characteristics. it's sort of like salmacian but I personally have issues with that term.

I really hope this helps!

[thisis-intersexism]

I'm struggling with a lot of guilt lately. I've "felt intersex" since before I knew the word, I've near obsessively researched almost every intersex variation because I feel so deeply that I am intersex. Or at least I was meant to be intersex. I've been thinking about identifying as transintersex, Is this intersexist? Is this wrong? If it is, how do I stop feeling this way? What do I do?

There is nothing wrong with having these feelings. In fact, it's pretty common, especially among trans and nonbinary/genderqueer folks! I remember wanting to be intersex myself before I found out I actually was. I think half of how people even find out they're intersex is really really feeling connected to it and researching it to find out more.

I recommend looking into identifying as altersex[link]! This is a completely okay term that may be accurate for you! I recommend reading this[link] post on it as well. And, (I believe), @this-is-varsexism-transphobia has information on this!

There is nothing wrong with your feelings, and discovering your identity and the body you want to have, the only problem is using the right terms for accuracy and community. I encourage you to keep researching variations, and engaging with our community, and figuring yourself out, anon! This life is too nuanced to fully understand everything, but we must keep trying!

[thisis-intersexism]

hi i'm so sorry if this is a dumb question:

the difference between intersex and not intersex is that it's exclusively something you're born with, right? like being on hrt can cause intersex traits but it doesn't count as intersex because you did it on purpose? but if somebody was born already with those traits that would be intersex?

Intersex: being born with and/or naturally developing sex characteristics outside of the dyadic expectations of male or female

Perisex/Dyadic/Endosex: being born with and/or naturally developing sex characteristics within the dyadic expectations of male or female

You can absolutely medically transition towards / away from sex characteristics typical of most (?) intersex variations, but in order to be intersex, you have to naturally develop traits outside of the dyadic binary/expectations.

[thisis-intersexism]

i feel like, perhaps, the general confusion and lack of resources for altersex people is itself an example of/result of intersexism. the idea that nobody could possibly WANT this, don't you know it's a Horrible And Disgusting Thing To Be? if your transition goal isn't the nice safe perisex option then maybe you're just sick in the head actually, clearly! No we will not offer surgeries to be like that! not to you, A Correctly Genital'd Person, and certainly not to those intersex people who want to fix their "corrective" surgeries and return to their birth setting. that would just be crazy 🙄

This IS intersexism and altersexism and is an amazing point!!!!!! The same way transmisogyny is often "why would you WANT to have a vagina? That's disgusting" is an example of misogyny, "why would you want to be a female? Females Suck" and vice versa for transsexual men, this is absolutely an example of intersexism. Amazing point, anon.

[thisis-intersexism]

Is it intersexism to want ambiguous genitalia? I’m nonbinary and mullerian perisex, but wish I had a clitorophallus and I kinda worry that makes me an intersexist… :(

Not at all!!! It's completely normal, and in fact, there is a term you may like if it helps you understand more about your desired transition: altersex [link]

I would be cautious on the terms you may use (from what I've seen, terms like clitorophallus, micropenis/microphallus, ECT. Are exclusive to intersex people, but terms like clitoromegaly in the right context are okay to use) but there's absolutely nothing wrong with wanting ambiguous genitalia, or any trait that intersex people naturally develop!! Sex and gender aren't binary and you can do what you want forever and ever, anon!!!

[thisis-intersexism]

oh god the transintersex people have found me.

one person said they would rather have been born intersex, and the general response was "it's an identity! feel free using it!"

altersex is right there. and as much as i want to step in and explain to the person (who seemed ill-informed, but nice) that their idea of being intersex is just bigenitalia, i had to get out of there for my own sanity.

This is intersexism.

While, yes, intersex is a voluntary identity and it is not required to identify that way even if you have a variation or trait that fits the label, that's... Not how that works 😐

Again, there is nothing wrong with being altersex, at all, but intersex, as a label and identity, has a very specific meaning that is very important and very much requires that you cannot transition to BE intersex, the same way you cannot transition to be perisex.

[thisis-intersexism]

i’m extremely sorry if this has been asked before or counts as using the inbox as a confessional, i really want a genuine answer and can’t google it because i don’t have access to incognito browsing and my mother checks my search history but uhh,,

is it intersexist for me, a perisex person, to wish i was intersex, or attempt to look into intersex variations under thinking i may be intersex?? i will *never* fake being intersex, but im worried wanting to and occasionally thinking i might be is,, still really bad. im really sorry if this counts as using your inbox as a confessional or if youre not comfortable with answering it and you can like completely ignore this but uhh. yeah.

To say that it's bad to wish you were intersex implies that there's something wrong with being intersex, so I will never say it's inherently wrong to want to be intersex or to question if you are.

I would 100% recommend checking for internalized biases or misinformation that may influence these feelings (the myth of bigenitalia in humans, of our proximity to gender fluidity, the myth that we're all androgynous, etc.) but beyond that, if there are qualities of intersexuality that you really wish to have for yourself, nothing wrong with that, I'd recommend looking into Altersex communities.

And, in general, researching intersex variations to see if you may be intersex is perfectly fine, so many intersex people find out they're intersex because they actively seek out the information to make sure, so I don't really understand why that would be intersexist.

All in all, wanting to have the qualities, variations, traits or what have you of intersex variations is not wrong, it just depends on where that inspiration comes from and the language you use. If you find out that you're intersex, cool beans! If you find out you're perisex, Altersex as a term works just fine and you can transition medically to have the qualities that will be euphoric for you. (Small note, even if you are intersex, you can still transition to have whatever qualities you want, it's your life and your body, go buck wild.)