Medical Lawsuit: Stop Wrecking Babies' Genitals

[chaya]

A landmark legal case may finally put a stop to almost half a century of bizarre medical procedures in the United States, where children's genitals have been surgically altered to fit a standardized definition of the proper sizes for penises and clitorises

Comments

[eveofrevolution]

[chaya]

If you want to get even more pissed, go look at how many of the comments are like "this is a good time to bring up circumcision, too!"

No. No it's not.

[girly123]

i09 and every other Gawker site is chock full of awful people, to be honest. It's one of the reasons why I avoid them.

[chaya]

Tbh considering the source I was shocked the article was as comprehensive and non-pronoun-fail as it is.

TW suicide

[nextdrinksonme]

I can't think of a level where this is not gross.

Seriously, why do we have a standard of 'normal' for genitals anyhow? And who's to say that the kid's bits won't grow or change as they do? What's wrong with a small penis or a large clit as long as it isn't causing the kid physical pain? Ugh. I can't even imagine the shame of knowing "the body you were born in was wrong so we decided to surgically change it to make it more normal" not even on top of the whole gender issue (seriously David Reimer (the boy who was raised as a girl mentioned at the end of the article) killed himself. That really should be enough to tell people that this is not a good idea to do to children).

Ugh.

Re: TW suicide

[the_physicist]

There aren't really any statistics on the number of intersex individuals who commit suicide because of stuff like this or other problems faced from being intersex. Simply because no one is monitoring the situation. There are anecdotal accounts though.

One of the arguments for these surgeries was/is that if we aren't surgically altered to fit one idea of how a body should be, then we'll commit suicide later in life. Again. No statistics though.

Doctors don't decide based on evidence or science how to treat us intersex people. Only based on their bigoted feelings.

An intersex woman near where I grew up had her ovaries and uterus removed without her consent by a doctor when she was in for another surgery. Because that doctor saw an M on her documents and when poking around inside her found a female reproductive system. And they saying having an X gender category on birth certificates and passports is not important. Of course it's not. >_> *rage*

Re: TW suicide

[nextdrinksonme]

Oh god that is absolutely horrifying. I hope she sued the shit out of that doctor for malpractice.

Re: TW suicide

[the_physicist]

She did take them to court! I tried to google an article on her case, but I can't find anything right now. I know there was one on the internet though, as an old friend of mine sent me a link to it via FB when she won the case.

[gambitia]

I truly don't understand the reasoning that "the kid will be traumatized by realizing their genitals are different from others!" Not a child psychologist, but...pretty sure they won't give a damn. And I bet the damage from being misassigned a gender is way worse than the "oh noes! I'm different!" realization that pretty much everyone has for one reason or another.

Good that this practice is being stopped.

[the_physicist]

pretty sure they won't give a damn.

I gave quite a damn.

edit: but yes, the practice should be stopped. not in a way that doesn't let intersex people have free access to them later on in life though.

[gambitia]

Out of curiosity, at what age? I can see it being a problem later, but wouldn't that tie into society's problems with intersex/non-binary sexes rather than a young child noticing they look different?

Very young children are often bathed together in mixed-groups or explore each other's bodies when still young enough that "modesty" isn't a thing. Granted it's been a long time since I was that young, but I recall some vague curiosity about why my brother and I looked different down there, which was satisfied completely when my parents said "boys and girls are different down there."

[the_physicist]

That's the thing, it requires parents who aren't useless at this stuff. I had a mother who was more than useless and did make me worried about my genitals from a very young age.

edit: and obviously the big problems came when things started growing differently when puberty hit and then everything was absolutely shit.

[chaya]

Lots of very young children have baths together, but nobody's yanking out a ruler and measuring their bath-buddy. There's no expectation to be exactly identical in that area when they already know they're not physically identical otherwise.

[nextdrinksonme]

The only thing I can think is if the kid has siblings or sees their parents naked (as many kids do) and then asks why they look different down there.

[chaya]

And they already ask this when seeing each other, especially sisters seeing brothers and vice versa. "Why's he got a thing down there?" "She's missing a part!"

[bowling_otaku]

I don't understand why being born with a small penis somehow automatically means that a kid has to be raised as female. WTF. This is horrible shit. And who's to say they might not grow into their parts later? And even if they don't, they should be allowed to decide what to do with thier own genitals/gender idenity themselves when they're old enough to know what's what. These are tiny babies that can't even defend themselves. :/

[muizenstaartje]

I was wondering the same thing. I was taught that penis size doesn't have to say much, because there are "growers" and "showers". The message "Your penis is not big enough for you to be a man. Enjoy your artifical vulva and vagina." is messed up.
From what I read somewhere else about turning baby boys into girls, the criteria for a "sucessfully created vagina" is "does a penis fit?" and not how does it feel or level of sexual pleasure for the patient.

[gambitia]

There are conditions where a penis will be abnormally small (as in > 1 inch erect, in adulthood). But yeah--if someone's penis is "too small", then it should be that person's choice whether to leave it, have surgery to make it larger, or become female. How "meh, make him a her" came to be the default is beyond me.

[the_physicist]

The male doctors are folk who decided its easier for intersex kids that way, be ause they think you can live life as a woman more easily while being gender variant and women don't get pleasure from sex anyway, who needs a clit?, and also MtF surgeries were known of and common, FtM less so.

But it's also hugely common for intersex babies to randly assigned male at birth due to having a few inches down there, even if they have a uterus and a vagina. I think people expect that doctors take care in assigning a gender. They don't.