View Full Version : How's your I.Q.?
This was posted to one of the yahoo groups I am affiliated with,the author is Curtis Hinkle of http://www.intersexualite.org/Index.html and if nothing else,it just may get you thinking :thinking2
*Test your IQ (Intersex Quotient)
Answer what you really think.*
*Multiple Choice*
1. Exactly how many sexes are there?
a. Two - male and female.
b. Three - female, intersex and male.
c. Five - female, intersex female, intersex, intersex male, male
d. Seven - True male, pseudo-male, male pseudohermaphrodite, true
hermaphrodite, female pseudohermaphrodite, pseudo-female, true female
e. None of the above.
2. A woman is defined as:
a. Someone who has XX chromosomes.
b. Someone born with a vagina
c. Someone who can give birth to an infant
d. Someone born with ovaries or ovarian tissue.
e. None of the above.
f. All of the above.
3. A man is defined as:
a. Someone who has XY chromosomes
b. Someone born with a penis
c. Someone born with testicles or testicular tissue
d. Someone who produces testosterone.
e. None of the above.
f. All of the above.
4. An intersex person is defined as:
a. Someone who has XXY or XXXY chromosomes.
b. Someone born with "ambiguous" genitalia
c. Someone who cannot have children
d. Someone with low testosterone levels.
e. None of the above.
f. All of the above.
5. What is the legal definition of a woman?
a. Someone with XX chromosomes.
b. Someone with F on her birth certificate.
c. Someone born with a vagina.
e. In most jurisdictions, a woman is simply someone who is defined by
what she is not. She is someone who is not a man.
f. There is no clear definition and different legal rulings have not
clarified exactly who is a woman, since it can vary from jurisdiction
to
jurisdiction.
6. Intersex
a. is very rare.
b. is about 1 % of the population.
c. up to 5 % of the population.
d. up to 5 % of the population a probably more, depending on the
definitnion.
7. Intersex people are
a. really male or female with only minor variations.
b. those who identify as intersex.
c. more likely to transition legally from one sex to another than the
population at large.
d. mostly assigned female.
8. Intersex is
a. only a biological, anatomical category and not a gender.
b. a pathological condition which can be treated.
c. easily detected at birth.
d. the same as transgender.
e. none of the above.
9. Being a male is:
a. a pathological condition because the overall male population is
likely to be more criminal and prone to violence and should be
corrected
at birth.
b. a natural occurring state which does not tell us a lot about the
individual per se.
c. easy to determine by external medical exam.
d. None of the above
10. Being a female is:
a. a pathological condition because of all the illnesses associated
with
being female.
b. a natural occurring state which does not tell us a lot about the
individual per se.
c. easy to determine by external medical exam.
d. none of the above.
*True or false*
11. Only people born intersex have intersex identities.
12. Women who were assigned male at birth are not real women.
13. Gender and sex are two completely different categories.
14. Brain sex is just a theory with no scientific proof.
15. Telling someone to raise a child as a boy or a girl is sexist.
16. Assigning someone a sex is an absolute necessity for the health of
the individual.
17. There is a clear definition of what intersex is.
18. It is easy to know whether you are intersex or not.
19. Transgender people are not intersex.
20. Intergender people are not intersex.
MelissP
07-18-05, 12:01 AM
It looks like I failed that IQ test. I felt it was very difficult to select
a pre-defined answer to most of the questions.
Hi Canice,
So, where is the answer key? How would Curtis answer the questions? A curious mind needs to know.
Peter
Sunshine1
07-18-05, 08:07 PM
For the GIDinfo page wanted to tell ya that females with Classical Salt Wasting CAH also may have ambiguous external genitals at birth besides the salt wasting part.
Classical Adrenal hyperplasia 75% are salt wasters and 25% are simple virlizers. Sometimes simple virilizers need salt also because I've read that some of us do over lap.
Like Besty ( from what I gather ) my main concern is that the cortisone med is there to help my body deal with physical illness like the Bladder infection that I've been dealing with the last six months. Androgen surpression for other things is nice also, the same possible simple virilizing masuline secondary characteristics apply to females with salt wasting also.
Someone with SWCAH can relate to yes, thankyou my voice is deep and raspy to no, I don't have a cold ---this is my voice or no, i don't smoke---this is my voice. just as much as someone with SVCAH . We make something that the salt wasters lack besides the cortisol but I forgot along time ago what that was but we both need the cortisol to keep the body system running.
Fun web site. There aren't meant to be any answers to your test.
Maybe people that trans would like what they go through to be seen more as a physical condition that they go through instead of it's a mental thing and that's why the interest in intersex medical conditions? I've worked with people that had trans into the body that they were meant to be and to me they weren't a trans person but were the person that was in the body that they were physically meant to be in. Physically my body needs cortisone or else I'm physically ill or like the diabetic that needs insulin or someone that needs a heart condition fixed. For me, I would imagine the needs to get in or project trans into the other gender would feel the same way. You didn't ask to be born like this and just want help to be at physical peace? This is my guess and it doesn't seem to different than how when i told some medical people about the pain from the bladder infection. it's all in your head they said and then i thought they were right. The pain then went to burning pain ago they said you need a shrink because it's all in your head. The shrink said it was a medical issue the burning pain turn into bleeding and finally I was at the ER with a doctor that listened to me and cared enough to order medical tests instead of saying that it's all in your head. He helped me and i hope the infection stopped before it moved to the kidneys. That pain isn't there anymore and is this how you all feel after transitioning on to the body you were meant to have?
What do you think about the term Pangendered?
peace aimee
Peter
Can we let the pot simmer for a few more days?
In the meantime,may I ask,how would you answer the questionaire or indeed what are your thoughts on it,if any ?
Canice.
Canice,
Sure, let the pot simmer for a few more days if you want. I have already gotten the answer key from a friend, so I am having fun looking over what I presume are Curtis Hinkle’s answers. Although I don't agree with all of the answers, I have to respect anyone who will use their real full name when discussing intersex issues. I might post some thoughts on the answer key after it is revealed. But as I am an opponent of all kinds of "IQ" testing, I probably will not reveal my own answers except indirectly. I have always been more interested in the cultural bias underlying what are supposed to be objective tests.
Peter
yeah, I didn't even try to take it for that reason...
Is there supposed to be single pre-defined answer to all of them? In a few cases, I could see a, er, preferred, human rights-based answer and other answers that the Taleban might insist on, or ones that medical professionals might tend use... I would guess that this is Curtis's point?
There's other questions where I could pick a straw...
M
The replies are always going to subject to cultural bias. For that reason, I think "answers" is a misnomer as there are no answers. Anyone who would proclaim to have only the "correct" answers is living in denial of the experience of those around him or her.
And no, I didn't take the little test, nor did I really read it as it is fairly meaningless since my experience/thoughts on the matter may have little to do with anyone else's experience and so on and so on and so on...
Betsy
---learned long ago to not take myself too seriously :whipg:
Dana Gold
07-19-05, 02:06 PM
At first look, the questions appear as a test; however later on it seemed to me that the possible answers to the questions were a present-day written depiction of many social/political/legal factions of this Earth....so in reality (according to the beholder of the test) any and all of the possible choice answers may be correct to him/her/them. So we have an outline of society instead of a real test....and anybody who takes it actually gets (in the test-takers viewpoint) a passing grade....thinking that you failed it may mean you felt you didn't answer as the author/generator of the test expected you to. The whole thing is somewhat of a paradox to me. :sarcastic
I scanned the "test"......I had my own answers to the questions posed, ones not offered in the choices column. ......I have seldom liked socio-sex and/or gender tests with pre-determined "choices" ....essay "tests" that provide free(dom) thought and a sense of "independance" appeal to me much better on an individual and intrinsic level.
:pizza:
:umbrella: *Possible Answers* :stormy: :stormy:
*Multiple Choice
Questionnaire courtesy of Curtis Hinkle
*Multiple Choice*
1. Exactly how many sexes are there?
a. Two - male and female.
b. Three - female, intersex and male.
c. Five - female, intersex female, intersex, intersex male, male
d. Seven - True male, pseudo-male, male pseudohermaphrodite, true
hermaphrodite, female pseudohermaphrodite, pseudo-female, true female
e. None of the above.
*Male, female and intersex are not discreet, natural categories. There
could never be a system devised for determining the sex of an individual
that could take all factors into account and put them into just two,
three, five or seven different and exclusive sex categories. We are
simply too complex and nature is too diverse. *
2. A woman is defined as:
a. Someone who has XX chromosomes.
b. Someone born with a vagina
c. Someone who can give birth to an infant
d. Someone born with ovaries or ovarian tissue.
e. None of the above.
f. All of the above.
*There are women with XY chromosomes, only one X, XXY, etc. There are
women born without vaginas. There are women who cannot have children.
There are women born with testicular tissue or without ovaries.*
3. A man is defined as:
a. Someone who has XY chromosomes
b. Someone born with a penis
c. Someone born with testicles or testicular tissue
d. Someone who produces testosterone.
e. None of the above.
f. All of the above.
*There are men born with XX chromosomes, XXY, XXXY etc. There are men
born without penises or with genitalia that doctors call enlarged
clitorises. There are men born with no testicles or with ovotestes or
with ovaries or ovarian tissue. Some men produce almost no testosterone
and most women do produce testosterone.*
4. An intersex person is defined as:
a. Someone who has XXY or XXXY chromosomes.
b. Someone born with "ambiguous" genitalia
c. Someone who cannot have children
d. Someone with low testosterone levels.
e. None of the above.
f. All of the above.
*Most intersex people have XX or XY chromosomes and are not born with
atypical genitalia. Many intersex people can have children and many
intersex women produce higher levels of testosterone than intersex men.*
5. What is the legal definition of a woman?
a. Someone with XX chromosomes.
b. Someone with F on her birth certificate.
c. Someone born with a vagina.
e. In most jurisdictions, a woman is simply someone who is defined by
what she is not. She is someone who is not a man.
f. There is no clear definition and different legal rulings have not
clarified exactly who is a woman, since it can vary from jurisdiction
to
jurisdiction.
*This is the current situation in the **United States**.*
6. Intersex
a. is very rare.
b. is about 1 % of the population.
c. up to 5 % of the population.
d. up to 5 % of the population a probably more, depending on the
definitnion.
*As time goes on we find more an more ways of being intersex. And many
people, such as myself, will never accept that gender and sex are two
totally separate categories. We are not able to determine exactly what
is nature and what is nurture in an individual. People are not just
mounds of flesh to be dissected by scientific researchers. We exist in
a social context and we also have our own internal sense of who and what
we are. All these factors are interrelated such that intersex will
evolve with time and could possibly include more and more people as a
result. If someone tells me they are intergender in a social context
which does not encourage such an identity, I would assume there are
underlying factors that have been involved in such a gender identity
formation. Sorting through which are biological and which are social
proves very difficult because they affect each other and the biological
categories are constantly being reconstructed in ways which prove the
underlying arbitrary nature of the whole construction of sex. Biology
has not answered this question. I would ask the person.*
7. Intersex people are
a. really male or female with only minor variations.
b. those who identify as intersex.
c. more likely to transition legally from one sex to another than the
population at large.
d. mostly assigned female.
*The statistics prove that intersex adults are more likely to
transition. Answer b is wrong because many intersex people do not
identify as intersex. Answer d is wrong because many intersex people
are not born with atypical genitalia and are raised as male. We simply
don't know if most people who are intersex are assigned female or not.*
8. Intersex is
a. only a biological, anatomical category and not a gender.
b. a pathological condition which can be treated.
c. easily detected at birth.
d. the same as transgender.
e. none of the above.
*Intersex definitely is a gender. Many people are intergender. I
prefer simply saying I am intersex.
9. Being a male is:
a. a pathological condition because the overall male population is
likely to be more criminal and prone to violence and should be
corrected
at birth.
b. a natural occurring state which does not tell us a lot about the
individual per se.
c. easy to determine by external medical exam.
d. None of the above
10. Being a female is:
a. a pathological condition because of all the illnesses associated
with
being female.
b. a natural occurring state which does not tell us a lot about the
individual per se.
c. easy to determine by external medical exam.
d. none of the above.
*True or false*
11. Only people born intersex have intersex identities.
*False. Many people have intersex identities. *
12. Women who were assigned male at birth are not real women.
*False. The whole notion is Neanderthal binarianism, a serious disease,
which should be treated.*
13. Gender and sex are two completely different categories.
*False. More and more we are finding biological components of gender.
However, the problem is that we do not know who these biological
compenents or factors would be perceived and categorized if we lived in
a different social context and we also do not know the degree that
environmental factors actually induce biological reactions within the
body. We don't live in a vacuum.*
14. Brain sex is just a theory with no scientific proof.
*False. However, just like all other pars of the body, the fact that
your brain has been virilsed or not will not necessarily determine your
gender identity. *
15. Telling someone to raise a child as a boy or a girl is sexist.
*True. I do consider this sexist. Whether a child is intersex or not,
her/his identity should be respected. S/he will be able to sort this
out. What does it really mean to tell someone to raise a child as a boy
or a girl, other than what toys to play with, which careers to choose
and which sex to love, etc, etc.*
16. Assigning someone a sex is an absolute necessity for the health of
the individual.
*False. Why? People can have perfectly well-adjusted intersex
identities or identities in conflict with their assignment.*
17. There is a clear definition of what intersex is.
*False. Just like the categories of male and female, there is not clear
definition because these are not natural categories. They are
categories we have constructed, using people, especially hermaphrodites,
to come up with the categories as they exist.*
18. It is easy to know whether you are intersex or not.
*False. Many people never find this out until later in life or when
they want to have children and can't.*
19. Transgender people are not intersex.
*False. Many transgender people are intersex.*
20. Intergender people are not intersex.[/QUOTE]
*False. And just how are we going to know this? To reduce people to
mere biological essentialist definitions is dehumanizing. Just as many
intersex people are women or men. Other people are free to identify as
intersex because it is NOT a natural, discreet category any more than
male or female*
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