“I have a vagina. Just thought you should know. Just thought you should know. I look like a woman. I’m dressed like one, I guess. The thing is, I also have balls….I’m not male or female. I’m intersex.
“Most people assume that you’re biologically either a man or a woman, but it’s actually a lot more complex than that. There are so many ways somebody could be intersex.
In my case, it means I was born with XY chromosomes, which you probably know as male chromosomes. And I was born with a vagina and balls inside my body. I don’t respond to testosterone, so during puberty, I grew breasts… I don’t actually have a uterus – I was born without one, so I don’t menstruate, I can’t have biological children…
“We put people in boxes based on their genitalia. Before a baby’s even born, we ask whether it’s a boy or a girl, as if it actually matters; as if you’re going to be less excited about having a baby if it doesn’t have the genitals you wanted; as if what’s between somebody’s legs tells you anything about that person.
Are they kind, generous, funny? Smart? Who do they want to be when they grow up? Genitals don’t actually tell you anything. Yet, we define ourselves by them. In this society, we love putting people into boxes and labeling each other…
“But there’s one really big problem: biological sex is not black or white. It’s on a spectrum. Besides your genitalia, you also have your chromosomes, your gonads, like ovaries or testicles. You have your internal sex organs, your hormone production, your hormone response and your secondary sex characteristics, like breast development, body hair, etc.
Those seven areas of biological sex all have so much variation, yet we only get two options: male or female. Which is kind of absurd to me, because I can’t think of a single other human trait that there’s only two options for: skin color, hair, height, eyes…”
Listen to whole talk here. Believe me, it is worth your time!
when i was a toddler i thought god was an imperceivable web of white pulsing membranes stretched over itself a million times and i thought he lived inside the wooden pulpit at my church
some. of. you. have. forgotten. so i guess it’s my job to remind ya’ll, yet a-fucking-gain, and for the love of god can we not conveniently “forget” this time? cuz it’s getting really obvious lol. so, for the last fucking time: my mom said each of us could only have one klondike bar because there’s five of us. i know the package comes with six bars. i do not care. we each get one. yes, i’m eating the sixth one after you all leave. fuck off
if you don’t mind i’d like to discuss cold stone creamery with you
tell me what’s on your mind but be quick i have a meeting in five
i’ll keep it short. it would be fantastic if they served a vanilla flavor, don’t you think?
I think I’m going to rip your fucking arms out of their sockets like a crazy gorilla or chimp. Get out of my office before I lose my composure and go bananas.
