Sunday, September 13, 2009

Many of a kind

Many of what kind?
The kind that are not males or females.
There are so many of this kind in this world and I feel bad that no society recognises them. I have never seen a form where there are three boxes for sex/gender - male, female and other.
Despite all the claims of proudness of all our civilisations, this discrimination against recognising millions of people is a shame on our civilisation.
For more details about the number of people and all the science behind this, read along:
As many as 4 per cent of people are born with neither a clear male nor clear female identity, according to the Gender Trust. Most may be unaware that they are classified as "intersex" and suffer no discomfort or distress as a result.However, some babies are born with ambiguous genitals which leave their sex unclear. They may resemble those of a female with a large clitoris and the labia fused together, or they may look like those of a male with a small penis and an empty scrotum. Surgery may be carried out so the baby can be assigned as either male or female.
Others are born with genetic abnormalities. The sex of a baby is established in the womb according to whether they have an XX chromosome pair (female) or XY (male). The commonest gender disorders are chromosomal abnormalities such as Turner's syndrome (X0, where the second X chromosome is missing), which affects one in 10,000 girls, and Klinefelter's syndrome (XXY or XXXY) affecting one in 1,000 boys.
Girls with Turner's syndrome mostly have normal genitals but the ovaries do not develop and they remain infertile. Boys with Klinefelter's syndrome may have small testes or produce low amounts of testosterone and can develop breasts. They may also have signs of a womb and ovaries.
People with Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, or AIS (one in 20,000 births) – as described by Janet – are genetically male (with the XY chromosome) but due to a failure to respond to testosterone do not develop male genitals and at birth appear female. They are thus usually raised as girls. They can develop breasts at puberty, but the vagina is small or absent, and they do not menstruate. Some AIS women have had modelling careers because their lack of male hormones means they are unlikely to develop body hair and are less prone to skin conditions like acne. But society is often unkind to people with such disorders.

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