Once referred to as hermaphrodites, intersex persons are born with
a sexual anatomy or physiology inconsistent with social
expectations of what constitutes a normal male or female. Of
course, this definition of intersexuality, like all definitions, is
rhetorically charged. In other words, intersexuality does not have
meaning in and of itself that can be separated from the culture in
which it resides. It is a product not just of scientific fact but
also of a myriad of cultural forces that have changed through time,
and with it our perceptions of what is normal, of who should be
corrected if they are not deemed normal, of when and how this
treatment should take place, and of who has authority to speak on
such things. Until the last two decades, and in fact not uniformly
until the last few years, those born with intersex conditions were
made to conform, often surgically, usually in the first 18 months
of life, long before they had enough knowledge and maturity to
agree or dissent to treatment. But a rise in intersex activism has
led to remarkable changes in the previous medical paradigm that
once governed the treatment of literally thousands of intersex
children. A great deal of important literature has been dedicated
to the origins of this intersex activism as well as the history of
the treatment that necessitated it. But to date little attention
has been paid to the role virtual intersex communities have played
in contributing to intersex activism. Online intersex communities
are important resources for intersex persons, their families, and
advocates. They enable their participants to learn about who they
are and that they are not alone, to tell their stories and have
them heard by thosethat may be helped by them or may be able to
offer help, to find a medical practitioner that is recommended by
other intersex persons, and to advocate for change to established
discourse, not as a single voice, but as part of an organized group
of others. Brian Still's rhetorical analysis of a select number of
key intersex web sites, supplemented with interviews of leading
intersex activists and scholars, allows us to take a previously
unexplored critical approach to comprehending the medicalization of
intersexuality as well as the online communities that have, in the
ongoing production of themselves, shaped productive resistance to
it. Drawing on the ideas of Arjun Appadurai, Michel Foucault,
Judith Butler, and also Stuart Hall and Paul du Gay, Still points
out that because society values (perhaps now more than before) the
words of "wounded storytellers," or those who do not treat but have
been treated (and in many cases traumatized), then intersex
activists can speak with a measure of newfound authority, taking
advantage of a media capable of disseminating the meanings they
create so that they are more accessible and, consequently, more
influential in re-shaping what it means to be normal. Still's
examination shows that what virtual intersex communities represent,
from personal blogs to email lists, is the opportunity for those
isolated by the nature of their treatment and the geographic
distance that often stands between them, and others like them, to
feel a sense of belonging, to exchange information, and, in the
process, to generate productive noise. This book would be of
interest to all Internet, cultural, and gender studies collections,
and it would also be of value to thosecollections housing books on
the rhetorical analysis of new media.
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