How to Teach Intersexuality
Emi Koyama and Lisa Weasel’s scholarly article “From Social Construction to Social Justice: Transforming How We Teach about Intersexuality” provides a comprehensive look at how intersexuality is being taught in America as well as some suggestions for how intersexuality should be taught in the future in order to promote positive change and social activism.
Koyama and Weasel first provide a definition for intersex: “a range of conditions that involve congenital anomaly of the reproductive and sexual systems” (169). They go on to state that 1 in 2000 babies or 5 babies a day are born visibly intersex. Surgery is the go-to “treatment” for intersex individuals (often soon after birth or in the first few years) even though studies confirm that these surgeries on the genitals can cause psychological and sexual problems later in life. In 1993, the Intersex Society of North America (ISNA) formed in order to rally around the cause of stopping these surgeries. They want the genitals of intersex individuals to be left alone (at least until the individual is old enough to consent to any surgeries).
Koyama and Weasel then examine how intersex issues are being taught in classrooms across America. Unsurprisingly they found that the majority of intersex issues were being taught in courses in Women’s or Queer Studies. This, however, has its drawbacks: “Through women studies, intersex existence is understood and presented largely as a scholarly object to be studied in order to deconstruct the notion of binary sexes (and thus sexism and homophobia) rather than as a subject that has real-world implications for real people” (170). Furthermore, only 17% of classrooms that teach about intersexuality use sources that were published by intersex people despite the fact that these sources are available. Koyama and Weasel suggest that teachers use a mix of scholarly sources as well as other mediums (blogs, videos, internet sources, etc.) created by intersex individuals to teach about intersex issues such as the aforementioned invasive surgeries.
Furthermore, Koyama and Weasel express the frustration felt by many intersex individuals that wish to be kept separate from the LGBT community. At this point in time, intersex issues have far different priorities than LGBT issues and many intersex individuals within the LGBT community feel that their issues are overlooked and not discussed.
Finally, Koyama and Weasel come up with guidelines for teaching about intersexuality, which are extremely useful for professors and teachers alike. They believe that authority should be given to intersex individuals when it comes to source material. They think that intersex existence should not be taught solely to complicate the sex-gender divide, but should mainly be taught to raise awareness about the many injustices that intersex people face in this day and age. They believe it is important for teachers to assume that there are intersex individuals in the class and to not pander to those who are not. They also think that it is important to separate intersex from LGBT issues especially trans issues (they go on to say how many professors confuse the two) and instead talk about how intersex can relate to other movements such as the disability movement, health activism, anti-violence movements, and children and youth rights.
All in all, I am pleased with how I (along with the rest of the class) have been taught about intersexuality. While our class did use intersexuality to discuss and deconstruct sex and gender, we also got to see accounts from intersex individuals as well as learn about the many challenges that intersex individuals have faced and continue to face today. Our class promoted empathy which many classes do not and we were able to see intersexuality as more than just a series of issues, but as a real thing that has real effects for real people. I think Koyama and Weasel would be proud.
