Stephen Kerry

Are You a Boy or a Girl? Intersex and Genders: Contesting the Uncontested: a Comparative Analysisbetween the Status of Intersex in Australia and Theunited States of America Stephen Kerry

One question that is perhaps most familiar incontemporary western societies is: Is it a boy or agirl? This question goes uncontested unless a childis born with ambiguous genitalia. The medicalresponses to these births have recently undergoneconsiderable attention and criticism. The intersexmovement has coalesced around a shared livedexperience of trauma brought about in no small way bythe invasive procedures of medical management. Theseprocedures leave intersex individuals with feelingsof isolation and abuse. A culture of silence has beencreated with psychological, social and physicalramifications omitted from medical, patient andbroader social discourses. Intersex individuals citetheir own experiences as evidence of theseramifications. This book takes note of thesignificant issues pertinent to the intersex movementand employs a comparative analysis of the livedexperiences of Intersex Australians and Americans. This book also investigates the historical andcross-cultural evidence of intersex, the way in whichmedical discourses dominate twentieth andtwenty-first century conceptualisations and how theintersex movement itself was formed in the last decade.