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Let's talk about the problematic term: Intergender.
It's starting to gain momentum and although belonging to something else, it's gaining steam as a "genderqueer" identity. Being listed as a gender that is inbetween the binary of male and female but it gets worse.
It's starting to gain momentum and although belonging to something else, it's gaining steam as a "genderqueer" identity. Being listed as a gender that is inbetween the binary of male and female but it gets worse.
Intergender is considered to be "intersex exclusive" being it is a gender for intersex people only, but the descriptor of "to refer to any gender tied to one's intersex identity" is the concerning aspect here. So let's talk about.. why.
Growing up intersex can be traumatizing, especially when you know something's different about you from the start. Your parents know something, but you don't and due to stigma you have that fact hidden from you. Watching as the differences become more and more obvious.
You start to feel more and more different from your peers, grasping onto straws to understand why. An identity like this can leave to internalize and embracing yourself as a "freak" or "something different" which is harmful in its own right and is only temporary relief.
However, most the individuals and I'm willing to say arguably all... are not these such cases. They are people who desperately tried to get diagnosed as intersex, be it by doctor or self-diagnosis to validate their confused feelings of why they don't "feel masc or feel femme"
Conflating feminine with female, and masculine with male.. implying a female has to be feminine in appearance, expression and everything to be female. That masculinity has to be tied to being male down to the appearance, interests and expression. Yes, this is the issue.
"Intergender" is a label applied to often interfakers who are using intersex to validate their reason for being trans. Not looking at the bigger picture or wanting to navigate why they really want to transition or be perceived a certain way. Intergender continues to stigmatize.
It declares that being "inter" or "intersex" is being in-between, that we are lesser males, lesser females or even "neither or both." I've called out numerous harmful intersex claims like this all in the past. What it does to us and how it doesn't better conditions of living.
It reduces what is normally a very serious congenital condition of sexual development that sometimes isn't so serious and comes with little issue, able to be gone without ever being diagnosed in life[Klinefelter's] - to a trendy little label and coping mechanism.
As a result, this does great harm. It tells intersex people we're lesser males and lesser females and we should "embrace" that. Which begs the question of, why should we embrace being considered something else or lesser? Why should we conflate our reality with gender?
Anyways, intergender is dangerous and the term comes with severe issues. It also doesn't provide actually talking with those with intersex conditions the resources and info to navigate life, but tells them to adopt a gender identity that embraces being an "other."