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by nostrebored 3658 days ago
Intersex people do not have an ambiguous gender, they have an ambiguous sex based on genitalia. However, "In humans, biological sex is determined by five factors present at birth: the presence or absence of a Y chromosome, the type of gonads, the sex hormones, the internal reproductive anatomy (such as the uterus in females), and the external genitalia".

So really none of it is that ambiguous.
2 comments
dragonwriter 3658 days ago
> Intersex people do not have an ambiguous gender, they have an ambiguous sex.

Intersex people may have an ambiguous socially ascribed gender, and are probably more likely than most to have unclear gender identity. (Given that gender identity, while obviously highly personal, is also clearly influenced by social cues, including both ascribed gender and social expectations about the relation between gender and physical sex traits.)

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nostrebored 3658 days ago
>Intersex people may have an ambiguous socially ascribed gender, and are probably more likely than most to have unclear gender identity.

That's interesting, because of the numerous population studies in intersex people, this has never been one of the conclusions. Same sex attraction is more likely, however.

I think you have a misconception regarding intersex people -- their presentation aligns with their birth sex. I.e. if they are a female, they will have female secondary sex characteristics.

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DasIch 3658 days ago
At least until you have an understanding of what gender is, how you yourself fit into that social construct and can articulate it, gender is ambiguous for everyone, intersex or not.
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nostrebored 3658 days ago
There's a simple answer here: gender is a social construct, and trying to define yourself with any of these categories just doesn't make sense.

Do you think that none of this has to do with socialization? Should we avoid any potentially gendered toys/activities (that are masculine or feminine) lest we ruin the child's natural, inborn gender?

Or should we take the much saner approach and not try to categorize children based on ridiculous buckets of traits?

All that self-identifying with a gender does is perpetuate the harmful stereotypes that surround the socialization for children of that sex.

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