Cripping Intersex, Celeste E. Orr

Intersex and/as/is/with disability. The connections between intersex and disability deserve nuanced attention if we are to strengthen intersex human rights claims and understand the experiences of intersex people living with the disabling consequences of medical intervention.

Cripping Intersex examines three key themes: the medical management of people with intersex characteristics; the mainstream fascination with sport sex-testing policies and procedures; and the eugenic implications of preimplantation genetic diagnosis. Celeste E. Orr investigates how intersex and interphobia intersect with disability and ableism to propose a new approach to intersex studies and activism. The integration of feminist disability studies with intersex studies provides tools to break down the traditional sex dyad and the entrenched cultural mandate against intersex traits.

This necessary work offers a radical new understanding of intersex-with-disability, pushing analyses of intersex histories, experience, and embodiment further than feminist or queer theory can do alone.