The Consequences of Categorization

            

                      

    Identity is the most important factor in a person's life. It dictates how we as people choose to recognize ourselves alone and how we present ourselves to society. By definition, it is "the distinguishing character or personality of an individual." Which is why it is so strange to categorize a human element that applies to so much. Even the voice in your head as you read these words, and yet we do. In contemporary society, the great spectrum of identity is expected to have a limit. There is an ideal that one must place themselves in a category to be fairly judged by the rest of the world. Sexual identity is heavily categorized and there is an expectation to limit oneself. An expectation for an individual to pronounce themselves as a specific sexual identity and just be done with it. Individuals who identify as Intersex are subjected to the constraint of heteronormativity. Therefore their identity must revolve around the perception from the world and not the perception they have of themselves. This constraining system comes with consequences. 

                 

Questioning LGTQIA Wiki

     Developing one's sexual identity is not without its many struggles. There is the path of self-reflection and gaining insight into the sexualities that society has made available. Whether it be through political-legal documents and acknowledgment or global media representation these sexual identities have been clarified, defined, and (say it with me now) categorized. These sexualities are recognized as the initialism LGBTQIA, which stands for lesbian, gay, bi, trans, intersex, and asexual. Earning more representation, recognition, and advocation for these already established sexual identities is incredibly important but unfortunately, the classification of individuals into specific sexual identities is still too definitive. In the article, " The Intersex gap in research and health care" (Cohut, 2020) there is a discussion of the restrictive process of categorization. One excerpt from the text, in particular, strikes my point which is that there are negative influences when trying to fulfill society's call to label oneself. In this excerpt the journalist presents the question, "What about mental health? What might some of the mental health challenges be?" the interviewee responds with, "...We start denying ourselves,{thinking} that we cannot be like all people, with their unique characteristics. We are afraid to believe that we are human beings, too. We become used to societies' labels and stigmas." 

In this material, the mental toll is considered. We gain insight into the experience of an Intersex individual. An individual who had choice forced upon them since the moment there were born with non-specific genitalia.  The article also speaks about access to health care which doesn't only apply to  physical health but mental health as well. This brings me to the study conducted by Plos One, the first national study of Intersex adults in the United States. In this study, the mental health of the participants was evaluated. The results stated, "...we found a high prevalence of self-reported lifetime anxiety disorders(62.6%), PTSD (40.9%), and depressive disorders (61.9%)." Almost a third of the participants in the survey had reported they had tried to commit suicide. The mental toll is incredibly evident when looking at these facts and there is a lot to be said about the pressure of being an intersex individual. 

Protesters outside the Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago, Oct. 26. | Courtesy of Sarah-ji Rhee / Love and Struggle Photos

           Discrimination comes in many different forms and can even come from institutions meant to help you. Corrective surgeries are a method of categorization and corrective surgeries are discriminatory. Conducted upon them when they are at a non-communicative stage, intersex individuals have no say in the matter. These protesters pictured in the image above are protesting against such practice. They have the knowledge that the choice itself is an exclusive one based on the age-old establishment of the two genders are very well known. A girl and a boy, a man and a woman, Adam and Eve. An ancient ideal comes back in the form of this surgery to classify the individual as if it's simple. However, it is never such a simple choice and it is referenced in The Five Sexes, Revisited (Fausto-Sterling, 2000) that the practice of these surgeries is an abomination. She tries to convey this and provide wisdom to the medical community. The medical community is at fault for blindly adhering to the established heteronormative principles which encourage exclusivity. The mere use of the word "corrective" assumes that there must be some disorder to fix, to put back into "place" Deciding out of the individual's hand isn't a fix it only promotes a future of confusion, shame, guilt, and fear. In the material, one of the intersex individuals had always questioned themselves throughout their life and went on to change their sexual orientation. Humans evolve and change so much in life it would make sense for the function of categorization changes as well. 

 

Sacramento LGBTQIA Awareness Center 

         The consequences of rejecting categorization are dire. The resistance to the binary categorization leaves them vulnerable to backlash. Intersex individuals are incredibly marginalized. Members of the intersex community are ridiculed, debased, and stigmatized by the medical research community and society. The rigidness of categories rejects the presence of confusion, freedom, and individuality. There is not a direct solution to this growing problem and the dismantling of categorization is in no way an easy feat. However, if we as a society came to understand the consequences of categorization then perhaps we could find a better way to express our identities. 

 

Work Cited

Fausto-Sterling, Anne. July/August 2000 “Nyas Publications.” The New York Academy of Sciences, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 31 July 2013, nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/j.2326-1951.2000.tb03504.x.

Cohut, Maria. “Why Is Healthcare Not a Friendly Place for Intersex Individuals?” Medical News Today, MediLexicon International, 1 July 2020, www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/the-intersex-gap-in-research-and-healthcare.

Rosenwohl-Mack, Amy, et al. “A National Study on the Physical and Mental Health of Intersex Adults in the U.S.” PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, 9 Oct. 2020, journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0240088.

Emi Koyama, Intersex Initiative. Intersex Initiative: Adding the "i" to Lgbt, www.intersexinitiative.org/articles/lgbti.html.