Terminology Discussion

Some women had an email discussion, in Oct/Nov 1999, about the terminology used to describe AIS and related conditions in the medical literature:

A woman with Leydig Cell Hyperplasia (S) wrote:

I know we sometimes advocate throwing away the terms "Male Pseudo-hermaphroditism" [MPH] and "Testicular Feminization" [TFS] in favour of AIS, but I wonder if it is the case of throwing away the baby with the bath-water... Namely, MPH and, to an extent, TFS, are general terms, while AIS is specific. And while there aren't many differences between the different conditions, I don't feel it really works to use a specific term for people who don't fit in... [like those with 5 alpha-reductase deficiency, Swyer’s syndrome (XY gonadal dysgenesis) etc.] And the term “orchids” doesn't count, unless we get the doctors to call us that! Any suggestions? What's the way forward here?

A woman with Swyer’s syndrome (C) wrote:

You bring up some good points. I for one, despise the terms male pseudo-hermaphroditism and testicular feminization – the former being No. 1 on my "hate list". However, I don't technically fit under the AIS umbrella either. I prefer the general term "intersexed", but I know that the founders of the group have AIS and probably prefer that term. I'm not "hung up" on the terminology (however, I would like to specifically know my "label" so to speak) and am comfortable (and thankful) to be included in this sisterhood. It's not an issue for me, but I respect the concerns that you and others may have regarding it.

A CAIS woman (M) wrote:

Yes, I agree that MPH is a general term covering a variety of conditions, including AIS and others. But I would say that TFS is actually a more specific term than AIS because TFS is the term coined by Morris who originally reported the condition in the 1950s and he was describing only the complete form at that time (the incomplete or partial form was not reported until later). So the term TFS is usually used in the literature to refer to what we now know of as complete AIS (sometimes the phrase used is "classical TFS", or "Morris's syndrome"). The more recent term, AIS, unlike TFS, encompasses the whole AIS range from the lower grades of PAIS (males, with no obvious 'feminization') to the highest grade (CAIS) [see ALIAS No. 6 for grading scale details] because it was introduced at a time when it had been discovered that some conditions presenting with 'genital ambiguity' or for example an enlarged clitoris, were actually cases of 'incomplete TFS' (or, under the newer terminology, PAIS) and were not completely separate conditions, meriting the separate names they'd been given like Reifenstein’s Syndrome, as had been previously thought.

In saying that TFS is a general term, are you thinking that TFS is sometimes intentionally used as an umbrella term to cover TFS/AIS and other conditions like 5 alpha, Swyers etc? Because this is not a use of the term that I have ever come across (unless of course it's purely a case of another condition being mistaken as TFS/AIS – I think that happens quite a lot).

Our Grade 4/5 PAIS member has often argued for the usefulness of MPH, in the absence of a better umbrella term, and that the term TFS is not as inaccurate as some people have maintained (since the testes do in a sense feminize the body via their testosterone output which gets converted to oestrogen) and while I can accept this I still think they are both horribly stigmatizing terms and should be got rid of!

Another CAIS woman (Cr) wrote:

Personally, I HATE (GRRRRR!!) the "pseudohermaphroditism" term. That was my diagnosis in 1962. The anger and rage it fills me with are inexpressible. Not a lovely thing for an 11 year old to be looking up in dictionaries/encyclopedias (Gee, I'm equivalent to a worm, I'm on a scale of "fish-food." Sorry for the bad pun!). Not to mention the constant parade of med students/interns/residents that seemed to crowd the exam room I'd get pushed into. Exam room is a misnomer, too – the rooms were more like lecture halls, not the usual closet where "normal" people are seen. To get off my soapbox, I suppose "intersex" is too broad a term and has too many other connotations?

Another CAIS woman (Th) wrote:

Would the suggestion of using the term "intersex" be too broad? Although there are terms that give me chills, being here [in the discussion] really helps get rid of the involuntary shudder. I guess it's a good day because I think I can handle any 'term' the meds want to throw out.

'M' (CAIS) wrote:

Hermes = god of intelligence and wisdom; Aphrodite = goddess of beauty and love. So that's pretty cool.

I haven't read the history lately (e.g. Dreger's book "Hermaphrodites and the Medical Medical Invention of Sex", see “AIS in Books/Articles” on the web site for details) but the term 'hermaphrodite' must have been coined in ancient times to describe external appearance only (before they knew about ovaries/testes/) so would describe someone with some male and some female features (from a list including penis, vagina, breasts, facial/chest hair.....). I thus don't think of the term as really applying to people with CAIS who have a totally female phenotype (external appearance).

Medicine then became aware of ovaries/testes, so hijacked the herm term to mean someone with both types of internal tissue (thinking that gonadal status was now the new, scientific, indicator of everything). Am I right here, not sure?

The 'male psuedo-' prefix was then added (to form 'male pseudo-hermaphrodite', MPH) to cover those cases (like CAIS) where there is not mixed gonadal tissue but (in case of CAIS) totally male chromosomes/gonads with female phenotype. I hate this term, but as has I think pointed out on previous occasions, there is no other umbrella term to cover all the conditions in this category. OK, I'm talking here about terms that medics can use, and yes, they don't necessarily have to have meaning/usefulness to us.

Then karyotyping (chromosome patterning) came in, and knowledge of hormone receptor mechanisms (making 'Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome' seem more accurate than 'Testicular Feminization Syndrome'), and the term 'intersex' seemed to be introduced (when? 1970s?) in an attempt to cover all bases.

One thing I don't like about the term 'intersex', though, is the way many medics use it to mean individuals with so-called ambiguous genitalia. I consider myself to be intersexed because my chromosomes and gonads don't match my external appearance but I have never had 'ambiguous genitalia'. I think T____'s old paediatric endocrinologist, Bruce Wilson, makes this distinction in his chapter in Dreger's "Intersex in the Age of Ethics" book.

‘S’ (LCH) wrote:

I realize the sensitivity several of us have with MPH as a term but I raised the issue recently because a very nice researcher sent me a draft of a paper on LCH he was writing and the title is "[MPH] due to Inactivating Luteinizing Hormone Receptor Mutations". It's a good paper, b.t.w., and I can send it to anyone who would like to read it. I sent him the letter I include below, but I've been thinking of alternatives to that term. The best I can think of is "Fetal Androgen Inactivity", "Failure of Androgen Action", and "Dysmorphic Fetal Feminization". Any thoughts on these? I'm serious about trying to do something about this term, like writing to the most common journals with alternatives. Of course, an alternative I like is “non-poisoned XY's”, but I don't think the docs would like that...

Here's the letter I sent off in response to getting a draft of the paper...

Dear Prof Lee,
Thank you for sending me the draft of the paper. I am in between trips, and haven't done justice to it, but I found it very informative. If I may be so bold, one topic that I would like to discuss with researchers, eventually, is the term Male Pseudo-hermaphroditism, which is probably the most accurate we have in some ways, and horribly innacurate in others. For researchers, we are males who developed female genitalia by mistake, while for us, and our families, and the doctors who diagnose us (usually gynaecologists) we are women with testes. This means that the literature that is there does not reach the attention of those who would benefit from it. But of course, MPH is the broad term for this set of conditions, and it is helpful to have it in the title.

‘M’ (CAIS) wrote:

I think you have a very good and important point about the different viewpoints of medics vs patients (in your letter to Prof. Lee). That is, medics being trained to see these things as failures of masculinization whereas for most of these patients it manifests as a failure to completely feminize. This is discussed in ALIAS (see "External Emphasis" in No. 6) and also in the 'Wavelength' article published by our parent/academic member Peter Broks [discussed on History of the Group page - direct link to article text here.] .See also discussion of the term 'MPH' on p. 9 of "Reading the Words" in ALIAS No. 9. And note Prof. Ieuan Hughes' suggestion (quoted in the latter article) that we should replace MPH with “Undervirilized Male” !!

Your proposed terms (or at least the first two) only account for those cases of 'MPH' that are due to androgen (in)sensitivity problems and MPH is an umbrella term (and hence its usefulness, as has been pointed out) that also encompasses a number of other conditions which are not due to androgen insensitivity. The point is that term MPH describes all the following conditions..... New discussion participants, don't, please, be put off by what follows. We only occasionally go into this mode and it's only a few of us who can't resist a good meaty terminology discussion :-)

1) Testicular unresponsiveness to hCG and LH (Leydig cell agenesis or hypoplasia).

2) Inborn errors of testosterone biosynthesis.

3) Defects in androgen-dependent target tissues (AIS).

4) Dysgenic male pseudohermaphroditism (XY gonadal dysgenesis or Swyer’s syndrome, XO/XY mosaicism, Denys-Drash syndrome, WAGR, Campomelic dysplasia (whatever that is!), SF-1 mutation and testicular regression syndrome).

5) Defects in synthesis, secretion or response to Mullerian Duct Inhibitory Factor (female genital ducts in otherwise normal men).

6) Environmental chemicals.

..... and this is because I think it is a term that essentially describes the (similar) anatomical outcome of these various conditions rather than their aetiology. This is my understanding, anyway. MPH refers to the situation in which there is not true hermaphroditism (i.e. there is no coexistence of ovarian and testicular tissue) and yet there are male sex chromosomes and testes with a female phenotype, hence the 'pseudo-' prefix. The challenge therefore is, I think, to come up with an alternative term that covers all these different aetiologies. I quite like “XY woman” but maybe MPH also covers some who are raised as males but who, in case of AIS say, might be around Grade 3-4, so “XY women” wouldn't cover that situation?? Don't know. Tricky isn't it.

Others may well be able to clarify, correct or offer a different angle on this. I'm a bit out of touch on this stuff now. It doesn't interest me as much as it used to. My interest has moved on much more towards the psychosocial aspects.

Another CAIS woman (K) wrote:

I vote for 'XY Women' as well. I like it. It's simple.

I wrote to Dr. Daaboul (an endo on the west coast [of US]) about hermaphroditism and congenital adrenal hyperplasia, etc. In his reply, he said two things that were interesting to me. He, too, referred to AISers as undervirilized "males" but he put the males in quotes. He also mentioned what you were talking about ‘M’, that according to most endocrinologists, "true" hermaphroditism is the presence of BOTH testicular AND ovarian tissue. But, he said that _____ _____ (?) who I guess is in ISNA, feels the definition is much broader than that. I wrote him back asking for more details. Myself, I don't like that term, undervirilized "males". It's misleading, but I have a feeling since we've heard of two docs recently who use it, it may be the "new thing" to call us. FEMALE, FEMALE, FEMALE, I feel like drilling it into their skulls.

‘S’ (LCH) wrote:

Hmmm, unfortunately XY women is a term which applies to M to F transexuals as well, as it does not specify when the "women" part occured, or whether it was voluntary, or all in the head, or what. And I am not sure we would get doctors and researchers to use it! Not jargony enough? And intersex doesn't separate us from the conditions that result in males. Maybe female intersexuals? Or does that sound oxymoronic to the naive? I think personally that we ought to explore commonalities with M to Fs more – what I don't think is that we should be lumped in the same group.

Another CAIS woman (Do) wrote:

Why is someone always beating me to the punch? Actually, I was going to propose XY female as it covers children and infants as well. Besides, it is so damn tough for the typical male medical researcher to get his mind around "his" chromosomes being in a "her." On the flip side, I think that it is quite common to see XX male being used. I seldom see female P[seudo]H[ermaphrodite].

Welcome _____ [new member]. ‘M’ is right, we seldom get so nerdy, but I certainly don't mind the trip down technology lane.

Two women then embarked on an extended dialogue. A CAIS woman (S) wrote:

Hi ‘K’/all,

You write: "Well, we're not herms, unless we have ovarian and testicular tissue both. I think it's a stretch to call us that." In a technical sense you are correct ‘K’ that women with AIS are "pseudohermaphrodites" and not "hermaphrodites" because it is our external genital appearance (and other physical/gender characteristics) which is at variance with our chromosomes and gonads. But the terms "herm" and "hermaphrodite" have been reclaimed by some intersex folks (including some AIS/CAH/5-aRD etc. women who are pseudohermaphrodites and not true hermaphrodites) as a way of taking back the power and control which those very stinging and often pejorative terms have had. I, for one, support this. I like to use the term a "herm" as one of endearment (for example, I wrote an-email to T____ and said "you go herm" as a spoof on the "you go girl" phrase – and meant it as a real positive). I've described myself on a few occasions as "the hermaphrodite next door" instead of "the girl next door". I actually like to say this because it illustrates that there could be an intersexed person living right next to you and you might not even know it.

My medical records are replete with references to me as a pseudohermaphrodite, and it was this tag which resulted in the kind of insensitive medical care I received. When I employ the terms "herm" and "hermaphrodite" I use them with my head high, without self-loathing, and with an in-your-face boldness rather than with the stigma and shame which doctors assumed was the only way to view these terms. Call me a "herm," call me a "merm" (a term I believe Anne Fausto-Sterling used to describe male pseudohermaphrodites [e.g. women w/AIS]) I'm happy with either cause it's the feeling of connectedness which is "perm."

‘K’ (CAIS) wrote:

I hear what you're saying - but I (in friendship, mind), disagree. I think intersexed conditions are complicated enough. I'd rather be identified as exactly what I am, an XY woman, rather than as something that I'm not. I think it's fine to kid around with each other, as in “you go herm”, which is damn funny – but I would never tell anyone outside the circle that I was a hermaphrodite. I would tell them, and have, especially recently with the play readings, that I am an XY woman with AIS [she’s written a play about AIS]. This is more of an accuracy thing than a shameful thing. The first question the cast members asked me was, “are you a herm?” and I told them, “no”. OK, well, I'm down off that little soapbox...

‘S’ (CAIS) wrote:

I fully support your right to sort through this in your own way and in your own time. But may I share some thoughts with you?

1. The word "hermaphrodite" sticks in the mouth – it's unpleasant to say because of all the negative connotations it has. It is an electrically charged word. But I have found that employing it regularly takes the sting out. It rolls off my tongue far more easily now. It becomes a word without such horrid associations and it normalizes my experience and reality.

2. I had to ask myself whether I was not identifying with this word because of technical inaccuracy or whether it was because I worried what people would think of me. I concluded that if it was the latter then I was part of the problem rather than part of the solution. I was drawing artificial lines in the sand – saying "I'm OK, but those people over there, those true hermaphrodites, well we all know they're freaky" or "it's OK if friends, family, doctors make fun of or judge them because they're true hermaphrodites and I'm not one of them so I don't have to worry about it."

All I can say is that I've concluded that no matter where I draw the line in the sand I'm sure as heck gonna be on the wrong side of it for others who don't care whether I'm a pseudohermaphrodite or a true hermaphrodite 'cause I'm still just a freak to them. So if push comes to shove and someone is making fun of, or judging, hermaphrodites I have to ask myself whether I am going to desperately try to fit in with "normal" non-hermaphrodites or align myself with those who are far closer to my reality. To me it would be like being 1/8 black and able to pass for white and thereby turning my back on the reality of the prejudice and racism those who are "more black" encounter. At the end of the day I think if you're 1/8 black you darn well ought to pay particular attention to how blacks are treated cause at any moment being 1/8 black could land you on the wrong side of the color line.

So I'd ask you to take an honest look. When your colleagues asked if you were a hermaphrodite, did you answer "No I'm an XY woman" because you’re genuinely were concerned only with technical accuracy or was it because you worried they would judge you or categorize you a certain way if you answered yes?

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this ‘K’.

‘K’ (CAIS) wrote:

Hey, ‘S’! No, it's really a technical thing. And a desire to educate people rather than mislead. Herm seems like an umbrella term, an oversimplification. I think that you can't get too much stranger than telling people "I'm an XY girl, born with two testes, and am infertile." Really, if the answer were as simple as "hermaphrodite" I'd be glad.

Also, ‘S’, I don't consider myself a pseudo either, for that matter – it's a throwback term, and it sounds dumb. XY Woman is so much simpler. Yes, both terms have negative connotations. I don't want to use either of them, because one is not true and the other one is old-fashioned and borne of ignorance. I think it's a question of moving forward, and complicating things a little, rather than stepping back and simplifying it all with one term or another. To continue the black analogy, I don't think you'd find too many people of color in this country who would want to be referred to as "slave descendants." It's kind of the same thing for me.

I guess if I was worried about what people would think of me, I would have kept "______" [her play] in my head, and not written in out and shared it with everyone. But I'm not going to cop to something I'm not. Again, it's too complicated an issue to be calling ourselves something we're not.

‘S’ (CAIS) wrote:

Hi ‘K’, Yes, you're probably right but you do find many black people who have reclaimed the word "nigger." There is probably no more emotionally charged word in the English lexicon and it is precisely for that reason that it has been reclaimed.

How do you feel about the umbrella term intersex? Are you not OK with that? I am quite happy with that word and indeed would like my driver's license to show me as an “I” in the category of sex rather than as an “M” or and “F”. Pseudohermaphrodite is old-fashioned term but to me it was always a bit of a misnomer because it sought to draw a distinction between "true" hermaphroditism and conditions such as AIS. I think anyone who has a vagina and testes is a hermaphrodite. I don't believe in making the gonads paramount and saying only those with ovotestes or one testis and one ovary are hermaphrodites. We know that gonads don't necessarily mean a thing in terms of form and function so why relegate the term hermaphrodite to only those whose gonads are mixed in some way. Why not use the term to describe any mismatch between karyotype, gonads and phenotype?

I actually am not too fond of XY woman as a method of classification because to me it begs the question. The term "woman" is conclusory based on meeting certain criteria. Clearly we do not satisfy all of the possible criteria for "woman" classification. Indeed, when the Michigan Women's Music Festival wanted to limit attendance to "women born women" intending thereby to exclude transsexuals, the criteria they established would have excluded us as well because they were referring to XX/ovary carrying women. Please don't get me wrong – I absolutely see myself as a woman and want to enjoy the prerogatives of a woman gender classification. But I don't think my sex is "woman" – I think my sex is intersex, which explains why I look and feel the way I do and yet have XY chromosomes and once had testes. Hermaphrodite to me is just another word for intersex, and in some contexts I prefer it just because it has so much "emotional baggage."

I want people to know that hermaphrodites are not like unicorns – that we are here, are real and not mythological characters. So I'm happy to call you an XY woman, but for me I'll stick with herm.

One more quick point. Bisexual people can say they are not "gay" or "homosexual" and I suppose technically that's true. But I think they are well-served to identify as "queer" (another reclaimed term by the GLBT community) because by doing so they are able to challenge sexuality norms and contribute to the cause of greater tolerance and understanding and rights for non-straights. Just to further stir the pot, as an AIS woman I'm also happy to align myself with the word "queer" because I think our very existence threatens sex and gender norms. I think the term "queer" more appropriately reflects this kind of transgression rather than being confined simply to those with non-strictly hetero preferences.

‘K’ (CAIS) wrote:

I think intersex is ten times better than herm. It's a little more specific and more accurate. Isn't specificity and accuracy the point if we are going to try and educate the general public about our general shtick? For that reason, I don't think herm is a term (Herm is a term! – rhyme) that should be used for any old mismatch, etc. True hermaph. is a very specific thing, and should be reserved for the true herms. It reminds me of how some transsexual women align themselves with us, because we have the same sort of deal, but I think that that, too, is a mistake. I don't think we should all be lumped together.

A woman with 5-alpha reductase deficiency (T) wrote:

I'm a hermaphrodite, for all the reasons ‘S’ already talked about. For me the most important one is claiming myself back. As I see it this condition has taken so much from me, it has taken my sense of being sexual, my sense of being normal, but most importantly it has caused me to walk through life constantly wondering if I'm good enough. Always looking for validation, and acceptance from the "normals." Always trying to be the funny and outgoing girl, keep everyone laughing and they won't see what a freak you are.

I think claiming the term testes was very important in healing some of the things that were robbed from me. That in-your-face "I had testes, and I am still fucking OK" mentality helped me make peace with so many of the tormentors inside my head. The same is true for identifying as a hermaphrodite. I used to stand on the line dividing the sexes without eyes or a soul, much like those stigmatizing photos. I was biologically forced to stand there, when all I wanted to be was normal. After claiming back my truth, my value, seeing the value of all of you, I dance on that line. I celebrate the uniqueness that is all of us. I am somehow new, and complete..... not totally without doubts or insecurities, but proud to be me and happy to have my truth. The most precious of gifts that was never given to me. I had to take it for myself. I am a hermaphrodite, I had testes, and I can still dance...... all of us can:)

If using XY woman makes it easier for you, then I have no problem with it. To go back to the slave issue. If I was African American I would take pride in the strength and courage of my ancestors. They never gave up hope that one day the world would accept them as true human beings. I too want the world to know that I am a true human being, that I am a woman, and I'm intersexed. I would love for all of us to start bothering DMV [?Dept. of Motor Vehicles] daily about getting an "I" on our drivers licence.... but I know not all of you want this. Again for me, I do want recognition that my sex is different, because I have finally figured out that different isn't the same as wrong.

‘K’ (CAIS) wrote:

I dance on the line, too. But I want to be called the correct thing. I guess for me being called the accurate thing is more empowering than anything else.

‘S’ (CAIS) wrote:

I'm not sure what the correct thing means given that all of these terms come from the medical profession which itself never understood fully what they meant. You might enjoy Alice Dreger's "Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex" which gives an outstanding account of the history of this.

I guess I want to know to whom is the term hermaphrodite not correct? To doctors who never understood? I have little interest in playing in to their historic misnomers, mistakes, misinformation, and misguided efforts to treat us.

I use the term "XY woman" frequently as one of convenience and to distinguish us from XX women, but I don't see how that term is technically correct because on its face it's oxymoronic (or a non sequitur at best) and when we use it there is an implicit "but still a......" inserted between the words "XY" and "woman." Clearly we are not women because we are XY – we are women in no small part because of our non-fully functioning androgen receptors, or impairment of conversion of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone, or streak gonads. When doctors employed the term "XY woman" to describe us I assure you that what they actually meant was XY "woman", with the "woman" in quotes to signify their keen awareness that we weren't biologically women. I refuse to play into terminology which suggests I hold a second class of`membership.

Testicular Feminization was the "correct" (albeit technically misguided) medical term to describe us for more than forty years. I hardly think we should embrace that term. You said you were OK with intersex but it too is an umbrella term rather than one which specifically relates to AIS. To me, intersex may be less "stigmatizing" but is no more accurate than hermaphrodite. What does intersex mean? I think no one could ever provide a completely satisfactory definition. (Several years ago approximately 20 members of ISNA tried to come up with a comprehensive definition and were unable to do so.) In the same way "hermaphrodite" has no perfect definition. Nonetheless as an umbrella term I like to employ them equally, depending on the context.

To me, specificity and accuracy are important; I happen to think the medical community has achieved neither with its conventional definitions of intersex and hermaphrodite or XY woman or testicular feminization.

Let me just close by saying I recognize I go in to debate mode rather reflexively (hey, you don't shake 17 years of being an attorney just cause you join an e-mail circle) so if I'm coming on too strong I apologize. I am, however, genuinely interested in learning more about your thoughts on this issue.

Another CAIS woman (P) wrote:

As for terminology.... I personally like XY woman because that's precisely how I see myself – actually “xy WOMAN” would be more accurate, with chromosomes in lower case, since ultimately they didn't have a whole lot to do with my sense of self and my experience in the world, which are unequivocally female (which of course means different things to different chicks, but is nonetheless how I've always seen myself). So, no, I will never be lobbying for the addition of "I" on driver's licences, at least not for myself, because intersex seems a technical term that I can appreciate on a rational level but just does not speak to my experience.

I kind of have a fondness for pseudohermaphrodite because it sounds so preposterous (to me, it is our "nigger") – it helps impart to me a sense of humour about this condition, a sense of stick-and-stones-may-break-my-bones-but-calling-me-a-pseudohermaphrodite-will-make-me-guffaw.

Several years ago my first husband, mensch that he is, told a number of people in the wake of our pathetic little marriage that I was a hermaphrodite. I was crushed to discover this, especially when I walked into a bar and someone I scarcely knew said to me, in front of a couple of colleagues, "Someone told me you're a hermaphrodite – but you look like a woman to me." The encounter, and the subsequent discovery that many people in my business had heard this rumour, made me suicidal for a while.

But somehow I got better about it. I was unattached at the time, and at first I worried that it was another nail in the coffin of my love life. But then it occurred to me that some fairly funky guys would probably be curious to sleep with someone believed to be a hermaphrodite. And gradually – after about a year – I reached the position that if people think I'm a hermaphrodite – which I do believe we all are, if you use hermaphrodite loosely – and they have a problem with that, them fuck 'em. ‘Cause like ‘T’ and ‘S’ and ‘K’ and many others of you, I have finally reached a place where I mostly like who and what I am – despite frequent attacks of paranoia, but that has more to do with the way I was raised than anything else – and believe, as that old hippie anthem Desiderata goes, that I am "a child of the universe" and have "a right to be here."

‘M’ (CAIS) wrote:

I identify as a woman (or 'XY woman' if I want to qualify it to take account of my AIS) psychologically, socially, gender identity-lly(!), but I do not consider myself to be a woman in terms of my sex which I believe to be a biological attribute, not a social one. So I would tend to think of myself as intersexed as far as my sex is concerned. So, yes, I completely understand the reasoning behind the option of putting an 'I' on official forms, and whenever I have to put down 'M' or 'F' this is one of the moments when my AIS comes into really sharp focus.

But I feel like I'm repeating here what I've said several times before, so maybe I'm in a rut and need to re-evaluate how I see these things. That's the thing about these discussions, it's an opportunity to evolve a bit, I guess :-) I think ‘S’'s reservations about the term XY woman are interesting and valid. It's taking an existing term 'woman' and having to qualify it in a way that shouldn't be necessary and which is somewhat clumsy and inelegant, and maybe rather 'apologetic' ("I'm a woman but I'm afraid you'll have to accept that I have XY chromosomes"). I can understand the business of embracing a term like hermaphrodite to kind of reclaim a term that has hitherto had negative associations and making it into a symbol or marker of activism – using it to define an area of ground to plant our flag in – but I don't think I personally embrace it my own life because I associate it with dual sex organs. I’d go along with “intersex” though, as long as it gets rid of its automatic association with “ambiguous” genitalia in the minds of some medics .

‘K’ (CAIS) wrote:

Intersexed just sounds so much more interesting than hermaphroditic – herm is so dismissive, in a way. If I were a true herm, I would lobby even then to have the name changed to something more technical.

Alice Dreger: Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex (Harvard University Press, 1998)

Alice Dreger (Ed.): Intersex in the Age of Ethics (University Publishing Group, 1999)