When we're born, our doctors typically look at our genitalia and assign us a sex — male or female. That typically dictates what gender our parents raise us as. But just like we've learned that gender is not a binary that fits into two categories, it's time we recognize that neither do bodies.
While the number of people born intersex (people born with a variety of sex characteristics that are outside our typical understanding of male and female bodies) is debated, what's for sure is that they exist. That means, as intersex advocate Emily Quinn told Teen Vogue, people's bodies are more complex than you would think, blowing our ideas of biological sex right out of the water.
In a video for Teen Vogue, Emily, along with advocates Pidgeon Pagonis, and Hanne Gaby Odiele explain what it means to be intersex, and why there's no shame in embracing yourself exactly the way you were born.
"We're often taught that there are only male or female bodies," Emily said. "But there's actually a whole wide variety of possibilities when it comes to human biology. People think that biological sex is very binary, that it just has to do with your genitalia, but a lot has to go into your sex."
This is totally true. A biology teacher explained it best when she shut down transphobia on Facebook that tried to claim gender is determined by chromosomes.
"You can be male because you were born female, but you have 5-alphareductase deficiency and so you grew a penis at age 12. You can be female because you have an X and a Y chromosome but you are insensitive to androgens, and so you have a female body. You can be female because you have an X and a Y chromosome but your Y is missing the SRY gene, and so you have a female body," the teacher wrote. "You can be female because you have only one X chromosome at all. And you can be male because you have two X chromosomes, but your heart and brain are male. And vice - effing - versa."
Brown University researcher Anne Fausto-Sterling estimated that 1.7% of the population is born intersex (which as we mentioned has been debated), which means it may be just as likely that you're born intersex as born a redhead.
While Emily found out she is intersex at age 10, Hanne didn't find out until she was 17 and Pidgeon found out at 18. Hanne explained that despite having surgery because she is intersex and taking hormones, her parents did not know she is intersex and her doctors didn't tell her. These surgeries, she said, may be because of the fear of non-binary bodies and the stigma surrounding being intersex. For anyone who thinks they may be intersex, Pidgeon said there are some possible signs.
"If you were going to the doctor and they were kind of always lifting up your shirt, or pulling down your pants and it just seemed a little bit inappropriate or different than your peers," Pidgeon said. "If you had surgeries that... you've never felt completely believed that the reasons they gave you were the real reasons. Those are some of the things you can look back at and help you discover if you might be intersex or not."
If you are intersex, Pidgeon has a very important message.
"And it's ok if you're intersex," Pidgeon said. "And that's why we're here."
Related: Hanne Gaby Odiele Explains How She Found Out She Is Intersex