Intersex Activism, Feminism and Psychology: Opening a Dialogue on Theory, Research and Clinical Practice

In the 1950s John Money and his colleagues at Johns Hopkins University developed protocols for the treatment of infants born with genitalia that deviate from social norms for acceptable male and female bodies. 1 In 1990 psychologist Suzanne Kessler commented that Money's theory of intersexuality was 'so strongly endorsed that it has taken on the character of gospel' among medical professionals. 2 Since that time intersexed persons have begun to protest the violent and stigmatizing effects of those medical protocols on their lives.On 10 June 1999, I interviewed Cheryl Chase, the founder of the Intersex Society of North America (ISNA), the largest organization of intersexed persons in the world, at her home in northern California.We discussed the surgeries that Cheryl was subjected to as an infant, her discovery that she was intersexed, the formation of ISNA, and the relationships between intersex activism, feminism, lesbian and gay politics, and psychological theory and practice.I transcribed our two-hour conversation and what follows is an edited version that Cheryl has read and commented on.Interviewer INTERVIEWER (hereafter INT): Let's start by talking about your own story, and how you learned you were intersexed.CC: When I was eight my parents admitted me to the hospital.All they said was 'remember you used to have stomach aches?We are going to look and see if everything is OK'.I just remember that the surgery was extraordinarily uncomfortable and painful.Then when I was 10, my parents told me that I had been born with an 'enlarged' clitoris.You could hear the quotes on 'enlarged' when they said it.They said a clitoris was 'something that might have been a penis if you were a boy but you are a girl and so you don't need one'.INT: 'You don't need one'?CC:Yes.They said 'and since yours was "enlarged" doctors removed it when you were born.The surgery was just to check everything was OK.But don't tell anyone about this'. INT:They wanted to cover up the medical procedures?CC:Yes.And they explained it all in terms that I had no understanding of.Then when I was about 12 I started reading books about sex.I understood there was supposed to be some focus of pleasurable sensation in your genitals but I couldn't find it.By the time I was 19 I understood that I couldn't masturbate and I wasn't having orgasms.But until well into my 30s I held contradictory beliefs.I knew that my parents had had my clitoris removed, yet I believed that eventually I would figure out where it was on my body.INT: Did you get any psychological care as a child?CC: My parents took me to a psychiatrist when I was 10.She gave me IQ tests and tried to interest me in having children.She gave me a plastic toy model called 'The Visible Woman', which had abdominal organs