Though many people consider this term to be interchangable with hermaphroditism, intersexuality actually includes much more. It is not limited to hermaphroditism, but it does include it. A person born with intersexuality is said to be an intersexed or intersex individual. Intersexuality refers to a set of many medical conditions in which sex chromosomes, external genitalia, or internal reproductive systems are either gender-ambiguous or otherwise "non-standard" (Scagliarini, 63). Using this broader definition, intersexuality occurs in an astounding 1.7 percent of American births (Ibid).

The incidence of intersexuality in the human population flies in the face of the ideas underlying the biological dichotic gender paradigm.


Source Cited:

Scagliarini, Tia. “Indeterminate Biological Sex: An Issue of Gender Determination.” Maryland Essays in Human Biodiversity. Vol. 2, No. 1, Dec. 2003. University of Maryland. Ed. Benjamin Auerbach, Wendy Gilley, et al. 63-64.

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