2011/08/03 by Georgiann Davis · 54 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Psychology · Social Sciences · Medicine · Nursing · #Sexual Differentiation and Disorders #LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy #Gender Roles and Identity Studies #Terminology #Medicalization #Essentialism #Framing (construction) #Originality #Medical terminology #Scholarship #Gender studies #Value (mathematics) #Scrutiny #Sociology #Psychology #Medicine #Psychiatry #Social science #Political science #Qualitative research #Law #Nursing #History
paper · doi:10.1108/s1057-6290(2011)0000012012
published in Advances in medical sociology, 155-182 (Emerald Publishing Limited)
openalex publication_date 2011/08/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/12
Purpose – Intersexuality is examined from a sociology of diagnosis frame to show how the diagnostic process is connected to other social constructions, offer new support that medical professionals define illness in ways that sometimes carries negative consequences, and illustrate how the medical profession holds on to authority in the face of patient activism.Methodology/approach – Data collection occurred over a two-year period (October 2008 to August 2010). Sixty-two in-depth interviews were conducted with individuals connected to the intersex community including adults with intersexuality, parents, medical professionals, and intersex activists.Findings – Medical professionals rely on essentialist understandings of gender to justify the medicalization of intersexuality, which they currently are doing through a nomenclature shift away from intersex terminology in favor of disorders of sex development (DSD) language. This shift allows medical professionals to reassert their authority and reclaim jurisdiction over intersexuality in light of intersex activism that was successfully framing intersexuality as a social rather than biological problem.Practical implications – This chapter encourages critical thought and action from activists and medical professionals about shifts in intersex medical management.Social implications – Intersexuality might be experienced in less stigmatizing ways by those personally impacted.Originality/value – The value of this research is that it connects the sociology of diagnosis literature with gender scholarship. Additional value comes from the data, which were collected after the 2006 nomenclature shift.