Emily Quinn: The way we think about biological sex is wrong
Emily Quinn: Nossa maneira de pensar sobre o sexo biológico está errada
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
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
as a surprise to some of you.
para algumas de vocês.
about my genitalia.
sobre minha genitália.
about bravery or courage.
sobre bravura ou coragem.
tenho testículos.
biologically either a man or a woman,
que é biologicamente homem ou mulher,
complex than that.
complexo do que isso.
somebody could be intersex.
de alguém ser intersexo.
I was born with XY chromosomes,
com cromossomos XY,
as male chromosomes.
como cromossomos masculinos.
and balls inside my body.
dentro de meu corpo.
or body hair, body oil.
pelos ou óleo no corpo.
actually have a uterus --
na verdade, útero...
I can't have biological children.
nem posso ter filhos biológicos.
based on their genitalia.
com base na genitália delas.
we ask whether it's a boy or a girl,
perguntamos se é menino ou menina,
about having a baby
menos animados em ter um bebê
que quiséssemos;
the genitals you wanted;
tells you anything about that person.
de uma pessoa dissesse algo sobre ela.
putting people into boxes
as pessoas em caixas
de sensação de pertencimento
with one another.
you also have your chromosomes,
também temos cromossomos,
your hormone response
like breast development, body hair, etc.
pelo no corpo, etc.
all have so much variation,
de sexo biológico têm muita variação.
of a single other human trait
em outro único traço humano
that's it, no other options.
é isso, sem outras opções.
for our bodies to look,
para o corpo parecer,
that there's that much variety
essa variedade também no sexo biológico?
XX or XY chromosomes,
dos cromossomos XX ou XY,
people with XX or XY,
"normais", com XX ou XY,
at the scene of a crime --
na cena de um crime,
but, you know, we'll see.
mas, vai saber...
thousands of years from now,
daqui a milhares de anos,
and has to have her ovaries removed?
e precisar retirar o ovário?
who are born without balls or ovaries
que nasceram sem testículos nem ovário,
or a combination of the two?
ou uma combinação dos dois?
to be a woman?
who are born without one.
exatamente desta grossura,
that's exactly this thick,
a um ângulo de 90 graus,
at a 90-degree angle,
that's this wide internally
acima da abertura vaginal
above the vaginal opening
exatamente como deveriam,
like they're supposed to look like,
a que assistimos daquela vez.
you watched that one time.
de um parceiro sexual na vida,
sexual partner in your lifetime,
just by their genitalia.
apenas pela genitália.
are both so ingrained in our society,
tão arraigados em nossa sociedade,
into one box or the other,
uns aos outros em uma caixa ou outra,
to make you question it.
para nos fazer questionar isso.
I'm the exception, an anomaly, an outlier:
uma anomalia, uma estranha:
around two percent of the population.
cerca de 2% da população.
as genetic redheads.
de pessoas aproximadamente,
the entire population of Russia.
every culture in history.
as culturas da história.
that they're intersex.
não saber que são intersexo.
to determine your chromosomes?
para determinar seus cromossomos?
for all of your hormone levels?
com todos os seus níveis de hormônios?
last year, in his 50s.
no ano passado, em seus 50 anos.
for intersex human rights here in the US,
humanos intersexo aqui nos EUA,
quando ela estava com 15 anos,
que ela estava com câncer,
she wasn't "fully" a woman.
não era "totalmente" mulher.
intersexo sobre o corpo delas,
or kept in the dark about our bodies,
to a lot of people.
sobre sexo ou corpo de forma alguma,
about sex or bodies at all,
ou envergonhar um ao outro.
intersexo aos dez anos,
I was fine with that information.
com essa informação.
my understanding of the world.
meu entendimento do mundo.
society's expectations of me,
as expectativas da sociedade,
que eu era anormal.
play with the "wrong" toys
com os brinquedos "errados"
about gender norm,
sobre norma de gênero,
about who they're supposed to be
until we put it on them.
até nós a colocarmos nelas.
that I would also get cancer
que eu também teria câncer
to tell me that every year.
isso todos os anos.
who want me to remove them.
que querem que eu os retire.
like yourself, has testicles,
becoming cancerous --
de se tornar canceroso.
of it becoming cancerous.
saem do corpo para se refrescar,
away from the body to cool off,
they're not producing sperm.
nem produzem esperma.
of information about intersex people,
de informação sobre pessoas intersexo,
the difference.
fazer uma cirurgia da vagina.
I needed to have surgery on my vagina.
until she operated,
"normal sex" with my husband one day.
sexo "normal" com meu marido.
with the operation,
de minha vida sexual.
to tell the difference
a não ser que eu dissesse;
unless I told you;
that I was intersex unless I told you.
a menos que eu contasse a vocês.
of understanding about bodies,
de conhecimento sobre o corpo,
the difference.
my sex life is fine.
trazem lembranças
bring up memories of doctors touching me,
desde que eu tinha dez anos.
the physical harm
unnecessary surgeries.
from the emotional harm
está livre do dano emocional
that tries to cover up your existence.
que tenta encobrir a existência dela.
have had operations like these.
tiveram cirurgias como essas.
testes like mine,
testículos como os meus,
is lower than the risk of breast cancer
seja menor do que o de mama
no predisposition, no family history.
sem predisposição, nem histórico familiar.
to remove her breasts, do we?
para retirar os seios, não é?
that hasn't been operated on.
que não tenha sido operada.
to improve intersex kids' lives,
das crianças intersexo,
doing the opposite,
doctors are bad or evil.
são maus ou perversos,
that causes some doctors to "fix"
que faz com que alguns deles "consertem"
their definition of normal.
na definição de normal deles.
que precisam ser corrigidos.
that needs to be enlightened.
que precisa ser esclarecida.
sobre a puberdade sem gênero
puberty guidebook
about their bodies as they grow up.
à medida que elas crescem.
or their boy bodies --
on the things that our bodies do
irreais nas coisas que o corpo faz,
a full, luxurious, hipster beard,
uma barba cheia, luxuosa e moderna,
a few mustache hairs,
um pouco o bigode,
about who they are as men?
de quem são como homens?
respond to testosterone in different ways.
à testosterona de maneiras diferentes.
a man ashamed about something like this?
um homem com vergonha de algo assim?
we could live in a society
pudéssemos viver numa sociedade
that our bodies do or do not do.
about biological sex in this society --
sobre o sexo biológico nesta sociedade,
ter "peito" pra isso.
the world as round, right?
como redondo, não é mesmo?
with mental disorders
como doentes mentais,
by the devil anymore, so that's cool.
seja causada pelo demônio.
the more we understand as a society.
quanto mais nos entendemos como sociedade.
save intersex kids
de danos físicos e emocionais,
inadequate or ashamed
impróprio ou envergonhado,
you were too girly,
ou ser feminina demais;
ou ser viril demais?
for not fitting into a box,
as pessoas por não caberem numa caixa,
because it prevents them from seeing
porque isso os impede de verem
inside our boxes, either.
em nossas caixas.
nobody actually fits in a box,
is something we constructed,
fachada masculina-feminina,
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