Discovery health channal:Gender unknown

[Jules]

There is a special on the discovery health channal that is on in about...5 min. It is going to talk about intersex and its issues

[Meresa]

Great! Let us know how it is.

[Jules]

Well, I have seen this show before about four years ago. Long before I had started posting on BlO. I must bring up some interesting points.
First, BLO is the biggest intersexed community on the Internet.
None of the intersexed people interviewed post on BLO. One of the topics that was talked about was meeting other interxed people and sharing intersexed stories, yet in the two years BLO has been here I have yet to find a post from any of these people.
Second, having seen it a second time I was aware of a slant in the stories.
Everybody interveiwed talked about feelings, one way or another about their bodys. Feelings such as anger. Or “I felt like a boy” Or “ I had feelings that I did not belong” Well in case you have not read my pasts posts I have very firm ideas about our “feelings" Our "feelings" are not what we are. "Feelings" are very subjective to who is feeling them and what is happening to them at a given time. Nearly all of the feelings talked about in the interviews seemed to be no diffrent then what regular teenagers go through, due to the normal trials of puberty, or the trials of high school or the trials of being gay.
Now I understand that a intersexed puberty, or being a intersexed person in high school can be a very confusing time. I lived it.

But I never had anger about it. All of the storys in these interviews had that slant to it. I also understand that I was born near Boston and at that time the best doctors in the world for dealing with intersexed conditions were at my hand and foot. I was very lucky. I have seen my birth pictures and have made full peace with my body and with my intersexulism. Many of the problems they talked about seemed to be about doctors who were realy clueless about intersexed condtions and made bad choices, so the parents say. Not one doctor was interviewed to defend himself. Which makes me believe the storys had a slant. Also being intersexed (to me) is about haveing both elements of male and female in you regardless of your sexual orentaion. These people only spoke of feeling or being one way or another ( Boy or girl) In truth, being intersexed is BEING a person who has elements of both male and female. None of the people interviewed seemed to want to acknowledge that. They eather talked about being a boy that felt like a girl or a girl that felt like a boy.
Apart from that, I felt that it was really good that this program is still being aired. And that the fact that gential mutilation was being adressed.

[Glenn]

I was afraid to watch this special, because the summary blurb looked like it was just about mutilation of newborns. I was pleasantly surprised that it turned out to be much more positive, and had some decent examples of real life IS people.
Sure, there could have been improvements, but at least it was a good step in the right direction.
Glenn

[Betsy]

Ahhh...do not fear. They show it pretty regularly...usually every few months. It's tough to fill all that airspace they have!

Betsy