Me, My Sex, and I [View all]

[RainDog]

article about the program here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14459843

In most of the world, people assume there are only two genders, female or male. But this isn't reality.

It's interesting to see that there's a medical condition for those who don't confirm to one gender or another. Rather than acknowledge that gender is a sliding scale that may exist biologically, not just culturally, it's so important to our cultural beliefs to continue a binary division that we don't know how to treat those who are intersex simply as humans.

Is it really a medical condition to not conform to one of two genders, or does nature itself say that gender exists in various configurations?

If we assume we are defined by our sexual organs and ability to reproduce, of course this issue will be seen as a disease. But if we want to recognize that we exist first and foremost as humans, if we can raise children as children, not as gendered beings, we might be able to learn something from nature's insistence on variation.

Those born without one defined gender or not are not at threat of death or disease from their genetic configuration. They are at threat of not fitting in to societies that insist on a binary view of humans.