Wait, Wait, Please Do Tell Us, NPR, What Is So Funny About Intersexed People?
Pam's House Blend
by: Autumn Sandeen
Mon Feb 08, 2010 at 13:30:00 PM EST
http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/15148/wait-wait-please-do-tell-us-npr-what-is-so-funny-about-intersexed-people (http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/15148/wait-wait-please-do-tell-us-npr-what-is-so-funny-about-intersexed-people)
What I don't like about this bit is fourfold. To begin with, i understand the quoting Rep. Hunter using the term "hermaphrodite," but I don't understand repeating the term when the North American Intersex Society had identified hermaphrodite as a term to avoid:
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personnel still use them to refer to people with certain intersex conditions, because they still subscribe to an outdated nomenclature that uses gonadal anatomy as the basis of sex classification.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 specious and clinically problematic
It's NPR's job to make non-newsy news seem edgy and interesting. (No offense intended.)
As long as Paula Poundstone wasn't in on this, and she wasn't, I can safely ignore this.
My father listens to NPR all day. I've grown to dislike the station though.
Last night he asked me what a hermaphrodite was. I guess this is why. I explained the intersex condition to him (somehow, without mention of genitals) and just got a "huh, that's weird." Doesn't sound like a good sign to me.