Intersex Bodies and Biopolitics

This assignment delves into the complex intersection of intersex bodies and biopolitics. It examines how medical practices and societal norms impact individuals with intersex variations, drawing upon scholarly works that analyze the construction of gender within a framework of power and control. The focus lies on understanding the consequences of medical interventions for intersex children and the ethical considerations surrounding their treatment.

Running head: BOOK REVIEW
Book Review: Contesting intersex: The dubious diagnosis
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author note

1BOOK REVIEW
The term ‘Intersex’ can be used to describe a variety of physiological condition which
can be seen in some people who are born with such external reproductive anatomy that cannot be
fitted into the typical context of being male or female (Käll, 2016). To give an example, many
people might seem like female from the outside, but can have male anatomy from the inside.
Alternatively, there are many, whose outside sexual anatomy is in between male and female. To
give some examples, a girl can be born without a vagina or with a large clitoris, which people
can mistake as a rudimentary penis or a boy can be born with a divided scrotum, which can look
like labia. A person whose genetic condition is mosaic, that is, some of the cells of that person
have XX chromosomes and some of the cells have XY chromosome can be seen (Kennedy,
2016). No medical practitioner can characteristically define the term intersex, as there is no
specific agreement on the definition (Crocetti, 2016).
The writer Georgiann Davis has interpreted that, these people would have been
considered as hermaphrodites, which some of the people from the intersex community can find
offensive. Through this book, the writer described the definition of intersex. The writer also
described what it likes to be an intersex in the contemporary US society. This era started
accepting the queer such as homosexuals after disowning them for many decades. Whereas, the
society still has problems accepting the intersex community. By writing this book, Contesting
intersex, the writer tried to resurface the intersex community by describing the way the intersex
community feels in this society and the way they are defined by the social norms.
Being an intersex person, Georgiann Davis has beautifully implicated her own feelings
in this book. In the first chapter of the book, the writer Georgiann Davis mentioned that the
medical professionals now use the word DSD or Disorder of Sex Development (Davis, 2011) to
describe intersex. She has beautifully described in the first chapter of this book, that the word

2BOOK REVIEW
DSD is also causing heightened tension within the community as many of the members of the
community has embraced this new nomenclature, whereas the others found a problem with the
use of 'disorder' in this particular term- DSD. Davis interviewed 36 people with intersex trait for
this matter and discovered many of these opposite patterns. 24 people from this group of intersex
people she interviewed have accepted the idea of intersex. These people have also accepted the
general idea of gender fluidity. The rest of them accepted the use of the medical term DSD, even
after knowing the term DSD has the word ‘disorder’ which is nothing but a reflection of the
stigma society has about abnormality. These people strongly believe that gender is binary and
most of them have supported the view of their parents and the recommendation of their
respective doctor about their gender (Lee, 2011). The writer Georgiann Davis wrote about these
problems faced by the community with ease, as she is an insider of this debate. She was herself
an elected president of the community named Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome-DSD support
group.
In the acknowledgement section of this book, Davis described her own fight she fought,
when she found out that she is an intersex herself. She confessed that she was once ashamed of
her own intersex status. This confession sets the tone of the book from the very beginning. This
book can be described as the welcome book on the topic of different sexual identifications as she
interviewed many people from the intersex community. Her own experience as an intersex, made
her to relate with them, which helped her to write this well researched book.
To write this book, she interviewed total 65 people from the intersex community, medical
practitioners, support groups and some non-intersex people. The age range of these people is 22
to 72. These people belonged from varied ethnicity and varied sexual identification. Most of
these people from the intersex community identifies themselves as woman most of them had

3BOOK REVIEW
formal education. She had attended many of the meetings of intersex organizations to observe
people. She has spent almost 300 hours just to observe the social interaction of the intersex
people.
This book has six chapters. The introductory chapter is named interestingly ‘You’re in
the Monkey Cage with me’. In this chapter, she described her own journey as an intersex person.
The writer herself has diagnosed with CAIS (Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome). From
this chapter we get to know the starting of her own journey as an intersex person. The writer was
diagnosed with CAIS when she was just 13. Her parents and the doctors lied to her about her
condition as they removed the rudimentary testes from her body when she was just seventeen.
She was told by her parents that she had underdeveloped ovaries, which were being removed as
it could cause cancer. It was at 19; she had encountered with her medical records and learnt
about her condition. The writer admitted that she was ashamed when she first learnt that she had
XY chromosome (Male chromosome). She accepted her condition when she was almost 30 years
old. This well written introductory chapter made us to be the silent witness of her journey as we
read her journey through her eyes. In the reminder of the introductory chapter, she wrote her
study of this community through theoretical and methodological perspective. To write the study,
she interviewed the people from her community and lastly she turned the methodological lens by
herself. For herself, she used the concept of ‘looking glass’ self (Cornwall, 2014). This book is
based on her dissertation and examined the term intersex on institutional and individual level.
From all the chapters of this book, I found the chapter four, the most interesting. The
naming of this chapter is also interesting as it called ‘The Power in a Name”. Naming seems a
simple process. It is very difficult for the people from the intersex community to be labeled as a
boy or girl as they struggle with their gender identity. In the recent times, the first world

4BOOK REVIEW
countries like USA and Australia, have accepted gays and lesbians and acknowledged them to be
accepted in the society (Uslan, 2010). However, these people also maintain the binary gender
category. Davis implemented the methodology, which was described before by the renowned
bioethicist Katrina Karkazis to explain the idea of contesting intersex (Sánchez, 2010). Karkazis
showed how the medical practitioners have ‘medicalized’ intersex with the ideologies of sexual
orientation and gender. Davis thought, this is the precursor of ‘contesting intersex’, which is
been under the radar after the formation of the term DSD.
These discussions by Davis further lead us to some questions- why intersex is a ‘dubious
diagnosis’? Why intersex has been called a diagnosis at all? Davis leads us to the point that, this
book is written from the perspective of a feminist. From this book, it can be understood that the
prevalence of male power is the reason that the intersex are called the dubious diagnosis. Davis
sensibly describes the difference of the medically focused terminology “DSD” and its more
sensible counterpart “differences of sex development”. With this book, Davis presented an
emotional argument for the better care of the intersex community (Rubin, 2012). This book gives
the readers an understanding of the daily struggles of the members of the intersex community
with special mention about the struggle any intersex individual faces while consulting a medical
professional. The Chapter 4 of this book also deals with the medical establishment. In this
chapter the writer deals with many issues and refers to John Money, the doctor who has a
thought that nurture would always over nature. The issue is important in this context because of
the incident for which Money’s school of thought lost its credibility (Davis, 2015). Money
encouraged parents of a boy to raise the boy as a girl after the mutilation of the boy because of a
bad circumcision surgery. The boy committed suicide, as he could not replace his inner gender
with his outer one.

5BOOK REVIEW
As Davis herself has underwent one unwanted gender determining surgery herself, she is
deeply against the idea of these surgeries which has been done until now by the doctors to
determine the gender of the children to ‘fix’ them so that that they can fit at the social norms. In
the third chapter of this book, Davis wrote about the medical jurisdiction the intersex bodies
always goes through. She discusses how the intersex people often face many unnecessary and
questionable procedures. Davis discussed the ways the people from the intersex community are
subjected to these unnecessary and questionable procedures, which are not even necessary. For
this, Davis herself has interviewed many medical professionals who have done these surgeries on
the intersex bodies. Davis revealed that, many of these doctors felt confused over selecting the
gender for these children. What they did not realized that this could affect the development of
these children as it can initiate tension and stress. There were many doctors, who defended their
deeds but there were many, who wanted to learn more about the effort of intersex communities
to treat the patients better (Jutel, & Conrad, 2014). When she interviewed these doctors, all of
them have admitted that they determine the gender of an infant by the outside appearance of the
genitalia. When the intersex children shows these traits which is outside of the gender binary,
they recommends immediate surgery to “correct” the “disorder”, so that the child can be raised
as the previously determined gender (Bettcher, 2015). Nevertheless, there are some options for
the child to undergo transition by some hormonal treatment, but the gender correction surgeries
they have before, remains irreversible.
As Davis discussed about the conflict between the intersex communities over the usage
of the terminology ‘DSD’, she included her own opinion in this book. She made a point that,
nobody from the community is wrong about their perspective. She said that, every individual
should be able to use the term freely, whatever is the best for him or her. Davis described how

6BOOK REVIEW
the different terms could affect the community (Floyd, 2011). She has advocated for the
organizations who has accepted the term DSD with a change. These organizations accepts DSD
as a diagnosis and replaced the term ‘disorder’ with a new and relevant term ‘differences’.
However, many organizations still emphasize on the term intersex rather than accepting DSD.
The last two chapters of the book (chapter 5 and 6) are dedicated to these organizations and
support groups. These support groups are a great source of information for the intersex children
and their families (Davis, 2015). These groups also provide a community to these children and
their families. They finally find some people with the same condition, as they are which further
helps them to think their condition as normal.
When Davis started her research, she was an outsider. Slowly she opened up and became
a member of these groups. Davis outlined some of the support groups in this book who are
dedicated for this approach to work with the young intersex children. The first section of the
book is dedicated to these organizations and states the history of these organizations and their
advocacy works.
As Davis interviewed 17 of the parents of intersex children, most of them believe that
gender of a child is determined as a fetus and accepts the nomenclature DSD for diagnosis and
the presumable treatment (Davis, 2015). The parents often hide the truth from the children and
lie about the treatment (Goldie, 2014). The writer herself went to such treatment. Her parents lied
to her saying that her ovaries are being removed to prevent cancer. The stigma around
homosexuality and abnormality makes the parents to do so.
Davis had a deeper thought about the opinion of those parents who have intersex
children. She pointed out that are many parents who like her parents, were told to keep the

7BOOK REVIEW
diagnosis of their intersex status hidden from the children. She discussed about how these
children needs to know about their status of being intersex. Many parents felt that they have
pressurized the surgeries on their own children. These interviews revealed one thing; rarely the
doctors pass the information about the support groups (Zaccone, 2010). This leads to a huge gap
between the parents of the intersex children and the doctors. Davis pointed out different to
different topics over these interviews. Davis did not offer a direct solution to these problems
apart from saying that the approach of the doctors should be open to know about the intersex
community and the community should be more accepting of the medical practitioners (Semler,
2010). As there are a lot of mistrust between the medical practitioners and the intersex
community, she could have included some more precise suggestions to bridge the gap between
them.
In the last two chapters, the writer has documented “seven actions for liberation” which
can be the pathway to liberation for the intersex children (Davis, & Preves, 2017). These actions
are collaboration with the doctors, no unwanted and unnecessary sexual orientation surgery, peer
support, empowerment of the intersex people through education, usage of feminist viewpoint on
gender construction, understanding the stigma, incorporation of the children’s opinion before
taking any medical decisions (Pagonis, 2017).
Davis wrote a beautiful conclusion for this book as she effortlessly assembles all the
continuation of her points written previously in all the chapters about the status of the intersex
condition. She discussed the effect of the nomenclature of the terms on the children or the adults
of the intersex community (Roen, 2015). She concludes that regardless of the usage, the
terminologies spread necessary words about the intersex community to the people.

8BOOK REVIEW
Those common people who do not have a basic idea about the intersex community, this
book can be their very first basic guide. The writer, Davis always sympathizes with the
viewpoint of the people she interviewed, against her own experience as an intersex child. She
also analyzed their viewpoint as both an intersex person and a scholar. This book can be said is
an autoethnography. Throughout the book, Davis has acknowledged all the interactions and
made an outline of the flaws of the research. As Davis included the voice of everyone associated
with the upbringing of the intersex people, the book became more emotional as well as
informational. Throughout the book, Davis has perceived intersex through the social viewpoint.
She hopes the medical establishment also can perceive this topic in a socialist perspective. Davis
has written this book beautifully and anyone can read it to expand the horizon of the knowledge
at once. This book brings medical science and sociology together. This book is an important
documentation for gender and medical sociologists. This book challenges the concept of
conventional binary gender categories. Although, this book is based on her dissertation, it
becomes personal at a time as she described her own experience about when she found out her
intersex status. She also included her conversation with her own parents. This book is a must-
read for a medical sociology students, medical students and teachers. This book has a potential of
shaping the mind of the next generation doctors who would encounter the intersex people in
future.

9BOOK REVIEW
Reference:
Bettcher, T. M. (2015). Intersexuality, Transgender, and Transsexuality. The Oxford Handbook
of Feminist Theory, 407.
Cornwall, S. M. (2014). Sexual Theologies for All People: Intersex and Transgender People.
Oxford University Press.
Crocetti, D. (2016). Medicalizing the gendered body: Intersex/DSD and Human Rights.
University of Huddersfield Repositor. Retrieved from http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/31794
Davis, G. (2011). “DSD is a Perfectly Fine Term”: Reasserting Medical Authority through a
Shift in Intersex Terminology. In Sociology of diagnosis (pp. 155-182). Emerald Group
Publishing Limited.
Davis, G. (2015). Normalizing Intersex: The Transformative Power of Stories. Narrative inquiry
in bioethics, 5(2), 87-89.
Davis, G. (2015). Contesting intersex: The dubious diagnosis. NYU Press. Retrieved from
https://books.google.co.in/books?
hl=en&lr=&id=Mu8WCgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA36&dq=intersex+binary+&ots=z7dI23Aw8f&sig=
b2Tl76L-7_EoQ4jfStdR6HyShII#v=onepage&q=intersex%20binary&f=false
Davis, G., & Preves, S. (2017). Intersex and the Social Construction of Sex. Contexts, 16(1), 80-
80.

10BOOK REVIEW
Floyd, K. (2011). Masculinity inside out: The biopolitical lessons of transgender and intersex
studies. In Constructions of Masculinity in British Literature from the Middle Ages to the
Present (pp. 33-48). Palgrave Macmillan US.
Goldie, T. (2014). The man who invented gender: engaging the ideas of John Money. UBC Press
Retrieved from https://books.google.co.in/books?
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UMv&sig=MHEn6SEGi8g9s4JEQ85SXNVsIMY#v=onepage&q=intersex%20binary%20john
%20money&f=false .
Jutel, A. G., & Conrad, P. (2014). Putting a name to it: Diagnosis in contemporary society. JHU
Press. 67-78 Retrieved from https://books.google.co.in/books?
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h&sig=0vo6LhvqoTrc2eyNkOKMhUVABTE&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
Käll, L. F. (2016). Ellen Feder's Making Sense of Intersex and the Issue of Sexual
Difference. Philosophy Today, 60(3), 799-807.
Kennedy, A. (2016). Fixed at Birth: Medical and Legal Erasures of Intersex
Variations. UNSWLJ, 39, 813.
Lee, J. (2011). Beyond Binary Genders: Reviewing the Medical Management of Intersex
Infants. International journal of the humanities, 9(12).
Pagonis, P. (2017). First Do Harm: How Intersex Kids Are Hurt by those Who Have Taken the
Hippocratic Oath. Griffith Journal of Law & Human Dignity, 5(1), 40-51.

11BOOK REVIEW
Roen, K. (2015). Intersex/DSD. In The Palgrave handbook of the psychology of sexuality and
gender (pp. 183-197). Palgrave Macmillan UK.
Rubin, D. A. (2012). “An Unnamed Blank That Craved a Name”: A Genealogy of Intersex as
Gender. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 37(4), 883-908.
Sánchez, A. (2010). Intersexuality, Human Rights, and the Colombian Constitutional Court’s
Notion of Gender. UCLA Center for the Study of Women.
Semler, K. O. (2010). Let the Child Decide: Surgical Intervention After Parental Consent Should
No Longer Be Considered the Best Option for Children with Intersex Conditions. Seton
Hall University, 4-6
Uslan, S. S. (2010). What Parents Don't Know: Informed Consent, Marriage, and Genital-
Normalizing Survey on Intersex Children. Ind. LJ, 85, 301.
Zaccone, L. A. (2010). Policing the policing of intersex bodies. Brook. L. Rev., 76, 385.