What does it mean to be intersex?

Those people who anatomically break out of the binary framework

The world is complex. We prefer to categorize things into good and evil, truth and falsehood, men and women. Yet this does not correspond to reality. Susannah Temko explains it very well in this lecture. Indeed, we don't know it, but 1.7% of the births are intersex individuals, that is to say, they have anatomical characteristics different from those specific to a particular sex. Susannah, for example, was born with XY chromosomes (i.e. male) and gonads instead of ovaries. These facts would make her a man in the eyes of medicine. Yet this is not the case.

In her heartfelt address, she reminds us that too many intersex babies undergo non-essential surgeries to "spare the child shame." This idea also starts with an old study, which has since been debunked, that all you have to do is raise a kid in one gender without telling them which gender they were born with in order for them to adopt "the traits" of male or female.

Thus, intersex people constantly face prejudice and have little protection from policy since they do not fit into either the male or female category. A discrimination that she believes must end in this strong English-language plea (available with English, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles).

Time: 14 minutes