Jack and Jill Intersexed clip Youtube

[Kailana]

this was an amazing video clip/compilation. I dont know if it has been posted before but as i was looking at PeaceandParty's clips i stumbled onto this one.
Its as good if not better then any of the Documentaries ive watched on TV

here goes:
Half Jack-by harvestorm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVi5pnCJjiU

This link should work, as i just tested to make sure. I really am not so computer know-how so i make lots of mistakes. Works though.

[miriam]

After about 15 seconds the video says: "This condition, called intersexuality, is defined as being born with ambiguous reproductive anatomies that make it difficult to determine gender (Dutton 125)." I wonder why people always think intersex equals ambiguous genitalia.

A well known medic from the UK once wrote to the AIS support group that he thinks that complete AIS is not really an intersex condition. That worries me, because this way it is easier for people (medics, parents etc.) to think that a child with an intersex condition is a medical emergency.

This kind of tear jerking publications also doesn't help us a lot because it depicts us as being freaks by nature. I don't want people to feel pity for me. I want people to know that having an intersex condition is nothing special in itself. People without an intersex condition make something special of it and that is probably the main reason why it isn't easy to be born with an intersex condition.

Groeten, Miriam

[Kailana]

i was thinking, the reason why i like it so much is that it shows alot of the stigma that many of us have had to deal with.

Like the surgeries that were done without our knowledge, the secrecy parents are told to keep hidden, and the fact that we end up finding out eventually anyways, so why are the surgeries kept from us. We all have slightly different variations on when we found out, how we found out. What i like so much is that this clip while short is dramatic enough to catch peoples attention and raise awareness. A great many of the responses were positive to the clip. I only read a few that were questionable. And a few that were ignorant, as one person put it, a family member had reassignment surgery, and this person thought it was in the best interest of the child, because he she thought it would be easier for the child to be something other then intersexed. In my opinion making someone something assigning a surgical gender, doesnt change the fact that they are intersexed. And somewhere down the road that child is going to find out what was done, and end up like most of the rest of us. Angry, Confused, and yes even ashamed of what he/she is. That last part comes as a direct result of what Dr's do to us. I think this clip gives a good impression of what some of us have had to deal with.

Miriam I do want to thank you for your comments, it is appreciated. Also your statement about whether some well known dr says about CAIS being or not being a intersexed condition is his/her opinion. Most of the rest of the medical community would disagree with that statement.

There are many conditions that make it hard to tell what someone is. And really we only find out much later in life the reasons for what we are. With CAIS, you basically have a child that looks like a girl. If there arent any other noticable problems a girl you will be. Perhaps CAIS is a little easier for some to accept a xy individual as a girl, compared to some of the other conditions due to the fact that you develope as woman. For many of us though, we arent so fortunate. As i am someone who was born with ambigous genitalia, and thought to be a girl at birth, later to be assigned a male gender through surgery. Only to grow up being told your a girl, and not how, you begin questioning what you are. only to be constantly asked over and over through all your teen years if your happy,Answer (nope) and ignored. To join the military and asked again if you had ever thought about having a sex change, and not knowing why there asking. Repeatedly being told your blood says your female, your hormones say your female, but your body says your male. Is very hard on a person. For me it just tore me down more and more. Considering that i never saw myself as a man it made it easier to chose to want to transition but it also became extremely difficult to find any help in starting/finding the right help to do so. I look at the knowledge i do have, what i have been told, So i am XY/XO -had some issues with that too, Ok so i have two complete gonadal sets - Even more issues with that. I've had to deal with alot that most would never truely understand without having to learn first hand what it is actually like, most of the people that come here do though. While each of our storys might differ a little, for most of us, the trauma of the discovery, the years not feeling right, the inability of getting all the answers when we need them, keeps us united. Why, because we are a very unique group of individuals who do understand what being different really means. This little clip in my opinion goes a long way in a little amount of time to show the world what many of us have had to cope with. That is why i like this clip so much. And just because, i think i'll keep adding it every few months just to make sure that lots of people see it. Hopefully many others will choose to comment on it as well.

[prince....ss?]

Miriam,

This is why I hate the term intersex. That term puts you and I in the same boat together and we both know your condition and my condition are completely different. This term intersex makes us connected somehow. I will keep my hermaphrodite and you all with what ever condition you have can keep the intersex nomenclature.

Perhaps Miriam you would feel differently about the video if you had more to link you to the video then just using the word intersex. I can see by your statement that you have NO compassion for freaks like me. People that were not born a girl or a boy but something different. People like me that had a committee of doctors decide what sex they were going to MAKE me. Then at 11 days old surgically REASSINE me to being female. Then to make it better my family and doctors LIED to me for 43 years never telling me the truth about my condition. (Just put a dress on IT and call it a girl!!!)

I can see by your statement that if your not AIS your not S**T!!! If you see that video depicting people like me as freaks than you are no better than the general public.

That video told my story quite well and I really liked it. Other than using the word intersex it had nothing to do with you. Statements like yours does not help people like me very much. My intersex condition is special in itself. It’s people like you that don’t see it special are the one’s so quick to put a knife to a baby and “make it right”

Prince....ss?

[peaceandparty]

please discuss further why you hate the word intersex,please people

so many women hate men in this world....its not so vice-versa

intersex -the word- and the many people that fit under that meaning
is an identification word to mean that none of us are exactly true to the description of being a total "male" and total "female"

this youtube video is a very good idea.....it cannot be a perfect video!

i think it gives off a fairly good feeling off how many people who are termed "freaks" are feeling inside and how their bodies or gender difference effects them leading a "normal" life

i have long hair and could be termed a "hippy freak"
you see there are many types of sub categories of freak
and many sub categories of intersex

this video is emotive
difficult for some intersexers to watch too

i am a hippy happy freak
not an anarchist or anti this that and the other

surely we should take the good out of the fruit and throw away the skin!
surely the halfjack video could be discussed more and be seen as a positive contribution for ITS view on certain aspects of intersex and living as one

at the very least
a video such as that is one step closer to getting to make a better video

how!miriam!would you like a video to be made then,that would suit your taste better?
what would the theme be?
if you could do a better half jack,how would you word it and would you take the freaky images out?

interesting conversation here

keep going

[miriam]

Perhaps Miriam you would feel differently about the video if you had more to link you to the video then just using the word intersex.

C'mon, you're not a shrink. You don't know how my mind works. You don't know me at all.

I can see by your statement that you have NO compassion for freaks like me

I agree Prince....ss, you really sound like a freak. But that has nothing to do with your body. And I do have compassion for you. I think it is possible to have a deep awareness of and sympathy for another's suffering without going through te same suffering.

Let me try to explain why I don't like this video. With this kind of 'educational' videos only a part of the intersex story is told. That's the part that tells it is terrible to be born with an intersex condition. This kind of videos will not stop parents from asking for surgery. But it will most definitely help them to ask for prenatal testing and abortion. I think the video is contra productive.

It seems to me you think that women with AIS are better off than people with some other intersex conditions. If that's true, you are wrong. You can't compare the degree of suffering. We all have different experiences and no one is better off than the other.

Sometimes it may look like it is better to be born with AIS. A girly-female body, tall, good looking, no body odor, no acne, no pubic hair, never have to shave your legs or your armpits, never menstruation problems. Hey, it's great to be wborn with AIS - the only caveat is that women with AIS are infertile.

But that just the theory. Even in reality I seem to be very successful. I've been a model, I'm smart, I have a wonderful partner, I'm the mother of two girls, I have great friends, I'm a successful business woman, I'm rather rich, I live in a single-detached home, I know how to drive a stick shift, I travel a lot, I have great friends. The only problem is that I happen to have AIS. I don't want to whine about it. But AIS sucks.

When you write "my family and doctors LIED to me for 43 years never telling me the truth about my condition" I hear what you are saying. Secrecy and shame were the main ingredients of the treatment for AIS.

Have you ever met a woman with AIS? Don't you wonder why there are almost no women with AIS in the public peer support groups like BLO? For women with AIS it is not necessary to tell other people about our intersex condition. some people think that women with AIS don't want to join peer support groups like BLO because we think that we are better than other people with an intersex condition. The truth is just the opposite: other people think we have less to complain about. From that point of view your attack on me didn't come as a complete surprise. The real reason why women with AIS are less visible is because we are 'trained' or even brainwashed by medics not to tell anyone about our condition.

Groeten, Miriam

[peaceandparty]

as much as we may or may not differ from eacother

we are both successful

with our large homes and great friends and lives

if you dont like that video

try this one out for size!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIy_dK0TaAc

i am not trying to get under your skin but equally i dont think you know me yet either

and so lets talk about the video
and lets try to help eachother have a conversation on this

i hope you are not uncomfortable or uneasy or whatever...so then please, at least realise that i want only the best for us....and i dont go around insulting people(and i am not saying you are either)

but please no comparisons to me and a shrink....lol
nothing could be as bad as they generally can be...lol

nice reply!

[miriam]

Hi P&P,

Maybe more something like this

Windows Media: click here

and

Windows Media: click here

and

http://www.aisnederland.nl/media/RNW_20040423.html

streaming real audio: click here

10 MB MP3 file: click here

The television programs are in Dutch (sorry), the radio program is in English (or Dunglish ).

Groeten, Miriam

[prince....ss?]

No, that was not a personal attack. But sorry Miriam I do know you and people just like you. Actually your written word, not the word themselves but how you use them and the picture you chose speaks louder to me then anything you could say. I read people extremely well. And from this quote of yours I don’t think I’m wrong

“Even in reality I seem to be very successful. I've been a model, I'm smart, I have a wonderful partner, I'm the mother of two girls, I have great friends, I'm a successful business woman, I'm rather rich, I live in a single-detached home, I know how to drive a stick shift, I travel a lot, I have great friends. The only problem is that I happen to have AIS. I don't want to whine about it.”

Tell me Miriam, did anyone feel the need to surgically FIX you? Were you Reassigned your sex and gender? This is what the video is about.

Sometimes I wish they aborted me at birth. That would not have hurt my feelings in the least. Everyone wants a perfect baby and some conditions of birth the baby and the family would be better off ending the pregnancy. But that is a different subject

Is infertility your biggest gripe? Cool I wish I were so lucky. At least with knowledge of your condition you eventually were allowed to make educated decisions about your health. I was not allowed that luxury. So now at 45 I am having major health problems that all stem from the decisions the surgeons made 45 years ago.

So I’m sorry the video was not about YOU! But it did address my little section of the intersex label. Once again, the term intersex is too broad of a condition label. It’s to a point of meaning nothing.

Just as a mater of fact. Rather than the intersex label, I prefer other labels such as Bitch. I pride myself on that. I work hard to earn the bitch label. My second most favorite is Freak, so thank you I’ll take that as a complement. I don’t want to be like anyone else. So I can see that you and I don’t share a lot of the same labels, so for that I am grateful.

Prince….ss?