What does it mean to be intersex? Who is Herculine Barbin? Why should I care?
An introduction on what it means to be intersex. After readers understand what intersexuality is vs. what it’s not as well as and its variations, the section provides readers with some theoretical concepts that could help them understand the complexities of intersex: Audre Lorde’s Uses of the Erotic and Michel Foucault’s 1978 Herculine Barbin collection. Lorde’s perspective on the erotic, in particular, will provide readers with the framework necessary to understand Herculine’s desires and perspective throughout her memoirs
Understanding the intersex community. (2024). HRC. https://www.hrc.org/resources/understanding-the-intersex-community
Fausto-Sterling, A. (2018, October 25). Why sex is not binary. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/25/opinion/sex-biology-binary.html
interACT. Intersex Variations Glossary. https://interactadvocates.org/intersex-definitions/
Lorde, A. (2007). Uses of the erotic: the erotic as power. In Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (pp. 53–59). Crossing Press.
Foucault, M. (1980). My Memoirs. In R. McDougall (Trans.) Herculine Barbin: being the recently discovered memoirs of a nineteenth-century French Hermaphrodite (pp. 3-115). Vintage Books
Trigger warning: This document contains graphic content regarding sexual harrassment, medical negligence, and suicidal ideation within Herculine Barbin’s memoirs, in addition to the dissection of Barbin’s body within The Dossier section of this work; reader discretion is advised.