"What Does DSD Mean?"

"What does DSD mean?"

It means "Disorders of Sexual Development"; this is what intersex bodies are denoted as in a medical context. Most doctors don't even know the word intersex.

This term is harmful.

This term is intersexist.

This term is not preferred by us.

The term “DSD” is one of the many ways in which intersex people are told we don’t exist as whole fully-formed people in our natural bodies. The medical establishment attempts to sort us as male or female; the only way to do this is to denote our intersex traits as disordered. Which implies we must be “fixed”. Framing intersex bodies as a problem and a disorder will always lead to violence against intersex people.

You may have heard the term “DSD” be used to stand for “Differences of Sexual Development”, this is not what the term was originally coined to mean, it is backpedaling in a poor attempt to appease those who dislike the actual meaning of the term. This is not a preferred term due to the fact it is the same acronym.

The term DSD was chosen over intersex in 2005 at a conference where intersex people were barred from attending. It was then included into the DSM-V, and adopted across all medical fields, without any input from intersex people themselves.

The community is actively fighting back against this term.

We do not like that it is the accepted label, I personally consider it derogatory. The vast majority of us prefer the term intersex. If you see someone using the term DSD, they likely align themselves with bigoted spaces, and believe in the pathologization of intersex bodies, which is the dominant medical standard.

Please recognize that otherwise reputable medical sources use this terminology and believe we should be "fixed". This is not a source to cite as to why DSD is correct, this is an oppressive stain that reminds us that our movement for liberation is in the fucking toilet. This is BAD.

Do not be afraid to challenge the medical field. Things never improve without pushback.

Black people are STILL believed to feel less pain, this is in currently used medical textbooks, and causes black people's pain to not be taken seriously.

People with cluster B personality disorders used to be lobotomized.

Homosexuality used to be called 'homophilia' and was treated with electroshock therapy.

A woman showing literally any emotion would be slapped with a hysteria diagnosis and all her feelings and concerns were immediately discredited.

The medical filed is not perfect and unchallengable, especially around matters of minority groups.

Shout out to all the Black ppl that can no longer participate directly in the fandom they love because of the stresses of racism 👍🏾 you contain multitudes of value and I'm sorry that the color of your skin and the power of your voice makes people not want to acknowledge that.

Diet companies won’t tell you this but starving yourself is a lot worse for your health than overeating

This post is explicitly about being ok with being fat. If you feel like you have to eat less than your body tells you it needs to be skinny, please just be ok with being fat.

I'm wishing a very Happy Pride Month to all the queer people who:

are disabled

are chronically ill

can't celebrate for health reasons

disability gets in the way of their gender representation

disability got in the way of a relationship

don't have anyone to celebrate with

have homophobic caretakers

Happy Pride Month to all disabled queer people

please

Intersex people deserve spaces that don't just tolerate their existance, but celebrate it.

Intersex people deserve spaces that don't instinctively refer to them as "cis people with sex development disorders".

Intersex people deserve spaces with dedicated space for us, resources and action when intersexism arises.

Intersex people deserve spaces with the INTERSEX flag hung proudly alongside other queer pride flags.

Intersex people deserve to see themselves included, represented, uplifted, educated on, and celebrated.