Reading Between the Lines: Intersexuality in News Media, 1993-2013

• In Event: 106 - Open Refereed Roundtable Session I
  In Refereed Roundtable: A. Table 12. Critical Media Studies

Abstract

For over 60 years, doctors have treated intersexuality as a “social emergency,” and have intervened with surgical and hormonal procedures for children born with ambiguous genitalia, sexual organs, or sex chromosomes. Beginning in the 1990s, activists began challenging the medical management of intersex conditions, arguing these practices attempt to remedy a social problem and not a medical problem. One mechanism through which problems are constructed is in news media, which both provides information about health-related issues and also conveys social norms. This research is based on a content analysis of intersexuality in high circulating newspapers published in the United States from 1993 to 2013. Findings demonstrate the dominance of the medical frame. Major themes include: (1) the exacerbation of abnormality; (2) medical uncertainty; and (3) the shifting boundaries of sex categories. In light of these findings, I discuss the implications of associating abnormality with intersexuality in a biomedical context.

Author

• Erin Michelle Bergner, Vanderbilt University