Was Oprah a re-run today? Middlesex.

[TLCTugger]

Oprah had the 2003 Pulitzer prize winning author of Middlesex on, plus before that some beautiful and brave IS folk.

Oprah is such a dope sometimes. Over and over the expert she had on kept telling her that IS does not mean the same thing as someone is both male and female, but after every break she would come back and say it again.

They had some great dialog with the IS folk: "I'm so glad nobody forced surgery on me" "You couldn't pay me to be normalized." Then late in the show before the author came on, the medical expert said something in her advice for new parents of IS babies: "Work with the doctors to come up with the best assignment..." and I thought what the hell was the whole prior 40 minutes about, if not the obvious conclusion that NO gender assignment needs to be made on behalf of the IS child?

They sure made Middlesex sound like a novel absolutely not to be missed. Every member of the audience had already read it. It's beautiful to think this worthy book is making all those people sensitive to IS rights.

[miriam]

They had some great dialog with the IS folk: "I'm so glad nobody forced surgery on me" "You couldn't pay me to be normalized." Then late in the show before the author came on, the medical expert said something in her advice for new parents of IS babies: "Work with the doctors to come up with the best assignment..." and I thought what the hell was the whole prior 40 minutes about, if not the obvious conclusion that NO gender assignment needs to be made on behalf of the IS child?

No, it's not an obvious conclusion at all. A correct gender assignment is really important. That being said, I don't think surgery is needed for gender asssignment.

Groeten, Miriam

[TLCTugger]

A correct gender assignment is really important. Well, OK. I defer to the IS community on this of course.

I just wished Oprah's deal could have stressed more the idea of letting someone be whatever they seem to want to be, and not insisting on fully macho or fully fem behavior. She could have spent more time talking about loving everyone unconditionally.

[Kailana]

or however her named is spelled supports the DSD guidelines, one of the board members and all that are pushing for the change DSD. And that is part of the problem when shows offer insights into IS people. If you watched oprah's show, yes it was a repeat, from the spring i think.

What the people who are IS said, conflicts directly with the guidelines the Dr's are going with, The DSD, guidelines still are going off of what the 's Doctor's the so called team of experts believes is the right gender assignment. That is where the medical community keeps making the same mistake. Our gender, our bodie's aren't their's to chose or alter with, they are ours and ours alone. And I really wish the talk shows, the medical documentaries would air, our views, the real people all those surgeries truely impact. We are the ones who know what it is like. We are the ones who truely understand what It means, how being born intersexed, how we have been treated by the medical community, how our parents and society treat us too. Not the doctor's.

As for Middlesex, its an interesting but hard read, the first half of the book is kinda hard to get through, as it deals mostly with the Grandparents and incest, but once you get past all that, the book is really good. I do tend to think that the ending had a bit too much fantasy/made up prose, imaging, but overall it was a good story.

[Trixie]

Yes it was a re-run and Oprah looked as stupid as ever, she could have done a little research before coming on the air...asking Katie if she had a "va-jay-jay," what a dope!

M

[george.cole]

They had some great dialog with the IS folk: "I'm so glad nobody forced surgery on me" "You couldn't pay me to be normalized." Then late in the show before the author came on, the medical expert said something in her advice for new parents of IS babies: "Work with the doctors to come up with the best assignment..." and I thought what the hell was the whole prior 40 minutes about, if not the obvious conclusion that NO gender assignment needs to be made on behalf of the IS child?:pissed-2:

[Kailana]

Doctor's even one as open and understanding as Alice Dreager seems to be still aren't listening to what intersexed people are saying. Our experiences, trumps what doctor's believe is correct or the "right" way to treat other intersex people. That is one of the reason's why I really hate the new DSD standards of care proposed initially by the board member's of ISNA. I almost feel like ISNA just gave up, and gave in to the medical community. Now the Accord Alliance is promoting new standards, but no hospitals are even using any of those improved reccommendation's in actual practice.

Some of the advised standards that should be used, ie honesty, right's to complete medical records, surgeries, those things are easy to do, and fix/correct. But I am not seeing any hospitals actively promote even that much openness. They "the Docs's" are still treating people extremely cruelly, when they do know that what they are doing is drastically changing our lives, and changing them to suit what the doctor's believe is right, rather then listening and understanding that we are the only ones who have a right to chose what is right for us.

Alice Dreager just proved an important fact: Doctors and parents are making decision's that they should have no right too. I believe our legal/federal laws need to step in and protect people like us, because so far parents and doctors have done a really Great Crappy job of mutilating us and expecting us to accept what they have done because they think they know what is in our best interest. Time, real life stories, life experiences have proven over and over again, that what they think, has only caused problems for alot of perfectly normal people.

[Trixie]

Kailana -- you have such a good heart, but this idiot George is a troll, he's simply cutting and pasting all over the place and laughing his ass off somewhere out in cyberspace as he drools all over his keyboard.

[Kailana]

Gets a little annoying at times, but also allows me to make comments too. As I have sad many time before, i don't really care who or what a person is when they come here, as long as there is understanding that this is an intersexed support forum. He can cut and paste all he wants, probably is a young kid, I can live with that. But I can at least finish off, or clarify how I feel about what is being cut and pasted.

It still does provide an opportunity for others to understand what i mean, how I think.

[Kelpie]

I'm new here and learning. Keep plugging away Kailana !