Overview

Since the 1600s, travelers, scientists, and doctors have claimed that ""hermaphroditism"" and intersex are disproportionately common among black South Africans. In Envisioning African Intersex Amanda Lock Swarr debunks this claim by interrogating contemporary intersex medicine and demonstrating its indivisibility from colonial ideologies and scientific racism. Tracing the history of racialized research that underpins medical and scientific premises of gendered bodies, Swarr analyzes decolonial actions by intersex South Africans from the 1990s to the present, centering the work of organizers such as Sally Gross, the first openly intersex activist in Africa and a global pioneer of intersex legislation. Swarr also explores African social media activism that advocates for intersex justice and challenges the mistreatment of South African Olympian Caster Semenya. Throughout, Swarr shows how activists displace doctors' impositions to fashion self-representation. By unseating colonial visions of gender, intersex South Africans are actively disrupting medical violence, decolonizing gender binaries, and inciting policy changes. All author royalties from Envisioning African Intersex will be donated to Intersex South Africa.

Full Product Details

Author:   Amanda Lock Swarr
Publisher:   Duke University Press
Imprint:   Duke University Press
Weight:   0.363kg
ISBN:  

9781478019619

ISBN 10:   1478019611
Pages:   277
Publication Date:   08 March 2023
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Introduction. 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

Reviews

""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)

""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 *

"""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 *"

Author Information

Amanda Lock Swarr is Associate Professor of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Washington, author of Sex in Transition: Remaking Gender and Race in South Africa, and coeditor of Critical Transnational Feminist Praxis.

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