Exorcising Intersex and Cripping Compulsory Dyadism
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Exorcising Intersex and Cripping Compulsory Dyadism Celeste E. Orr A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Doctorate of Philosophy degree in Women’s Studies Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies Faculty of Social Sciences University of Ottawa © Celeste E. Orr, Ottawa, Canada, 2018 Abstract Using hauntology as a linchpin, this dissertation explores the undertheorized connection between intersex and disability. Building on important feminist research in the fields of intersex, queer, disability, crip, and hauntology studies, I ask, how do we understand and reconcile the contested meanings, responses to, and effects of intersex? Intersex is “a perpetually shifting phantasm” (Holmes 2002: 175), yet intersex is typically represented and treated as innate disorder, disability, or disease by medical professionals. That said, many intersex people appear to distance from disability. By engaging intersex studies with feminist disability and crip theories, however, I demonstrate that an intersex politic and intersex studies must be rooted in a disability politic and disability studies. Through a feminist disability and crip lens, I conduct a textual and critical discourse analysis of three case studies of interphobic violence or, what I term, “compulsory dyadism,” meaning the instituted cultural mandate that people cannot have intersex traits or house the “spectre of intersex” (Sparrow 2013: 29); such a spectre must be exorcised. The three case studies include nonconsensual medical interventions, sport sex testing, and employing reproductive technologies to select against intersex variations. My analyses of these case studies produce three important observations. First, intersex is presently and effectively being integrated into conventional notions of disability; second, ableist logics underpin interphobic violence; and third, compulsory dyadism is intertwined with, or is an iteration of, compulsory able-bodiedness. In recognizing this interconnection, theorizing intersex and disability together is not merely beneficial, doing so is necessary. Ultimately, my dissertation interrogates and extends questions of the ever-shifting categorization of body-minds, culturally mandated ways of being, and (the haunting effects of) pathologization. I apply pressure to the academic field of intersex studies as ii well as intersex activist and advocate communities to center disability in discussions concerning intersex human rights and interphobia. iii For Dana, who breaks and builds with me. iv Acknowledgements Throughout this doctoral process, I was continually captivated, inspired, and pushed by Dr. Corrie Scott’s intellectual brilliance, thoughtfulness, and analytical edge. Her critical feminist pedagogy and encouragements to think creatively have fundamentally shaped this dissertation, and will continue to shape me as a queer feminist. Corrie has bolstered my confidence in my scholastic work which enabled me to accomplish things that, at times, seemed utterly impossible. I am eternally grateful for Corrie’s generous and rigorous supervision. I am equally thankful for Dr. Shoshana Magnet’s insightful and compassionate co-supervision. Always challenging me to approach my ideas in new ways, Shoshana’s commentary drove my analyses further. With Corrie and Shoshana’s support and guidance, I undeniably had a fantastic and complementary supervisory team. I cannot express how thankful I am for Corrie and Shoshana’s innumerable lessons, critical comments on drafts, and disarming kindness. Thank you to my committee. Thank you to Dr. Denise Spitzer, for guiding me throughout this entire PhD process. From when I was fresh PhD student in her classroom to defense day, Denise was generous with her time and knowledge. I am grateful to Dr. Jennifer Blair, for giving thoughtful, discerning feedback. Thank you to Dr. Michael Orsini, for engaging with my work with both shrewdness and graciousness. And thank you to Dr. Alison Kafer for critically evaluating my project and providing helpful and heartfelt comments. I was so fortunate to have such exceptional, generous, and admirable scholars as my examiners. The faculty and staff, past and present, at the Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies have supported and taught me so much over the years. Thank you to Margot Charbonneau, Sylvie Thériault, and Natacha Lemieux; I have no idea what I would have done without their knowledges and direction. I am indebted to Dr. Alexandre Baril and Dr. Kathryn Trevenen for v hiring me, mentoring me, and epitomizing feminist academes. My colleagues and fellow graduate students at the Institute have consistently inspired and challenged me. A special thank you to Dr. Amanda Watson, Dr. Sarah MacKenzie, and Meg Peters. I treasured their genuine encouragement and any opportunity I had to learn from them during this process. Thank you to Hayley Crooks, a colleague who quickly became a dear friend. I am grateful to Hayley for killjoying and trudging through the misery of graduate school beside me, unit in hand. I owe so much to Hayley’s camaraderie, intelligence, cooking, and biting evaluations of “the right reasons.” I am deeply grateful to Alessia Iani, Dr. Nicolas Hrynyk, Lucy Ellis, Lisa Nazarenko, Lucy Ngo, Christian Filip, and Dr. Christien Garcia for filling my life with love, humour, wine, food, music, and dancing. They kept me out of isolation and made graduate school life bearable. As inspiring world-builders and resilient troublemakers, I am in constant awe of them. Thank you to my family, particularly my parents, Margaret Duffield and John Orr, and my stepmother, Alison Williams. In their own unique ways, they have provided me with myriad forms of support, recognition, and love during my graduate journeys. I am indebted to them for cultivating my desire to explore the world around me, respecting my need to disrupt, and always travelling to (or with) me – no matter where I was or where I was headed. I am also appreciative for Lee-Ann VanWees and Guy Cassady’s openheartedness and confidence in my academic pursuits. Finally, as the finest DM adventurers could hope for, I owe so much to Dana Cassady for providing me with inspiring and malleable landscapes to imagine and create new worlds and just futures. I cannot overstate how instrumental Dana’s wit, enthusiastic reassurance, boundless love, and restorative labour have been to me during all of my scholastic journeys, in particular vi this project’s formation. Dana – my love, my person – continually emboldened me to think and become in ways I only dreamed of. For that, I am eternally grateful. vii Table of Contents Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………...…….ii Dedication…………………………………………………………………………………...……iv Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………..……....v Introduction and Literature Review: Intersex and/as/is/with Disability…………………..………1 Chapter 1: Theoretical Framework and Methodology……………………….…………………..28 Chapter 2: Intersex Mutilation: Medical Malpractice and Acquired Body-Mind Disabilities…..69 Chapter 3: The Racialized Intersex Spectre: Sex and Dis/ability Segregation in Sport………..135 Chapter 4: Contemporary Eugenics: Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis and Interphobia…….199 Conclusion: “The Future is Intersex:” Combating Compulsory Dyadism and the Eradication of Intersex………………………………………………………………………………………….265 Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………………….281 viii Introduction and Literature Review Intersex and/as/is/with Disability How do we understand intersex? As a medical(ized) phenomenon, a disorder or disability, a biological variation, an identity, a sex/ual minority, a subset of the queer community, as the third sex, as an “X” on certain people’s identification documents? These questions, or to use Donna Haraway’s terms “contests for meanings” (1991: 175; also see Haraway 1990), about the nature of intersex have been hotly debated within and between intersex activists and advocates, medical professionals, and scholars from a wide variety of disciplines. However, due to the tireless and successful labour performed by intersex activists and advocates as well as intersex studies scholars, these queries are entering into mainstream conversations like never before. In fact, intersex issues, interphobia (Costello 2010; Viloria 2015a),1 and the Intersex Rights Movement have recently been referred to as the “next civil rights frontier” in the award-winning London- based magazine, Huck (Andrews 2017: n.p.; also see “Huck” n.d.). As conversations about intersex and intersex human rights become more mainstream, it is important to consistently reflect on how we understand intersex and what specific understandings accomplish politically. This dissertation hopes to enter into and contribute to the conversations about the various contested meanings of intersex. Specifically, I place intersex studies in conversation with disability studies in order to see if, how, when, and why intersex and interphobia intersects with, or “folds” into (Clare [1999] 2009: 143; McRuer 2006: 71), disability and ableism. In other words, I ask: what is the political, discursive, and embodied connection between intersex and disability? 1 Cary Gabriel Costello (2010) coined the term “interphobia” to describe the systemic violent discrimination against intersex people, people with intersex traits, and people thought to have intersex traits. Interphobia is another term for intersexphobia (see Viloria 2015a). 1 When speaking of making the political link between Deafness