Google found me this link:
http://www.emedicine.com/ped/topic1492.htm
First of all, there are apparently many kinds of intersex conditions. Having a complete set of both male and female bits is one of a range of five similar conditions.
Here's an interesting quote from the site:
The internal ducts and external genitalia may vary in development, since
the presence of apparently male or female gonads does not necessarily correlate
with the patient's gender identity.
What does this mean?
Let's step back and look at this not through medical eyes, but through anthropological eyes. What can anthropology tell us about what makes men, men and women, women?
There is a distinction between sex and gender in science, and this is important. Sex is your plumbing, which is usually related to what set of sex chromosomes you've inherited, while gender is a social identity. While there are normally two basic biological sexes (remember - males are definied by being the ones with smaller gametes!), any culture can create as many categories of gender as they need. In Native North American cultures, there are frequently three genders: male, female, and two-spirit. A two-spirit individual may (often) have male plumbing, but will identify in all other ways as a woman, or the other way around - female plumbing, male clothes and behavior patterns.
And this is just the simple part.
What about those people who have bits of both sex's plumbing?
These individuals are commonly labeled "intersex". But plumbing is only part of an individual's overal gender identity. The mind, the behavior patterns, all of these are as important, if not more important, than the actual ducts and pipes a person is born with.
What do you think?
