Hanne Gaby Odiele, First Openly Intersex Model
One might expect Vogue’s article on Hanne Gaby Odiele, the first model to come out as intersex, to be vapid or sensationalist, since it comes from a fashion magazine. In reality, it is an insightful and mostly informative account of Odiele’s life and intersex activism. This is especially important because its designated audience is likely not familiar with sex and gender non-conformity.
Odiele is a successful Belgian model who came out as intersex in January 2017. The article, written by Lynn Yaeger, is especially successful in how it humanizes Odiele, focusing not only on her coming to terms with being intersex, but also her successful career as a model, and her personal life with husband DJ John Swiatek. The article also cites specialists, including the director of InterACT (an intersex youth advocacy group) and a medical doctor who is quoted to say, “Some things don’t need to be fixed!”
This idea of changing the norm continues throughout the article. While it differentiates between sex and gender, it also draws parallels with trans and other queer stories of not fitting into the heterosexual matrix, such as Ladyfag, a “New York nightlife impresario” (for whom the article never gives any gender pronouns).
The Vogue article gives the same sort of “growing up” narrative as the memoir of Herculine Barbin. It starts by rooting itself in Odiele’s infancy, discussing when doctors found out Odiele had androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS) at two weeks old. While Barbin’s memoir does not start until later in her childhood, many of the issues Barbin faced in the late 1800s are similar to Odiele’s today. For example, many doctors examine Barbin, seem to be in a panic about her body, but refuse to tell her what is wrong. Odiele, too, talks about how doctors lied to her and made her parents lie to her.
The article is successful in how it focuses on wider intersex issues and Odiele’s personal thoughts instead of her body and genitals. However, it does talk about her sex life, as though needing to satiate the reader’s inherent curiosity. The author even mentions that Odiele “has no problem answering questions that might seem deeply intrusive in another setting.” This is somewhat problematic, because why did the author even feel the need to ask these “deeply intrusive” questions? Too often, questions that would be inappropriate to ask to cisgender people are still posed to intersex, trans, and genderqueer people.
Nevertheless, Odiele discusses her sex life, which she describes as very “hetero-normal.” This is a stark contrast to Barbin’s memoir, which heavily discusses Barbin’s various lesbian sexual encounters from an early age. If Barbin’s emphasis on her lesbian relations serves to justify to the reader and herself her identifying as a man later in life, then does mentioning Odiele’s “hetero-normal” relationship serve to characterize her as more female identifying?
Perhaps this is where the article fails slightly, and mixes sex up with gender: Odiele is quoted, “I am intersex, but I am much more female.” This is a bit confusing, because where the article attempts to challenge the norm in the beginning, it falls back into gender norms at the end. Odiele identifies her gender as female, but then cites biological reasons (e.g. she doesn’t have a penis, doesn’t stand up to pee) as to why she identifies this way.
Nevertheless, this Vogue article is both interesting and informative. It uses Odiele’s life story to challenge accepted ideas of what a “normal” gender or body is. The article concludes with a quote from Odiele that summarizes its tone perfectly: “The ‘norm’ is not what you think it is.” As a model, Odiele encourages people to be more accepting, challenge social delineations, and stand out.
