(Alice D. Dreger and April Herndon, “Progress and Politics in the Intersex Rights Movement: Feminist Theory in Action,” forthcoming in GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, in a special issue on “Intersex and After,” edited by Iain Morland, vol. 15, no. 2, March 2009.)

It was a real pleasure to write this piece with April Herndon after we had both retired from ISNA. Served as a nice way for us to relay what we had learned as academic feminists working in the intersex rights movement. Here’s a bit from the opening....

Since 1990, when Suzanne Kessler published in SIGNS her groundbreaking feminist analysis of the understanding of gender among clinicians treating children with intersex, many academic feminists have produced important scholarly work on intersex and intersex rights. A notable few have also lent their energies to actively working for intersex rights in the medical and mainstream social arenas. Although the intersex rights movement and feminist scholarship on intersex have both progressed considerably since 1990, there remains theoretical and political irresolution on certain key issues, most notably those involving intersex identity and the constitution of gender.

This paper considers the progress made in intersex rights since 1990 and delineates important points of contention within feminist intersex scholarship and intersex politics. We argue that, in the last 15 years, much progress has been made in improving the medical and social attitudes towards people with intersex, but that significant work remains to be done to ensure that children born with sex anomalies will be treated in a way that privileges their long-term well-being over societal norms. We also argue that, while feminist scholars have been critically important in developing the theoretical underpinnings of the intersex rights movement and sometimes in carrying out the day-to-day political work of that movement, there have been intellectual and political problems with some feminists’ approaches to intersex.

[The graphic up there is a Phall-O-Meter, a now-famous activist tool created by intersex activist Kiira Triea based on a critique of intersex clinical practice by Suzanne Kessler.]

1. ‣Return to “major academic articles” page
   

2. ‣Go to main “writing” page