Books, journals and reports (page 8 of 8)

Books and selected journal articles on intersex issues, including fiction, peer-reviewed papers, and biographies.

Chris Somers XXY, self portrait, 2013

Chris Somers xxy, Tracy Reibel and David Whyatt: Intersex and androgyny and implications for provision of primary health care

Chris Somers xxy (vice-president of OII Australia) and colleagues present an analysis of intersex issues for primary healthcare providers. Chris Somers xxy is a national and international intersex activist with a M.Ed. By Research (UWA); concerning Androgyny; B.Ed. (Melb); Hons Dip Creative Photography (Trent Polytechnic now Trent University, UK); who has worked in a number…
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Katrina Karkazis, “Fixing Sex” (recommended reading)

Published in November 2008, Fixing Sex: Intersex, Medical Authority, and Lived Experience by Katrina Karkazis is compelling and recommended reading. Meticulously researched and approachable in style, it presents a historical analysis of the treatment of intersex people, together with an analysis of both current medical practice and the impact on intersex people and our families….
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Richard Goldschmidt: “Intersexuality and the Endocrine Aspect of Sex”

Richard Goldschmidt, in proposing the term intersex, noted the limitations of previous terminology and the significance of his different approach to the subject. Goldschmidt proposed that better terminology was needed when intersex was viewed from the then new perspective of “cytology, genetics, teratology, physiology, serology, endocrinology, etc.” He also invited endocrinologists to view sex differentiation…
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Photo by Karin

Karin on “Roberta Cowell’s Story, by Herself”

Karin at OII Australia has obtained a PDF rendition of the autobiography of British intersex woman Roberta Cowell. It was published in the UK in 1954 and has long been out of print. Roberta aka Betty underwent urogenital surgery in the early 1950s. She lived a long life, as a World War II fighter pilot…
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Orchid buds

AHRC’s Paper ‘Surgery on intersex infants and human rights’

The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has released a paper titled Surgery on intersex infants and human rights. We deeply regret the report’s equivocation on surgery to modify the appearance of intersex infants and children. The report acknowledges such interventions without commenting on their necessity or lifelong consequences. It is available for download here.

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When DSD originated

James Pate, MD has kindly provided us with the following: The first mention of “disorder of sex development” I could find was by CE Ford in 1961 (Ford CE. The cytogenetic analysis of some disorder of sex development. American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology. 82:1154-61, 1961 Nov.) Other historical terminology I found was: Disorder of…
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Jessica Cadwallader: “Regulating the Sexed Body”

Dr Jessica Cadwallader of the Somatechnics Research Centre at Macquarie University has given OII Australia kind permission to provide the PDF of the paper she presented at the Regulating the Sexed Body: Circumcision, Genital Modification and Cosmetic Surgery public lecture at the University of Technology, Sydney. OII applauds Dr Cadwallader’s support for intersex people to…
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Karin: Lili Elbe’s autobiography, Man into Woman

Download a copy of this book review as a PDF Published autobiographies written by intersex people are rare. Socially-imposed guilt and shame at being born intersex have led to fewer such books being published than one might wish for – we can learn so much from how others like us have lived. I’d always known…
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