The intersex elephant that needs to be addressed.
Intersex people are often times not spoken about in the LGBTQIA+ community, despite the fact that we’re the sixth letter in it. The reason? I have no idea, especially when intersex people are arguably one of the best arguments when defending the rest of the community; The concept of gender truly does mean nothing, and consulting your genes does not secure the binary.
You’d think we’d be happy for any representation. So why are so many intersex characters considered “problematic” to us?
Here’s the honest truth; The old term no longer used for intersex people is “hermaphrodite”, which was used to describe someone born between sexes, specifically when they had mixed genitalia. This term has since been deemed problematic and is no longer used.
The truth is, being intersex, or existing between sexes, is a massive spectrum. Will some people have mixed genitalia? Yes. Will some of them appear as androgynous? Yes. Will some of them have had an invasive surgery to make their genitals appear non-mixed? Unfortunately, yes. That is a thing that some of us experience. But for many others, intersex means naturally mixed hormones, chromosomes, or secondary sex characteristics (outwardly identifiable gender features such as: beard, breasts, fat distribution, etc.). For some people, you would never know they’re intersex just by looking at them. Intersex does not have a look, and it goes far beyond genitals.
And yet, every intersex character is the same; Mixed genitals, possible traumatic backstory of a forced surgery, and/or used as a fetish means to make a woman get someone pregnant, or for a man to get pregnant or have a menstrual cycle.
Even and sometimes especially within the LGBTQIA+ community, we’re still reduced to a fetish. We’re talked about like some proverbial possibility. A mythical creature that can technically happen, but that you probably won’t meet in real life. Just as an example, the tag “weird biology” is almost always included in fan fictions that feature intersex characters, and we’re never included unless it’s in a story that includes smut or discusses reproduction.
Everyone can understand that reducing a trans person to their genitals isn’t okay, but that thought suddenly goes out the window with intersex people.
And then there’s also the matter of character trauma. When we aren’t reduced to sexual objects, we’re reduced to genital trauma. It’s a tale as old as time (or at least as old as AO3); A character who thought they were genetically binary finds out they’re intersex, and then finds out a surgery was done without their knowledge as a child. This then massively drives a rift between them and their parents, leaving them to cope with their bodily trauma as they stumble through their identity. Does this happen? Yes. Is it every intersex person? No. So why is it every character?
Time and time again, when I’ve addressed creators on why they want to give their intersex characters this backstory, the response is almost always the same: “I want to explore trauma with them. It feels pretty central to their character, so this route of the intersex experience feels right.” But what I want to know is: Who told them this is the only trauma an intersex person can experience?
Intersex people without mixed genitalia will be told their hormones are off and forced onto medicine that alters them physically and emotionally. Intersex teenagers will go through puberties they were not told to expect, such as AFAB voices cracking and lowering or AMAB bodies developing breast tissue, both of which can cause bullying from peers. Reproductive disorders caused by mixed hormones can lead to infertility and painful or embarrassing doctor visits.
Why don’t we see these stories in fiction? Because they aren’t told in fiction. When you never see anything other than one specific existence portrayed, people become convinced that’s all there is. As a result, that’s all they know of being intersex, which affects how much will be known and accepted by them and their peers. An uninformed populace also makes it easier for intersex people themselves to go uninformed, causing shame and confusion in many cases.
There is more than one way to be intersex, and we deserve to not be reduced to trauma, sex, and genitals.
