Recent Publications on Intersexuality
Updated 2/05/03
Morris, G. (2003). Is
it a boy or a girl? Just Out. Portland.
Holmes, R. (2003). Scanty Particulars, Random House. Read review
in Rocky Mountain news.
Chase, C. (2002). Affronting Reason. GenderQueer: Voices From
Beyond the Sexual Binary. J. Nestle, C. Howell and R. Wilchins.
Los Angeles, Alyson Books.
Bloom, A. (2002). Normal,
Random House.
Chase, Cheryl. 2002. "Cultural Practice" or "Reconstructive
Surgery?": U.S. Genital Cutting, the Intersex Movement, and
Media Double Standards. In Genital Cutting and Transnational Sisterhood:
Disputing US Polemics, edited by C. Robertson and S. M. James.
Champaign: University of Illinois Press.
McDonough, Victoria Tilney. 2002. Between the Lines. Missoula
Independent, June 6. Available from http://www.missoulanews.com/News/News.asp?no=2498.
Kelton, Sheila. 2002. Stuck on the Horns of a Dilemma: The Challenge
of the Shifting Paradigm of Intersex Management. Pediatric Endocrine
Nursing Society Newsletter 14 (2). Available from http://pens.org/articles/kelton-intersex.htm.
Dreger, Alice D. 2002. Intersex. FatherMag.com, July 23. Available
from http://www.fathermag.com/206/intersex/.
Torassa, Ulysses. 2002. PROFILE: Cheryl Chase, Medical Activist
Boy or girl? Advocate for intersex children influences attitudes.
San Francisco Chronicle, August 4. Available from http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/08/04/LV199099.DTL.
Blizzard, Robert M. 2002. Intersex Issues: A Series of Continuuing
Conundrums. Pediatrics 1103 (3):616-21.
Migeon, Claude. 2002. 46,XY Intersex Individuals: Phenotypic
and Etiologic Classification, Knowledge of Condition, and Satisfaction
with Knowledge in Adulthood. Pediatrics 110 (3):e32 (8 pages).
Available from http://www.pediatrics.org/cgi/content/full/110/3/e32.
Migeon, Claude 2002. Ambiguous Genitalia With Perineoscrotal
Hypospadias in 46,XY Individuals: Long-Term Medical, Surgical,
and Psychosexual Outcome. Pediatrics 110 (3):e31 (10 pages). Available
from http://www.pediatrics.org/cgi/content/full/110/3/e31.
Williams, Nina. 2002. The Imposition of Gender: Psychoanalytic
Encounters with Genital Atypicality. Psychoanalytic Psychology
19 (3):455-74. Available from http://www.bodieslikeours.org/research/williams_2002_apa.html.
Dreger, Alice. 2000. Jarring bodies: Thoughts on the display
of unusual anatomies. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine (Winter):161-172.
Available from http://www.press.jhu.edu/journals/perspectives_
in_ biology_ and_ medicine/v043/43.2dreger.html.
Abramsky, Lenore, Sue Hall, Judith Levitan, and Theresa M. Marteau.
2001. What parents are told after prenatal diagnosis of a sex
chromosome abnormality: interview and questionnaire study. BMJ
322:463-6. Available from http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/322/7284/463.
"Our main finding was that there was enormous variation between different health professionals in what they knew, thought, and told parents about specific sex chromosome anomalies. Health professionals from 7 of the 14 district general hospitals said that it was a matter of chance that they had been the one to inform parents of the result."
Biesecker, Barbara. 2001. Prenatal diagnoses of sex chromosome
conditions (editorial). BMJ 322:441-2. Available from http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/322/7284/441.
"Individuals under stress may become hypervigilant, making rapid and ill considered (and later regretted) decisions as an escape from the psychological distress."
Nussbaum, Emily. 2001. Nerve 100: Cheryl Chase. Nerve, January
- Available from http://www.nerve.com/Dispatches/nerve100/.
(See number 50.) Nerve Magazine names ISNA Executive Director
Cheryl Chase one of the 100 most important people, places, or
things of 2000.
Dreifus, Claudia. 2001. Exploring What Makes Us Male or Female.
New York Times, January 2. Available from http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/02/science/02CONV.html?pagewanted=all.
Interview with Anne Fausto-Sterling, author of "Sexing
the Body." Intersexuality is a major topic of the discussion.
Marion, Robert. 2000. The Curse of the Garcias. Discover,
December, 42-. Available from http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m1511/12_21/67185294/p1/article.jhtml.
An unfortunate indication of how far we still have to go. Dr. Marion recently saw a teenage girl, who came to him to ask about some physical issues that she shared with several other members of her family, and which had always been quite mysterious to her. Dr. Marion diagnosed her with androgen insensitivity syndrome, but did not tell her this diagnosis. Although the patient was kept in the dark, Dr. Marion published her story for the entertainment of readers of _Discover_ Magazine.
Coventry, Martha. 2000. Making the Cut. Ms. Magazine,
October/November, 52-60. Available from http://www.msmagazine.com/oct00/makingthecut.html.
Finally! _Ms. Magazine_ acknowledges that clitorectomy continues in the U.S.
Matthews, Karen. 2000. Controversy Over Care for Infants With
Ambiguous Genitals. Associated Press, October 19.
A very balanced article depicting intersex adults' criticism of medical management, which ran in many newspapers, large and small, across the country.
Phornphutkul, Chanika, Anne Fausto-Sterling, and Philip A. Gruppuso.
2000. Gender Self-Reassignment in an XY Adolescent Female Born
With Ambiguous Genitalia. Pediatrics 106:135-137.
Yet another case in which doctors "assigned" a boy female because they believed his penis "too small", and the girl grew up to be a boy anyway. Authors call for open disclosure to patients with intersex conditions and their parents, and for a moratorium on early surgery. Unfortunately, the same issue of the journal carries an announcement of a new policy by the American Academy of Pediatrics which calls for continued surgeries on infants, but fails to cite evidence to support that view.
Wisniewski, Amy, Claude J. Migeon, Heino F. Meyer-Bahlburg,
John P. Gearhart, Gary D. Berkovitz, Terry R. Brown, and John
Money. 2000. Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome: Long-Term
Medical, Surgical, and Psychosexual Outcomes. Journal of Clinical
Endocrinology and Metabolism 85 (8):2664-2669.
Authors' investigation of 14 women with complete AIS supports the demands of patient advocacy groups for open disclosure, and avoidance of gonadectomy and vaginal surgery on children.
Kessler, Suzanne J. 2000. Doctor Knew Best (review of Hermaphrodites
and the Medical Invention of Sex). GLQ: A Journal of Gay and
Lesbian Studies 6 (2):343-5.
Meyer-Bahlburg, H. F. 1999. Gender assignment and reassignment
in 46,XY pseudohermaphroditism and related conditions. Journal
of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 84 (10):3455-8.
Beh, Hazel Glenn, and Milton Diamond. forthcoming 2000. An Emerging
Ethical and Medical Dilemma: Should Physicians Perform Sex Assignment
Surgery on Infants with Ambiguous Genitalia? Michigan Journal
of Gender and Law 7.
An important advance in legal attention to medical management of intersex. See our [legal page][10] for more info.
Lewis, Ricki. 2000. Reevaluating Sex Reassignment. The Scientist
14 (14):6. Available from http://www.the-scientist.com/yr2000/jul/lewis_p6_000710.html.
A very confused article.
Levay, Simon. 2000. Male, Female, Other. Nerve. Available
from http://www.nerve.com/LeVay/intersex/intersex.html.
Illustrates how, for intersex people, chromosomes often don't determine gender, by contrasting two intersex people, one a woman with XY and one a man with XX chromosomes.
Fausto-Sterling, Anne. 2000. The Five Sexes, Revisited. The
Sciences, July/August, 18-23. Available from http://www.nyas.org/membersonly/sciences/sci0007/fausto_body.html.
An invaluable update on how the controversy over medical management of intersexuality has developed since Fausto-Sterling's original publication of The Five Sexes in The Sciences in 1993.
Nussbaum, Emily. 2000. A question of gender. Discover,
January, 92-99. Available from http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m1511/1_21/58398807/p1/article.jhtml.
"A question of Gender," by Emily Nussbaum, is a sensitive examination of intersexuality and the controversy over treatment. Presents a family who are faced with making a tough decision about whether or not to have surgery performed on their child. Wonderful photographs of a loving family. No eyes blacked out here!
Ward and Associates (2000). Is it a Boy or a Girl? Great Falls
VA, Discovery Channel.
A one hour documentary on the burgeoning controversy over medicalization of children born with atypical sex characteristics. The U.S. premiere, March 26 on the Discovery Channel, garnered 35% higher ratings than usual for that slot, despite little promotion and competition from the Academy Awards. Expect it to air again in a more favorable time slot later this year, perhaps August 6th at 10PM.
Hegarty, Peter. and Cheryl Chase (2000). "Intersex Activism,
Feminism, and Psychology: Opening a Dialogue on Theory, Research,
and Clinical Practice." Feminism & Psychology
10: 117-132.
An edited transcript of a two hour discussion between psychologist Peter Hegarty and ISNA director Cheryl Chase. The discussion roams over Chase's personal experiences, and the relationships between intersex activism, feminism, lesbian and gay politics, and psychological theory and practice.
Davis, Ruth G. (2000). Was I Meant to Be a Man? Cosmopolitan.
228: 200-203.
Presents short biographies of four intersexed women, including a photograph of courageous Tammy Harwell, and provides the web addresses of ISNA and AIS-SG.
Blackless, Melanie, Anthony Charuvastra, Amanda Derryck, Anne
Fausto-Sterling, Karl Lauzanne, and Ellen Lee. 2000. How sexually
dimorphic are we? Review and synthesis. American Journal of
Human Biology 12:151-166.
Finally! Synthesized statistics on how common deviations
from "standard" sex anatomy are. " We conclude
that the frequency may be as high as 2% of live births. The frequency
of individuals receiving 'corrective' genital surgery, however,
probably runs between 1 and 2 per 1,000 live births (0.1%
0.2%).
Dreger, Alice. 2000. Jarring bodies: Thoughts on the display
of unusual anatomies. _Perspectives in Biology and Medicine
_ (Winter):161-172.
"Paradoxically, in the effort to train students and residents to alleviate the freakish feelings sometimes associated with unusual anatomies, people with unusual anatomies are examined, presented, and represented in ways that make them feel freakish."
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