In 1911, French doctors thought LS, a fashion model, had herniated ovaries. No one expected them to be testes.
Intersex refers to when a person is born with sex characteristics such as genitals, chromosomes, gonads and sex hormones that "do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies" (UN OHCHR). In recent history, many people who were born with intersex have been subject, including as infants, to medical interventions designed to 'normalise' their bodies. But sex development in humans can vary considerably, and this talk explores some of those ways.
Alice Dreger is an historian of medicine & science, a journalist, and an award-winning mainstream author who has been working on questions at the intersection of anatomy and identity for three decades. She has engaged in academic work and activism in support of individuals born with intersex and other norm-challenging body types, as well as writing about the impact of cancel culture on academia.
Alice joins us in The Garden to address one of the most important questions of our time: how do we understand the relationship between sex and gender? And what does intersex tell us about this relationship?
Read moreHow we think about who we are and how that intersect with our bodies, brains and biology is the subject of discussion today. But has this always been the case? Are there blurred lines between anatomy & identity we should be exploring?
1 Is the human brain pink, blue or fifty shades of grey matter?
43m
2 How do the stories we tell shape who we are?
49m
3 How does where you grow up impact who you become?
51m
4 Is our anatomy our destiny?
47m
5 What can animals teach us about sex?
44m
6 What can animals teach us about identity?
45m
7 How do conjoined twins challenge our view of identity?
47m
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