Alice Domurat Dreger

This one started out good, with the promise of being a deep dive into the history of how medicine has misunderstood and mistreated the trans population and what can and should be done to change that. But at some point it took a left turn into a sort of tell-all about a particular activist who went off the rails and spread all sorts of slander and libel about a couple of researchers, including the author. It got weird. And while the scandal was sort of interesting, it felt more like it belonged elsewhere. *shrug*… (mehr)

This book surprised and appalled me. Surprised because I didn't realize how subjective determining a person's sex is - the baby is born, the doctor takes a look, and then makes a declaration of boy or girl. Appalled because if a baby isn't easily identified as boy or girl in that look, the baby is probably in for a lifetime of surgeries and medical humiliations that are completely unnecessary health-wise but make the doctors feel better because they "fixed" a "problem".

Such a great book. I highly recommend it to everyone, but especially people who are going to have children so that they'll be better informed of the history and prepared for the doctors' b.s. pressures if they have an intersex child.
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