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HWN Suggests

Is a person who is intersex a hermaphrodite?

No. The mythological term “hermaphrodite” implies that a person is both fully male and fully female. This is a physiologic impossibility.

The words “hermaphrodite” and “pseudo-hermaphrodite” are stigmatizing and misleading words. Unfortunately, some medical personnel still use them to refer to people with certain intersex conditions, because they still subscribe to an outdated nomenclature that uses gonadal anatomy as the basis of sex classification. In a paper titled Changing the Nomenclature/Taxonomy for Intersex: A Scientific and Clinical Rationale, five ISNA-associated experts recommend that all terms based on the root “hermaphrodite” be abandoned because they are scientifically…

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Articles of Interest

Boy, girl or …? Dilemmas when sex development goes awry

Some babies are born with a genetic variant that leads to atypical sexual development. It can result in the child being neither a typical boy nor girl. Estimates of this occurring range from one in 1,500 or 2,000 births, to 4% of all births, depending on what definitions are used.

Greek and Roman Mythology is Alive and Well

True hermaphrodites exist, although they are rare, but most commonly have a male-type body with ambiguous genitalia. Internally, both ovarian and testicular tissue are present either as separate organs or an ovotestis. Related sex structures are poorly developed or absent.

Hermaphrodites in Love

BEING a hermaphrodite is never easy, even in the best of times, but it must have been especially difficult back in the waning days of the Roman Empire, when marauding Huns, Vandals and Goths were making Europe a hard place for even average people to catch 40 winks and a really tough place for hermaphrodites to relax.

Not everyone is male or female – the growing controversy over sex designation

As clinicians, we strive to be accurate. The evidence shows that using male and female as the only options on birth certificates is not consistent with scientific reality. Evidence shows that removing this designation will tell new parents that it’s not sex assignment that’s most important at birth but rather the celebration of a healthy and happy baby.

What If Joan of Arc Wasn’t a Woman?

In 50 years, the prevailing categories might change again, and nonbinary may seem as outdated to future generations as hermaphrodite...

What the Sleeping Hermaphrodite Tells Us About Art, Sex and Good Taste

For those used to dividing the world neatly into male and female, the new way of thinking feels, well, new. But, of course, these complexities are as old as humanity. A glance through the exhibition “Pergamon and the Hellenistic Kingdoms of the Ancient World,” now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, shows how long they’ve fascinated us.

You Can Be a Hermaphrodite and Not Know It

Jess, it’s perfectly possible that Caster Semenya never knew about her condition. Early reports say she is a hermaphrodite , which means she has no ovaries or uterus, but she does have testes, although if they are undescended she would never know. Women with her condition often don’t discover it until their teen years. The first clue might be that they don’t get their periods. But female athletes often don’t get theirs, so Semenya could have slipped by longer.

“I am a woman and I am fast”: what Caster Semenya’s story says about gender and race in sports

Semenya has never publicly identified as intersex, a term that, according to the Intersex Society of North America, refers to a person born with “a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male.” No matter what her personal medical history is, her story illustrates the way people, especially people of color, can be scrutinized when they seem to fall outside gender norms.