User:MishMich/Sandbox

Georgina Somerset (nee Turtle), first person in the UK to discuss being intersex openly in the media, and write on the subject; she was active from 1960's to 1990's; she appears to be the first openly intersex activist. Following reassignment to female she married her husband in church. A medical journal suggested she was not intersex, so she brought a successful case against them during which she provided evidence that she was intersex.

The term 'intersex' began to be used as an alternative to 'hermaphrodite' in Europe before the 2nd World War. The first call to replace the term 'hermaphrodite' with 'intersex' came from British specialist Cawadias in the 1940's. . This suggestion was taken up by specialists in the UK during the 1960's, by both those who rejected endorsed Money's framework then emerging from the USA, and those who endorsed that approach. The UK differed from the USA in that people did not begin to accept Money's approach until the end of the 1960's, and most intersex children before that time tended to be assigned male where possible (see Cawadias and Armstrong).

Photographs of intersex children's genitalia are seen by some intersex people, activists, academics and medical experts as problematic; these are not usually seen as acceptable online for non-intersex children, but because they are seen as a medical phenomenon, intersex childrens' genitals are often regarded as an exception to this. Criticisms include the reduction of intersex issues to genital ambiguity, the problem of the medical approach that includes such photography, and the voyeuristic connotations associated with displaying people as biological freaks.

In her book (p.72), Sharon Preves explains 'My own experience with viewing these photos is often self-conscious as I sit in a library's medical stacks, flipping through articles with photographs that seem oddly reminiscent of child pornography. In an eerie way, these pictures also remind me of criminal mug shots. While the people in these pictures were posing for purposes of documentation, it is important to remember that they were in a vulnerable state that might not have allowed for their refusal of being photographed... Intersex children not only experience a discrediting mark or stigma associated with their bodies, but also feel they lack control over their bodies due to involuntary exposure to ongoing examinations and other medical procedures.'

Sites associated with intersex (support groups as well as medical sites providing public information) do not tend to use photographs of children's genitals, preferring to manage this issue sensitively and informatively,. Some medical experts have used diagrams to explain the different grades of variations of sex development, such as that found on Milton Diamond's website,. In Wikipedia, the way circumcision is handled is to have adult genitalia shown as examplars of the practice [], or using informative diagrams [], rather than photographs of children's genitalia. Such photographs of adults present a problem because very few adults who showed clear signs of ambiguity avoided surgery as children (and it is unclear whether any would want pictures of their genitals posted online); similarly, few intersex adults have access to photographs of their genitals before surgery in childhood.

Katrina Kazankazis, (p.222), highlights the issue of the medical protocols that include medical photography: 'In addition to the trauma from these unexplained surgeries, some individuals recall a sense of discomfort, vulnerability, and humiliation due to repeated medical and genital examinations. Louise Rutherford, who has CAH, observes, "I remember feeling like a freak show because every doctor had to do a genital examination. It didn't matter how much you cried or that you were cold. No one cared." Several others I interviewed complained about being objectified by clinicians and of being spoken about as if not present' Medical photography is part of this objectification of intersex bodies. Members of the medical team at UCL discuss the ethics of medical photography of intersex children, and are clear that when used they must be fully consented to, used for specific medical purposes, and subject to data protection legislation: