Emily Quinn: The way we think about biological sex is wrong
إيملي كوينن: الطريقة التي نفكر بها في الجنس البيولوجي خاطئة
Emily Quinn describes herself as "a ballsy intersex activist who uses humor and storytelling to create a more welcoming world for people who don’t fit in a box." Full bio
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as a surprise to some of you.
about my genitalia.
عن أعضائي التناسلية.
about bravery or courage.
biologically either a man or a woman,
إما رجلًا أو امرأة.
complex than that.
الأمر معقد أكثر من ذلك بكثير.
somebody could be intersex.
أن يكون بها الشخص ثنائي الجنس.
I was born with XY chromosomes,
ولدت بصبغيات (XY).
as male chromosomes.
and balls inside my body.
وبخصيتين داخل جسدي.
or body hair, body oil.
أو شعر جسد أو دُهن جسد.
actually have a uterus --
I can't have biological children.
بأطفالٍ بيولوجيين.
based on their genitalia.
وفقًا لأعضائهم التناسلية.
we ask whether it's a boy or a girl,
نسأل إن كان صبيًا أم فتاة،
about having a baby
للحصول على طفل
the genitals you wanted;
الأعضاء التناسلية التي أردتها.
tells you anything about that person.
يخبرك أي شيء عنه.
لا تخبرك أي شيء في الواقع.
putting people into boxes
with one another.
you also have your chromosomes,
لديك صبغياتك أيضًا،
your hormone response
like breast development, body hair, etc.
مثل نمو الثديين وشعر الجسد، إلخ.
all have so much variation,
تختلف كثيرًا عن بعضها.
of a single other human trait
that's it, no other options.
هذا كل ما في الأمر، ليس هناك خيار آخر.
for our bodies to look,
للهيئة التي تبدو عليها أجسادنا،
that there's that much variety
أن يكون هناك كل هذا التنوّع
XX or XY chromosomes,
بالإضافة إلى الصبغيات (XX) أو (XY)،
people with XX or XY,
ذوي الصبغيات (XX) أو (XY)،
at the scene of a crime --
في مسرح الجريمة...
but, you know, we'll see.
thousands of years from now,
and has to have her ovaries removed?
وعليها أن تخضع لاستئصال مبيضيها؟
who are born without balls or ovaries
ممن يولدون بلا خصيتين أو مبيضين
or a combination of the two?
to be a woman?
who are born without one.
that's exactly this thick,
وبهذا السُمك تحديدًا،
at a 90-degree angle,
that's this wide internally
above the vaginal opening
like they're supposed to look like,
you watched that one time.
الذي شاهدته تلك المرة.
sexual partner in your lifetime,
طوال حياتكم،
just by their genitalia.
عن طريق أعضائهم التناسلية فقط.
are both so ingrained in our society,
متأصلان في مجتمعنا،
into one box or the other,
في صندوق أو آخر بشكل آلي.
to make you question it.
I'm the exception, an anomaly, an outlier:
أو حالة شاذة، أو غريبة:
around two percent of the population.
اثنين في المائة من التعداد السكاني.
as genetic redheads.
لذوي الشعر الأحمر الوراثي.
the entire population of Russia.
every culture in history.
that they're intersex.
أنهم ثنائيو الجنس.
to determine your chromosomes?
لتحديد صبغياتك؟
for all of your hormone levels?
لكل مستويات هرموناتك؟
last year, in his 50s.
في الخمسينات من عمره.
for intersex human rights here in the US,
هنا في الولايات المتحدة.
she wasn't "fully" a woman.
or kept in the dark about our bodies,
أو إبقاؤنا على غير معرفة بأجسادنا،
to a lot of people.
about sex or bodies at all,
لا يتحدث عن الجنس أو الأجساد على الإطلاق.
بعضنا البعض.
I was fine with that information.
my understanding of the world.
society's expectations of me,
مع توقعات المجتمع لي،
play with the "wrong" toys
يلعبون باللعبة "الخاطئة"
about gender norm,
التي تتعلق بمعايير الجنس الاجتماعي،
about who they're supposed to be
ما يفترض بهم أن يصبحوا عليه
أن يعجبوا به أو يحبّوه.
until we put it on them.
إلى أن نضعه فيهم.
that I would also get cancer
أنني قد أصاب بالسرطان أيضًا
to tell me that every year.
who want me to remove them.
يريدون منّي استئصالهما.
like yourself, has testicles,
becoming cancerous --
of it becoming cancerous.
away from the body to cool off,
they're not producing sperm.
ولا تنتجان الحيوانات المنوية.
of information about intersex people,
عن ثنائيي الجنس،
the difference.
I needed to have surgery on my vagina.
إجراء جراجة لمهبلي.
until she operated,
إلى حين أن تجري لي العملية،
"normal sex" with my husband one day.
مع زوجي ذات يوم.
with the operation,
to tell the difference
unless I told you;
that I was intersex unless I told you.
الجنس لو لم أكن قد أخبرتكم.
of understanding about bodies,
the difference.
my sex life is fine.
bring up memories of doctors touching me,
تعيد المواقف الجنسية ذكريات لأطباء
منذ أن كنت في العاشرة.
the physical harm
unnecessary surgeries.
from the emotional harm
يسلم من الأذى النفسي
that tries to cover up your existence.
يحاول طمس وجودك.
have had operations like these.
لعملياتٍ كتلك.
testes like mine,
is lower than the risk of breast cancer
أقل من احتمال الإصابة بسرطان الثدي
no predisposition, no family history.
أو تاريخ عائلي.
to remove her breasts, do we?
أليس كذلك؟
that hasn't been operated on.
لم يخضع للعمليات.
to improve intersex kids' lives,
لتحسين حياة الأطفال ثنائيي الجنس،
doing the opposite,
وهم يفعلون النقيض.
doctors are bad or evil.
that causes some doctors to "fix"
يجعل بعض الأطباء "يصلحون"
their definition of normal.
مع تعريفهم لما هو طبيعي.
that needs to be enlightened.
puberty guidebook
لمرحلة البلوغ
about their bodies as they grow up.
أثناء نموّهم.
or their boy bodies --
on the things that our bodies do
للأشياء التي تفعلها أجسادنا
a full, luxurious, hipster beard,
لحية كاملة وفخمة وعصرية،
a few mustache hairs,
القليل من شعر الشارب فقط،
about who they are as men?
respond to testosterone in different ways.
بطرقٍ مختلفة.
a man ashamed about something like this?
يشعر بالخزي بسبب شيء كهذا؟
we could live in a society
that our bodies do or do not do.
أو لا تقوم بها.
about biological sex in this society --
التي نفكر بها في الجنس البيولوجي...
the world as round, right?
أليس كذلك؟
with mental disorders
باضطرابات عقلية
by the devil anymore, so that's cool.
لذا هذا رائع.
the more we understand as a society.
كلما زاد فهمنا كمجتمع.
save intersex kids
تنقذ الأطفال ثنائيي الجنس
inadequate or ashamed
you were too girly,
أو كنتِ أنثوية أكثر من اللازم،
أو كنت رجوليًا أكثر من اللازم؟
for not fitting into a box,
لعدم ملائمتهم للصندوق،
because it prevents them from seeing
لأن هذا يمنعهم من أن يروا
inside our boxes, either.
nobody actually fits in a box,
يلائم الصندوق في الواقع،
is something we constructed,
الأنثوي-الذكري الزائف هو شيء قد شكّلناه،
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Emily Quinn - Artist, activist, authorEmily Quinn describes herself as "a ballsy intersex activist who uses humor and storytelling to create a more welcoming world for people who don’t fit in a box."
Why you should listen
At age 10, Emily Quinn learned she was intersex. As she writes: "Doctors said not to tell anyone, poking and prodding at me like I was a science experiment. It was lonely, shameful, and I had nowhere to turn. I needed someone to tell me that it would be OK, but no one was there.
"Fourteen years later, I discovered an intersex support group, meeting hundreds of intersex people who endured trauma like mine. I knew it had to stop. I was working at Cartoon Network and decided to help create the first intersex main character on television: Lauren on MTV's 'Faking It.' I publicly came out as intersex alongside her debut, and suddenly I was bombarded with interviews, appearing in content across the web. The impact was so great that I quit my job, created a YouTube channel, began speaking globally about intersex experiences, and am now writing a YA novel. In ways I could have never imagined, I became the person I needed as a kid -- showing myself that one day it would be OK."
Emily Quinn | Speaker | TED.com