The question of consent for intersex people

[Music]

hello everyone

so essentially intersex people are

individuals whose

hormones chromosomes and body types

don’t fit a typical what we may call

male or female body

and these people aren’t rare per se they

make up

up to 150 people in the uk which is

higher than the number of ginger people

and people with green eyes

and ultimately these individuals are

subjected to what i may call

a very specific type of abuse

essentially whilst other people in the

lgbt community we might even say

uh have sort of the freedom to express

that or choose their preferred gender

ultimately intersex people are stripped

of the

uh stripped of this right through

through medically unnecessary corrective

corrective surgeries these surgeries

ultimately

aim to change the body types of intersex

people to conform to a male or female

body

and this is done to children as young as

as young as infants against their will

and these surgeries have even been

likened by the un and the world health

organizations to

other abusive practices such as female

genital mutilation

and ultimately this leaves intersex

people the silent majority of the queer

community

because whilst other queer people are

able to

as i mentioned relish in their true

gender intersex people

um don’t have the opportunity to choose

theirs instead that

and instead theirs is chosen to them by

essentially by essentially a surgical

scalpel

and essentially theirs is chosen to them

by

by a surgical scalpel and

many many walk through life completely

unaware of their intersex identity

with many with many surgeons having

deprived them of this knowledge

telling the pet telling the parents to

sort of conceal this what they call

a shape this shameful secret and many

intersex people only finding out about

this until well into adulthood

and the sheer number of intersex people

that exist

in the uk makes us wonder how many are

still hiding in the shadows

now ultimately what’s important to

acknowledge when we talk about this

issue

is that these surgeries aren’t actually

predominantly performed in developing

what we may call like culturally behind

countries in the global south

in fact the countries that are most

likely to pursue them

are people most likely to pursue them

are living in the west right now

so take for example in 2015 zimbabwe

created a task force to attempt to sort

of

eliminate these surgeries a practice

which only one western country malta has

successfully banned

and ultimately western nations try their

best to sort of

justify their complicity in what many

may call these human rights abuses

by arguing that these surgeries are a

way to sort of save intersex people from

leading a lonely life

of insecurity and discrimination many

people in the west

sort of condemn the marginalization and

the violence that a lot of intersex

people are subjected to in the global

self for example but

simultaneously uphold these medical

practices

because they see removing the

unconventional nature of intersex

people’s bodies as a sort of humane

gesture

to help them assimilate michaela rabb

for example was a german intersex woman

who when she sued her doctors for

performing surgery on her without a

consent the doctor said in court

that they’ve as a defense that they were

merely trying to save her

from the social discrimination that she

would have faced had she kept her sort

of

convention her unconventional intersex

body as they described

and this all highlights how a lot of

people or suggest how a lot of people in

the west view

the loss of intersex people’s identity

as sort of

a small price to pay for a lifetime of

what they

see as integration and not being

ostracized and seen as freakish or other

however assimilation is not acceptance

and

nor is it nor has it ever been been the

solution

so take so if we take for example

firstly the assimilation that does come

about from these surgeries

does not guarantee the great quality of

life that a lot of

these western nations are say are

claiming it does for example a lot of

intersex people who do undergo surgery

they a lot of them still face routine

discrimination

as well as the additional trauma of

potentially

developing a gender that doesn’t align

with the sex they were assigned during

surgery

but even disregarding this and assuming

that these surgeries are able to give

intersex people the wonderful good

quality of life

that they that they dream of ultimately

they still

they still at the end of the day place

society

parents and ultimately societies

discomforted feelings and

concerns and prejudices about intersex

people

above the child’s welfare take for

example

a lot of anti-lgbt people try to

disguise their prejudice and opposition

to the queer community

as a sort of preservation attempt to

uphold science and what they call

facts over felix a very common time

that’s been used but ultimately

i would i would incredibly question that

because surely forcing an intersex child

with an other otherwise natural body to

conform to an otherwise

unnatural and artificial idea of what

the normal or standard body should look

like

isn’t that the epitome of prioritizing

feelings in this case society’s feelings

regarding

intersex people above facts or in the

facts as as well as most importantly the

child’s welfare

when has assimilation ever been the

answer to oppression

do we demand to this extent that

therefore

gay people should try to hide their

sexuality to avoid discrimination

and if you say no then i question why we

should subject

intersex people to the same type of can

of conform conforming for conforming for

example

um conforming for example um

for example for for a society that for a

society that frankly

for a society that frankly places

society’s feelings above the child’s

welfare needs to critically think

rethink its concern for children now

that being said

you people watching this right now might

question well what can i do

in my everyday life to try to prevent

this um like i’m a small individual

compared to a big government that has

the power to actually

reform these laws and change them and

get rid of these

get rid of these non-consensual

surgeries but i believe that you as an

individual can do a lot

and i urge you as an individual to

question the ideas that

you have about consent because i i say

this because i believe

that the way we talk and look at consent

with regards to children

is incredibly important to trying to

tackle this issue of these surgeries

and the reason and the reason being is

that

um the reason being is that the way we

talk about consent

especially in schools is predominantly

limited

to consent in sex for example in sex ed

and that means that what’s left a lot

out of these discussions

is ultimately how consent relates to

children’s

children and their personal boundaries

for example

there were a bunch of studs a bunch of

stuff a variety of studies have

have shown that a lot of parents have

never asked

or like asked their children if they

were comfortable with physical contact

and this spurred the uk government 2018

to introduce

um consent classes in schools for

children to teach children as young as

four about personal boundaries

and ultimately these in classes spurred

black backlash amongst

a lot of parents who saw them as an

attempt by the government

by the government to try to police what

they say police the way they were

raising their children

and all raising their children

ultimately

this does suggest that a lot of parents

sort of don’t see or understand the

importance of

children learning about personal

boundaries and personal boundaries and

consent

and the reason why that is incredibly

important when we’re talking about

surgeries on

intersex minors is that children who

grow up to think that

ultimately consent is non-essential that

take for example if a parent or a

relative

cooks for them brings them a gift that

they’re entitled to a hug or physical

contact that the child would otherwise

not want

or that the child isn’t entitled to

their own personal boundaries however

young

will go these children will go on to

become adults who condone these

surgeries lawmakers who uphold them and

surgeons who

who perform them insurgents who perform

them

this issue of these surgeries is

inextricably linked

to a culture that sort of trivializes

the idea of consent in children

erases children’s agency over their body

and assumes parents the government and

doctors complete complete control and

doctors complete control

control over it and

complete control over it that being that

being said i urge everyone watching this

right now

to question their ideas about consent

maybe potentially potentially try to

change old patterns

um with how you interact with your ch

with children

how you teach them about personal

boundaries that before you would have

seen as harmless but

now you understand may send the wrong

message because i believe

i believe that whilst the government

sure has loads of power to reform these

surgeries i believe that it’s only

through us as individuals to create

small patterns and actions in our

everyday lives that we can truly tackle

this

this large issue thank you so much for

[Music]

listening

you