[medics]

“… sex assignment is not simply an announcement of the sex that an infant is perceived to be; it also communicates a set of adult desires and expectations. The infant’s future is often being imagined or desired through the act of sex assignment, so sex assignment is not a simple description of anatomical facts, but a way of imagining what they will mean, or should mean. That imagining comes from elsewhere, and it does not exactly stop after sex has been legally or medically determined at birth. The girl continues to be girled; the boy continues to be boyed; and these practices of girling and boying are repeated not just by parents, but also by a range of institutions that greet the child with boxes to be checked and norms to be embodied. In a sense, sex assignment does not happen just once. It is an iterative process, repeated by different actors and institutions, and depending on where one lives, it can be reiterated in ways that are not always in conformity with one another. Sex assignment is not a mechanism, but a process.”

actually a topic I'd genuinely LOVE to see people discuss is how countries like thailand exist to so many people as cheap medical destinations (cheap to tourists not to locals). like idk it's a very touchy subject especially for trans ppl but the way "oh I'll just go to thailand to get bottom surgery" exists in so many people's minds and it's like.... that's a benefit of imperialism again isn't it? but because we're a marginalised community within our own rich countries it's "less important" or "more necessary".

"this is a universal queer experience"