Intersex-children in a binary culture: The disadvantaged gender

Abstract

The article examines the role of embodiment, namely the characteristics of sexual development, in identity development in childhood. It raises a question of the social and psychological consequences for children with intersex variations (with and without medical intervention), whose knowledge of their bodies can be severely limited. It is concluded that the conceptual inaccuracies in the existing definitions of sex and gender affect the weak language tools for polymorphic sexual identification. In the process of social development, the child’s body is both an object of understanding and an agent acting in interaction. Accordingly, the physiological characteristics of the body are taken into account by the child when constructing an identity, ensuring his self-presentation and driving the choice of communication strategies. Intersex children frequently have distorted or insufficient information about their own bodies, because their parents consider this information an obstacle to successful social adaptation in a hierarchical gender environment. The main factor in the actualisation of intersex topic was feminist research. These studies have challenged the binary definition of gender, discovering significant inconsistencies in the dominant biological interpretation. The article comes to the following conclusions. First, the dichotomous matrix of ideas about sexuality prevents a neutral attitude to the sexual anatomy of individuals, which underlies all existing social relations. Male anatomical features are given a symbolic meaning of power, and female that of subordination. Second, conceptual inaccuracies in the existing definitions of sex and gender affect the weak language tools for polymorphic sexual identification. Third, in the post-Soviet discourse at the state (legal, medical, political, etc.) and interpersonal (family, peer) levels, intersex children are a socially excluded and unrecognised group, deprived of legal protection.