*TRIGGER WARNING* Intersex Injustice Spotlight: Nigeria couple seek "corrective surgery" for their child
4th July 2014, Olivia P
I decided I should write my own peice to introduce this article as even the newspaper has taken a position of support for what appears to be normal and acceptable in that part of the world. This article tries to paint their new born child, Success Chisom Aniekwe, as if their intersex condition causes them great pain and indeed requires "corrective surgery". The article goes on to explain "Now frail, with constant pain, especially when urinating, which comes through what would pass for female private part, under a little penis, the baby has been in and out of hospital, where tests and surgeries have been recommended."
They discovered that the Success had ambiguous genitalia when they took Success for a female circumcision, which is bad enough. This article then goes on to stress how they are having a uphill battle to secure funding to get tests so that they can give their child "corrective surgery".
The amount of endless injustice in the article and the act is so saddening that I couldn't bring myself to post the actual article here, it upsets me heavily that this child is going through this, that yet another person is going to be forced to go through the pain of secretive "corrective surgery" used to hide any indication that they were indeed intersex purely because the family feels embarrassed by who their child is. As shown by this statement the mother told the Sun News Online, "I am being embarrassed by the problem of the baby. Everywhere, I go, people get confused, as to whether the baby is a boy or girl. Initially, I used to dress the baby like girl. I also pierced the ears and put earrings. But as time passed, the baby's look changed to that of a boy. People tell me my baby resembles a boy. Within me, I know that there is a problem. It was when the face started changing to a boy that I started giving him a hair-cut and dressing him like a boy, even when the ears are pierced,"
Cases like this is exactly why its so important for us all to fight to correct the global misunderstanding of what sex and gender is. As we culture ourselves into a state of mental strength it is vital that we arm ourselves with knowledge and understanding to cultivate and encourage society to also seek a informed understanding of these topics. If we don't cases like the above will continue to happen. This knowledge that we must arm ourselves with isn't just the scientific knowledge, but also the knowledge of how societies throughout history saw us, history of individuals who stepped outside of stereotypes, and most importantly of all, the history of the pioneers that fought for justice, understanding and equality for everyone that doesn't conform to sex and gender stereotypes.
For those of you that are curious, this is the article I am referring to:
http://sunnewsonline.com/new/?p=70447
