Making the Invisible Visible: Undoing Intersex Erasure

Adeline Berry

Senior Research Fellow at University of Huddersfield in the UK.

Making the Invisible Visible: Undoing Intersex Erasure

Intersex is an umbrella term for a wide variety of naturally occurring variations that fall outside of strict medical binary definitions of what are allowed to considered male or female bodies. These variations affect hormones, chromosomes, genitalia, and gonads. Intersex people comprise as much as two percent of the population and yet they are underrepresented in many aspects of life including educational curriculums, healthcare and culture. Despite their invisibility, recent research from the European Union shows that intersex people face increasing levels of violence and discrimination.

Much of the erasure intersex people suffer stems from medical practices that became popular in the 1960s purporting to help facilitate the acceptance of intersex children in a binary world. However, according to intersex people, these procedures result in severe and lasting problems that are physical, sexual, and psychological in nature. These practices would be considered illegal in many countries in which they are practiced due to their similarity to FGM or Female Genital Mutilation. In 2013, the United Nations Special Rapporteur declared these medical procedures to be a form of torture, and they were banned in Malta two years later, followed by bans in other countries including Germany, Iceland, Portugal, and Greece.

In this presentation I examine mechanisms and motivations behind intersex invisibility and how efforts to campaign for intersex human rights can sometimes unwittingly contribute to intersex erasure. Data in this presentation draws from my PhD research that, while focusing on European intersex people older than 50 years-of-age, examined the intersex life course from early childhood to see how and where intersex experience diverges from those of endosex, or non-intersex people.

Bio

Adeline Berry is a Senior Research Fellow at University of Huddersfield. She has a BA (Hons) in Psychology from Dublin Business School (2020) and a PhD in sociology from the University of Huddersfield (2024). Her research focuses primarily, but not entirely, on intersex life experience. Chair of Intersex Ireland since 2020, she works actively with community, politicians and human rights organisations on intersex rights and other issues. She is about to embark on groundbreaking research on intersex mental health and coping mechanisms. Her monograph Intersex, ageing and intersectionalities is being published through Routledge and will be available soon.

Crip & Queer Seminar Spring 2026

The Crip & Queer Seminar series is hosted by the division of Gender Studies. After the seminars, which are open to students, staff, and the general public, we serve fika in the kitchen on the fourth floor of Gamla Lungkliniken. 

Warmly welcome!

Contact

• Elin Lundell elin [dot] lundell [at] genus [dot] lu [dot] se (elin[dot]lundell[at]genus[dot]lu[dot]se)
• Irina Schmitt irina [dot] schmitt [at] genus [dot] lu [dot] se (irina[dot]schmitt[at]genus[dot]lu[dot]se)

Accessibility

The room is accessible for wheelchair users (automatic doors, accessible toilet, stair lift).