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Gender

Does this image make you think?

There is a discussion going on LGBT Equality Worldwide’s Facebook page about the photo: “Some men have vaginas… Some women don’t have vaginas… get over it”.

This photo stretches many people’s thinking – particularly those who are used only to thinking about gender as being either ‘female’ or ‘male’.

On Facebook, some people are commenting about this photo being about ‘transvestisism’ … which others are suggesting is a misunderstanding of the word transvestite (i.e. dressing in the clothes (vest) of a gender other than one’s own (trans)).

Image © http://somoslgtbareae.wordpress.com/231/otros-cuerpos-existen/

Some people are arguing that this is as photograph of transgenderism (ie the surgical or otherwise intervention to physically change gender to match ones mentally/emotionally-identified gender), which others are pointing out the lack of visual surgical evidence.

Let me add another thought for you … intersex.

Intersex is where a person’s physical gender is not clearly definable as either male or female.  Whilst a single gender would have all the physical bits match up, Intersex is another kind of physical gender-state; sometimes with both sets of genitals, sometimes with one main one and a secondary other one.

It has been known for doctors to assign an infant’s birth gender simply based upon  visual judgement.  Some infants have been physically altered (read: have their malformed penis removed) in order to be assigned a female gender … and their parents told to bring up the child in the guise of the newly doctor-assigned gender. Gender (and sexuality) are not as easily assigned as the medical profession used to think … but then, perhaps when someone concerned with how their own ‘expertise’ comes across is faced with a new unrecognised condition, no matter of expertise will make up for, perhaps, a lack of wisdom.

Back to the photo… I’m not saying that this is a photo of intersexed couple or a partially-transgendered couple.   It is, however, a clever photograph that challenges many people’s thinking about single-assigned gender.

Oh – and despite the Facebook comments on sexuality,  notice how this photo actually shows nothing about the models’ sexualities 😉

Warning – the source website contains an uncensored version of the photo.

http://somoslgtbareae.wordpress.com/231/otros-cuerpos-existen/

 

Other sites of interest: Counselling via Skype, Online Zoom Counselling, Havant Counselling & Counselling for LGBT Couples