Georgiann Davis, “Contesting Intersex” – Intersex Human Rights Australia

Georgiann Davis’s first book, “Contesting Intersex, The Dubious Diagnosis” is hotly awaited, and the first chapter has just become available online, from the publisher. Here are a couple of quotes (references omitted):

I show how contemporary U.S. medical experts on intersex, like much of society, tend to hold narrow, essentialist understandings of sex, gender, and sexuality. The danger in medical professionals’ holding these views is that they often are used to justify medically unnecessary and irreversible surgical interventions on intersex bodies, which have long-lasting implications for intersex people. Taking into account these two realities alongside 1990s intersex activism, I argue that medical professionals took so quickly to the new DSD nomenclature because it allowed them to escape their tainted history of intersex medical care…

I fear that DSD terminology, if not approached carefully, is potentially dangerous to the intersex community. Disorder of sex development implies that one has an abnormality or, worse, is abnormal.

OII Australia shares in Georgiann’s analysis, and we have been pleased to make extensive use of some of Georgiann’s previous writings, on “DSD”, IVF and sport.

Readers should note “DSD” is nowhere near as widespread outside clinical circles as it is in the US. I acknowledge the role of the AISSGA in this, as well as OII Australia.

We’re looking forward to reading the full book, and this page will then become a book review.

More information

Georgiann Davis (2015) “Contesting Intersex, The Dubious Diagnosis”, published by NYU Press, New York. ISBN: 9781479887040.

The following articles review or cite Georgiann’s work: