Emi
Member
Registered: Jan 2003
Location: Portland Oregon
Posts: 9 |
Intersex Resources for V-DAY 2003 Organizers
Hello everyone,
Thank you for your support for our campaign to raise awareness of
intersex experiences at V-DAY 2002 activities. We (Intersex Society
of North America and Intersex Initiative Portland) are continuing
to do just that--raise awareness--in this year's V-DAY around the
country. We have detailed information at our campaign web site at
http://www.ipdx.org/vday2003 for campus V-DAY organizers wondering
why or how to address the medical abuse of intersex children and the
sexual trauma that it causes. Please feel free to foward this email
if you know of a campus or local V-DAY coordinators. If you have any
questions, please do not hesitate to email me at emi@ipdx.org.
WHY INCLUDE INTERSEX IN V-DAY PRODUCTIONS?
The notion "genital mutilation" evokes an image of the traditional,
ritualistic cutting of young women's bodies in Africa, but its equally
ritualistic high-tech version is widely practiced in the U.S. and other
Western countries in relative secrecy. Since 1950s, children born with
intersex conditions, or physiological anomalies of the reproductive and
sexual organs, have been "treated" with "normalizing" surgeries that many
survivors say are damaging to their sexual and emotional well-being.
Contrary to the popular mythology, intersex people do not have "both sets of
genitals"; they simply have body parts that are different from what is
considered "normal"--large clitoris, penis with a urethra on its underside,
missing vagina, mixed gonads, etc. Even though it has been practiced for
many decades, there is no long-term study that shows that "corrective"
surgery is safe, effective, nor necessary.
One of the biggest problems with this "treatment" is that it sets in motion
a lifelong pattern of secrecy, isolation, shame, and confusion. Adult
intersex people's stories often resemble that of those who survived
childhood sexual abuse: trust violation, lack of honest communication,
punishment for asking questions or telling the truth, etc. In some cases,
intersex people's experiences are exactly like those of child sexual abuse
survivors: when they surgically "create" a vagina on a child, the
parent--usually the mother--is required to "dilate" the vagina with hard
instruments every day for months in order to ensure that the vagina won't
close off again.
Even so, many intersex adults report that it was not necessarily the surgery
that was most devastating for their self-esteem: for many, it is the
repeated exposure to what we call "medical display," or the rampant practice
where a child is stripped down to nude and placed on the bed while many
doctors, nurses, medical students, and others come in and out of the room,
touching and prodding and laughing to each other. Children who experience
this get the distinct sense that there is something terribly wrong with who
they are and are deeply traumatized.
In the past decade, the movement to challenge these medical abuses of
intersex children grew from complete obscurity into an international network
of intersex individuals, scholars, supporters, and some sympathetic medical
professionals. Still, it is estimated that five children per day continue to
undergo the medically unnecessary and irreversible surgeries in the United
States. As people who know the most about the devastating impact of
childhood sexual traumas, V-DAY and the movement against sexual violence
need to work closely with the intersex movement in order to end the
ritualistic sexual abuse of children in our own society, not just in other
continents.
V-DAY said in its press release
> As part of its commitment to stop violence against intersex people,
> V-Day is urging participants of its College Campaign and Worldwide
> Campaign to raise the awareness about intersex experiences by
> distributing information about intersex, showing a documentary
> film, or hosting an intersex speaker during this year's V-Day
> activities along with the performances of Eve Ensler's "The Vagina
> Monologues" (materials about intersex are available from ISNA).
> V-Day is also encouraging the more than 500 benefit productions of
> the play to consider contributing a portion of their proceeds to
> Intersex Society of North America.
(http://www.vday.org/ie/index2.cfm?articleID=642)
HOW TO HELP US:
1) Distribute information about intersex at your V-DAY events. Or
better yet, include a short article in your printed program, if you
have one. PDF and Word files are available for download at our web
site.
2) Perform an intersex "monologue." This year's edition of "The Vagina
Monologues" allows each V-DAY chapters to insert their own monologues
around the theme, "what would it look like if the violence against
women and girls ended today?" We will shortly make a couple of
monologues available that are written by intersex people.
3) Show film about intersex. ISNA's brand new film, which usually
costs $147.50 list price for universities, is available for $47.50
if you promise to show it on your campus as part of V-DAY activities
this year.
4) Make ISNA one of your beneficiaries from your V-DAY production.
We're in the midst of transitions, with the new executive director
(medical sociologist Dr. Monica Casper, Ph. D.) and a new office
(Seattle, Washington), and we appreciate every bit of support!
Please visit our web site, "Intersex Resources for V-DAY organizers"
at http://www.ipdx.org/vday2003/
Emi Koyama
Intersex Initiative Portland (ipdx)
PO Box 40664, Portland OR 97240
voicemail: (503) 288-3191
web: http://www.ipdx.org/
PS
In case you are wondering: This year's campaign is jointly run by ipdx
and ISNA because 1) ISNA has just hired the new executive director and
is too busy to devote much of its time and energy on this project,
2) I coordinated the project last year as an ISNA staff, but I'm no
longer employed at ISNA, and 3) I now run ipdx, the local intersex
activist group for Portland area, which is separate from ISNA even
though it works closely with it. ipdx is still in the process of
obtaining the 501(c)(3) status, unlike ISNA (which already has the
status), and thus it cannot receive donations from V-DAY chapters.
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