Historical Overview

This Chapter contextualises atypical sex (intersex, disorder of sex development) within Western society through presenting a broad historical account of atypical sex treatment within biomedical science and how this treatment has led to the emergence of the intersex patient advocacy movement. It begins by exploring the nineteenth century social conditions that led to science’s obsession with sex difference and how scientific observation failed to identify a mechanism for unequivocally delineating all individuals as either male or female but instead repeatedly highlighted sex’s inherent complexity and variance. It continues by describing attempts to maintain a binary understanding of sex focusing on the theory and treatment practices of John Money and his colleagues. Finally it explores how towards the end of the twentieth century, opposition to Money’s treatment practices led to the emergence of the intersex patient advocacy movement.