Hermaphrodite Logic A History of Intersex Liberation

How freedom from binary thinking about sexual difference liberates us all

When a baby is born whose reproductive organs do not fit neatly into a binary idea of biological sex, they are deemed intersex. Often, doctors and parents decide to do surgery soon after birth, and in many cases administer hormones, to make intersex children fit into male/female categories. Intersex is treated as a medical problem: their physiologies are quickly dismissed as impossible, freakish, or even monstrous.

Hermaphrodite Logic places the sexually indeterminate at the centre, for a change. Jules Joanne Gleeson offers a fresh perspective for understanding, speaking of, and celebrating indeterminate lives. Rather than focus on ‘ambiguity’ (or its still vaguer variant, ‘fluidity’) Gleeson focuses on indeterminacy—the bodies, sentiments and experiences that can not be folded in two. The indeterminate cannot help but exist between categories.

Hermaphrodite Logic foregrounds the experiences of sexually indeterminate figures both current and historical, and seeks to build up a thoroughgoing case for our emancipation.

Jules Joanne Gleeson is a writer, comedian and historian. She has published essays in outlets including Viewpoint Magazine, Invert Journal and VICE, and performed internationally at a wide range of communist and queer cultural events. She is the co-editor of Transgender Marxism.

Introduction: Sex is Expressive
1. The Boston Revelation
2. The Clinic Strikes Back
3. Bringing in the Intersex
4. Herms as Humans
5. A Struggle Without a Centre
6. Sex in the Wreckage
7. Conclusion: Hermaphrodite Statues, Intersex Poems