I moved to @ipso-faculty

Mesosex: a person who has an intersex variation, but one which does not conform to perisex (non-intersex) ideas of what intersex is. For example, people who have intersex traits that are considered "mild", or who have variations such as PCOS Hyperandrogenism and Poland Syndrome.

Meso- for middle/in between, to refer to the state of being in between what the intersex community accepts as intersex and what the broader public (mistakenly) thinks intersex is.

This is a revision to the initial definition for the term, which I originally coined a few months back. The revised definition comes from many conversations with both identifying-as-intersex people and identifying-as-mesosex people.

In particular I'd like to highlight this long (but very productive) thread from which the revised definition was first proposed by @queercripintersex

From that thread and private conversations some key takeaways have been:

There was too much ambiguity in the initial definition.

The people I've spoken to for whom mesosex has resonated all either have intersex variations, or very good reasons to question that they could be intersex.

And a lot of those people have faced harassment and invalidation by perisex people for experimenting and/or claiming the intersex label. They have expressed a desire for alternate language by which they can communicate their relationship to being intersex.

Not everybody with an intersex variation wants to use the term intersex, or to only use it contextually. Some feel they aren't "intersex enough", even people with variations like Klinefelter's or CAIS that are widely accepted as intersex.

For people who are new to thinking of themselves as intersex, it is valuable to have a microlabel available that can capture their impostor syndrome.

There is a real and legitimate concern that the initial definition of mesosex would lead people with intersex variations like PCOS to think of themselves as neither intersex nor perisex, even though the intersex community is unanimous that PCOS hyperandrogenism is intersex.

Although there is a clear hierarchy of which intersex variations are seen as more legitimately intersex by perisex people, if we validate this hierarchy then we undermine our collective need for pan-intersex solidarity.

while there is variations in everyone’s bodies, I’ve always been noticeably visibly different to all of the girls in my class. my body would also look and be functioning very differently now too if it weren’t for my hrt. and even after 11 years on it, i know there’s still visible differences.

not only that but a us politican singled us out and essentially said we weren’t “female enough” to be using the women’s changing rooms.

So as a science educator who is also intersex I appreciate the frustration of intersex animals being mislabeled as trans.

But.... if being able to reproduce as both male and female is typical for the species it isn't intersex, it's actual biological hermaphrodism. In this case sequential hermaphrodism (also known as dichogamy).

Whole species can't be intersex. Being intersex means having sex variations from what is considered typical for a given species.

What's typical for oysters is to start male and then later develop to female (protandry). So: - oyster who starts male and becomes female -> perisex - oyster who starts female and becomes male -> intersex - oyster who changes sex more than once -> intersex - oyster who starts male and never becomes female -> intersex - oyster who starts female and never becomes male -> intersex - oyster who never develops any clear sex -> intersex - oyster who has mixed male/female traits -> intersex

Rule of thumb: if a news story is talking about an individual organism (e.g. lioness who grows a mane) it's intersex, if it's a whole species then it's probably actual hermaphrodism.

Labelling animals as intersex is reasonably straightforward - any animal whose sex development is not what we expect for the species we can call intersex. I'll note some scientists have an idea of intersex being specific to gonochoric species (species like us that typically are only ever able to reproduce as either male or female), but at the end of the day when it comes to doing biology, intersex is a category about physical bodies that we can observe externally.

The (mis)labelling non-human animals as trans is super tricky. Do any non-human animals actually have gender in a way that is meaningfully like gender in humans? Do non-human animals have cisnormativity? Think about the subtle difference between being a butch lesbian and being transmasc - how can we meaningfully and consistently discern that in other species with which we have no nuanced way to communicate?

Sex change is a normal part of life for oysters and tons of other dichogamous species. I can see a reasonable argument there's something trans about that but it's a very different kind of trans than the kind of trans is a subversion of cisnormativity. I can only imagine at what oysters experience socially but it seems very unlikely to me that oysters have cisnormativity?

We do see sex-associated behaviour in a lot of species - for instance birds that have defined roles in who builds the nest, who incubates the eggs, who feeds them, etc. But to my knowledge the individuals who buck the norms don't seem to experience social disadvantages or gender policing similar to how humans do

There are lots animals that take on the behaviours associated with the other sex - for example young males in many species will pose (or at least express) as females to avoid aggression from older males. It's a common enough behaviour it has a name (deceptive sex signalling). Is this actually trans? Drag? Or just a totally normal thing to their society?

We don't actually know what causes transness or gayness in humans, and for the forseeable future I think this is best (it would turn eugenicsy real fast). So for the time being we can't really tell if say two female birds who raise a chick together are lesbians, two bi femmes, if one is transmasc and the other is straight, etc. Similarly we can't really tell if an intersex animal who starts behaving like the opposite sex is also trans.

This is why in ethology (study of animal behaviour) we try to stick to trying to describe behaviours rather than attributing identities to individual animals. I know it's less satisfying for queer people looking for a sense of validation that queerness is natural (it is!!!) but I think it's important to let other animals be different from us and not to overly anthropomorphize them

I think it's easy for people growing up watching Disney cartoons to get this weird idea that other species have sex like we do. And that's totally not true at all. There are a whole bunch of different sex determination systems (XX/XY, XX/X, ZW/ZZ, haplodiploploidy, temperature based, aged based, etc) and the only reason we use "male" and "female" across them is for linguistic simplicity (female is just the sex that has the bigger gametes, it's just a convention, there's nothing inherently "female" that spans the different systems).

If you are referring to penises, say penis.

If you are referring to having a period, say the word period.

If you are referring to being raised female or male, say that.

If you are referring to the ability to get pregnant, say that.

And so on, and so on, and so on.

The terms "AFAB" and "AMAB" do not tell you anything about a person's reproductive, hormonal, or chromosomal profiles. It does not tell you what body parts they have. It does not tell you anything about their life experiences or what gender they were raised as.

Using "AFAB" and "AMAB" as if they are synonymous with [perisex] "female" and "male" excludes intersex and trans people. Using the terms "AFAB" and "AMAB" in this way is only recreating the sex binary of female and male but masking it as more progressive when it really isn't. Just say what you really mean.

There are trans people who have the same equipment as a cis person of the "opposite" assigned sex. There are intersex people who were assigned a sex at birth while having completely different internal reproductive organs or hormones, or who were raised as a different gender than the sex they were assigned at birth.

There is no such thing as "AFAB" or "AMAB" experiences. AGAB language only describes what you were assigned at birth. It says nothing about your body or your life experiences.

Part of a series of queer and trans prints I'll have available at this weekend's Pride market, and then in my shop after.

Firstly, how many modal averages does the species have for sex? Is it one? Three? Ten? What differences in sexual function do these have?

Secondly, are there sexes outside of the modal averages? How many? How prominent are the averages?

Thirdly, how are these sexes culturally categorized? Is there an emphasis on phenotype, genotype, gametes, zygotes formed, reproductive type or ability, etc?

In a culture where sex is highly variable with many "perisex" variations, with the modal averages not being significantly more highly represented than any other sexes, what would being intersex look like?

What would being intersex look like in a species with asexual reproduction, or one that typically requires more than two sexes to produce viable offspring, wherein reproductive role determines sex (especially if it's considered "perisex" to be able to take on any of a subset of multiple reproductive roles - but sex is considered which specific role you take?).

Of course, speaking as an intersex person myself, this is definitely a "handle with care" topic. Examining the difference between human intersex identities and alien ones I think would be very important - but could also put an important lens on how sex is a social construct as much as gender is and how different categorization would change our understanding of human sex.

and how we want to try to imagine it anyway, because we want to build a world filled with intersex joy and compassion and love, because of and despite of the trauma we've survived.

for me, things that brought me intersex joy lately are being able to hug another intersex person after realizing how similar some parts of our life were. going to a lake with six other intersex people and just feeling so confident in public together. seeing the beautiful art and writing that so many intersex people are creating. watching the Every Body film in a room full of intersex people.

So as a science educator who is also intersex I appreciate the frustration of intersex animals being mislabeled as trans.

But.... if being able to reproduce as both male and female is typical for the species it isn't intersex, it's actual biological hermaphrodism. In this case sequential hermaphrodism (also known as dichogamy).

Whole species can't be intersex. Being intersex means having sex variations from what is considered typical for a given species.

What's typical for oysters is to start male and then later develop to female (protandry). So: - oyster who starts male and becomes female -> perisex - oyster who starts female and becomes male -> intersex - oyster who changes sex more than once -> intersex - oyster who starts male and never becomes female -> intersex - oyster who starts female and never becomes male -> intersex - oyster who never develops any clear sex -> intersex - oyster who has mixed male/female traits -> intersex

Rule of thumb: if a news story is talking about an individual organism (e.g. lioness who grows a mane) it's intersex, if it's a whole species then it's probably actual hermaphrodism.

like i have met people who think being suicidal is an inherent part of being trans and don't know how the numbers decrease from gender-affirming care HELL even didn't know the numbers dropped so much just from getting basic affirming care.

rarely is research done for a pointless reason, not everyone is gonna know this stuff even those who are involved in the LGBTQ+ community and spend time working with LGBTQ+ youth ( i don't work with youth per se but the volunteer work i do with pride has me in spaces with them).

"cis men when they have a two inch dick *sad face*"

Correction, intersex men... who statistically are lucky to not have been subjected to a slew of childhood surgeries including penectomy.

Going through school with experiences of having other boys compare your penis to a second belly button. Losing every disagreement with your peers that know, not on the value of your words but with a quip at your expense and a chorus of laughter. And the rest of your life biting your tongue because speaking in your own defence when people use a body like yours as an accusation or as a joke, means exposing yourself to cruelty.

You can express your love for your own body without treading on the trauma of intersex men.

If you're not intersex please don't vote, it makes it hard for us to get an accurate set of results!!!

I'm pulling the terms from intersexfairy's Intersex Glossary <3 "Gender modality" means how you relate to your AGAB (e.g. cis, trans) and is not the same as gender identity (e.g. woman, man, intergender, non-binary)

It's valid to call yourself intersex if you have PCOS

It's valid to call yourself intersex if the diagnosis you have isn't on one of the standard lists of intersex diagnoses

It's valid to call yourself intersex if your intersex variation wasn't evident at birth (most aren't!)

It's valid to call yourself intersex if your intersex variation was one where puberty Did Not Go To Plan

It's valid to call yourself intersex if you have totally ordinary genitals

It's valid to call yourself intersex if the only signs that you're intersex show up on lab tests/imaging and otherwise there's no way somebody could tell from looking at you

It's valid to call yourself intersex if you never had any coercive medical interventions

It's valid to call yourself intersex if you identify your sex as male or female (we are not a third sex!)

It's valid to call yourself intersex if you don't look like how white people with your intersex variation look

It's valid to call yourself intersex if you only found out through freak happenstance as an adult

It's valid to call yourself intersex if you think you were misdiagnosed

It's valid to call yourself intersex if no doctor ever told you you're intersex

It's valid to call yourself intersex if your doctor(s) dispute whether your diagnosis counts an intersex condition (it's not up to them!)

It's valid to call yourself intersex if you feel your intersex variation is a health condition

It's valid to call yourself intersex if you don't like the way you look

It's valid to call yourself intersex if you do like the way you look

It's valid to call yourself intersex if you started your questioning as part of a gender journey

It's valid to call yourself intersex if you started questioning to figure out trauma from your youth

It's valid to call yourself intersex if you started questioning to find other people like you

It's valid to call yourself intersex if you started questioning your intersex status just because you wanted to know

If you are not intersex please don't vote! I'll repost the results after the poll closes. Thanks.

but even beyond that, we don't have to separate ourselves from disability in order to prove we deserve human rights. our variations being linked to chronic illness wouldn't mean that all the medical abuse towards us is founded. disabled and intersex people all have a right to bodily autonomy and proper healthcare that needs to be upheld.