Description
Book SynopsisAmanda Lock Swarr debunks the centuries old claim hermaphroditism and intersex are disproportionately common among black South Africans by interrogating how contemporary intersex medicine its indivisibility from colonial ideologies and scientific racism.
Trade Review"
Envisioning African Intersex is a compelling and provocative analysis of how medical and scientific authorities have imagined intersex (atypical sex development) in Africa and, just as important, how contemporary South African intersex activists have resisted these racist interpretations." -- Elizabeth Reis * Journal of Medical Humanities *
Table of ContentsIntroduction. Pathologizing Gender Binaries: Intersex Images and Citational Chains 1
Part I. Uncovering: Colonial and Apartheid Legacies
1. Colonial Observations and Fallacies: “Hermaphroditism” in Histories of South Africa 23
2. “Intersex in Four South African Racial Groups in Durban”: Visualizing Scientific Racism and Gendered Medicine 49
Part II. Recovering: Decolonial Intersex Interventions
3. Defying Medical Violence and Social Death: Sally Gross and the Inception of South African Intersex Activism 73
4. #HandsOffCaster: Caster Semenya’s Refusals and the Decolonization of Gender Testing 102
5. Toward an “African Intersex Reference of Intelligence”: Directions in Intersex Organizing 132
Epilogue. Reframing Visions of South African Intersex 156
Acknowledgments 161
Appendix One: Compilation of Works by and Featuring Sally Gross 165
Appendix Two: Cited Twitter Posts Referencing Caster Semenya 167
Appendix Three: African Intersex Movement Priorities (2017, 2019, 2020) 169
Notes 171
References 207
Index 231
