When a child is born, it seems that many are distinctly set in various ways. However, this is not always so. Thousands of children are born in the middle of the continuum. Frequently, these children are "corrected," either by medication/therapy, or by surgical means. In the case of this particular rant, I am speaking of intersexuals, or hermaphrodites.

Five times a day, a child undergoes cosmetic surgery to "correct" or "normalize" their sex. The most common scenario goes something like this:

Baby is born. Baby is presumed upon birth to be female, despite an abnormally large clitoris, sometimes thought to be a male with an abnormally small phallus. Within the first two years of life (in some cases within the first three months), baby undergoes surgery, the most common of these being a clitorectomy, where the abnormally sized organ is resized or removed. Repeated surgeries and medications are often necessary as the child grows older, in order to maintain the cosmetic appearance of the chosen sex. Most of these children are assigned a female gender under the crude, but true philosophy that "it's easier to poke a hole than to build a pole."

However, these children, despite surgical change in infancy, are commonly severely despressed upon reaching adolenscence, and the gender identity connected to their biological sex is often ambiguous and unclear to themselves.

Statistically, one in every hundred children is born outside of the "standard" male or female definition. One or two in a thousand births will undergo surgery to "correct" this condition. Doesn't sound like much... but when you take the world population into account (something to the tune of 6.2 billion), that's 60 million people born outside the male/female stereotype, and 6-12 million that undergo forced cosmetic surgery. That's obscene.

This goes back to my fundamental belief that each of us, in damn near every aspect of our existence, is on a continuum. People like to catagorize, like to place others in boxes that make sense. It's convienent. It's neat and tidy. It keeps us from seeing each other as dynamic human beings. (Yes, I will be the first to admit I do this, just like everyone else. But I try my damnedest not to)

For someone that's been told she has a "male nature in a female body" for multiple years, this is the kind of stuff that really pisses me off. I've been labelled with Gender Identity Disoder at a couple of points in my life, and was told to do very specific things to "correct" my self-identity. I should wear pink, and dresses, and learn to be interested in cooking and blah blah blah. Yeah? Whatever.

It's about balance, people. Acceptance. Understanding. Most people would throw the word tolerance in here as well. Stop being so closed minded in your open mindedness that if reality bit you in the ass, you wouldn't realize it. Open up your mind to the differences in creatures. Appreciate those differences, celebrate them. Stop living by the convienent definition. Because odds are... it's bullshit.