Emily Quinn: The way we think about biological sex is wrong
Emily Quinn: A forma como concebemos 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.
não será de admirar.
as a surprise to some of you.
about my genitalia.
e falar-vos dos meus genitais.
about bravery or courage.
biologically either a man or a woman,
complex than that.
é muito mais complexa do que isso.
somebody could be intersex.
de alguém ser intersexual.
I was born with XY chromosomes,
que nasci com cromossomas XY,
as male chromosomes.
por cromossomas masculinos.
and balls inside my body.
e testículos dentro do meu corpo.
os meus seios cresceram,
or body hair, body oil.
ou pelos corporais, pele oleosa.
actually have a uterus --
I can't have biological children.
e não posso ter filhos biológicos.
based on their genitalia.
de acordo com os seus genitais.
we ask whether it's a boy or a girl,
perguntamos se é rapaz ou rapariga,
menos empolgados por ter um bebé
about having a baby
the genitals you wanted;
revelasse algo sobre uma pessoa.
tells you anything about that person.
putting people into boxes
arrumar as pessoas em caixas
with one another.
you also have your chromosomes,
temos também os cromossomas,
os ovários e os testículos.
your hormone response
a resposta hormonal
like breast development, body hair, etc.
pelos corporais, etc.
têm imensas variantes
all have so much variation,
of a single other human trait
outra característica humana
that's it, no other options.
e pronto, esgotaram-se as opções.
para os nossos corpos,
for our bodies to look,
essa mesma variedade
that there's that much variety
XX or XY chromosomes,
dos cromossomas XX ou XY,
cromossomas XX E XY?
people with XX or XY,
com XX ou XY,
at the scene of a crime --
for recolhido numa cena de crime
mas nunca se sabe —
but, you know, we'll see.
thousands of years from now,
daqui a milhares de anos,
e tiver de os remover?
and has to have her ovaries removed?
que nascem sem testículos nem ovários
who are born without balls or ovaries
or a combination of the two?
ou uma combinação dos dois?
para se ser uma mulher?
to be a woman?
who are born without one.
exatamente com esta largura,
that's exactly this thick,
at a 90-degree angle,
com esta largura interna
that's this wide internally
1 cm acima da entrada vaginal
above the vaginal opening
like they're supposed to look like,
que viram daquela vez.
you watched that one time.
tiveram mais do que um parceiro sexual,
sexual partner in your lifetime,
just by their genitalia.
só a partir dos seus genitais.
de tal forma enraizados na nossa sociedade
are both so ingrained in our society,
into one box or the other,
cada um dentro da sua gaveta,
to make you question it.
quem nos faça questioná-lo.
uma anomalia, um caso atípico:
I'm the exception, an anomaly, an outlier:
around two percent of the population.
cerca de 2% da população.
as genetic redheads.
de cerca de 150 milhões de pessoas,
a população da Rússia.
the entire population of Russia.
que somos muitos.
every culture in history.
de todas as culturas existentes.
que são intersexuais.
that they're intersex.
para determinar os vossos cromossomas?
to determine your chromosomes?
os vossos níveis hormonais?
for all of your hormone levels?
last year, in his 50s.
o ano passado, já com 50 anos.
for intersex human rights here in the US,
dos intersexuais aqui nos EUA,
que era intersexual.
quando ela tinha 15 anos,
que ela tinha cancro,
she wasn't "fully" a woman.
"completamente" mulher.
or kept in the dark about our bodies,
ou nos mentem sobre o nosso corpo,
to a lot of people.
que não fala sobre o sexo ou o corpo
about sex or bodies at all,
ou envergonhar alguém.
I was fine with that information.
encarei bem esse facto.
my understanding of the world.
perceber o mundo.
society's expectations of me,
que a sociedade tinha para mim.
crianças a brincar
play with the "wrong" toys
about gender norm,
de normas de género,
about who they're supposed to be
em relação a quem é suposto serem
ou a quem amar.
até lhes ensinarmos o que isso é.
until we put it on them.
that I would also get cancer
que também teria cancro
to tell me that every year.
who want me to remove them.
há médicos que querem que os remova.
like yourself, has testicles,
como vocês, tem testículos,
becoming cancerous --
de este se tornar cancerígeno,
de tal acontecer.
of it becoming cancerous.
away from the body to cool off,
they're not producing sperm.
não produzem espermatozoides.
of information about intersex people,
sobre pessoas intersexuais,
nunca perceberam a diferença.
the difference.
nunca compreenderam o meu corpo.
que eu precisava de uma cirurgia vaginal.
I needed to have surgery on my vagina.
until she operated,
até que ela me operasse,
"normal sex" with my husband one day.
com o meu marido, mais tarde.
with the operation,
e estou incrivelmente grata por isso.
para falar da minha vida sexual.
to tell the difference
qualquer diferença
a menos que eu o dissesse,
unless I told you;
that I was intersex unless I told you.
que sou intersexual, se eu não o dissesse.
of understanding about bodies,
sobre o nosso corpo,
the difference.
a minha vida sexual está ótima.
my sex life is fine.
lembram-me os médicos a tocarem-me
bring up memories of doctors touching me,
the physical harm
unnecessary surgeries.
está livre dos danos emocionais
from the emotional harm
que tenta abafar a nossa existência.
that tries to cover up your existence.
fez este tipo de operações.
have had operations like these.
como os que eu tenho,
testes like mine,
is lower than the risk of breast cancer
cancro nos testículos
numa mulher normal,
no predisposition, no family history.
ou histórico familiar.
para remover os seios, pois não?
to remove her breasts, do we?
that hasn't been operated on.
sido submetidos a cirurgias.
para melhorar a vida das crianças,
to improve intersex kids' lives,
doing the opposite,
e mais complicações,
que os médicos são maus ou cruéis.
doctors are bad or evil.
onde se espera que os médicos "consertem"
that causes some doctors to "fix"
na sua definição de normal.
their definition of normal.
que precise de conserto.
that needs to be enlightened.
que precisa de ser esclarecida.
puberty guidebook
sobre o seu corpo enquanto crescem.
about their bodies as they grow up.
or their boy bodies --
de menina ou de menino,
relativamente ao nosso corpo,
on the things that our bodies do
uma barba farta, profusa e provocadora,
a full, luxurious, hipster beard,
a few mustache hairs,
deixar crescer um bigode ralo,
enquanto homens?
about who they are as men?
respond to testosterone in different ways.
à testosterona de diferentes formas.
a man ashamed about something like this?
viram um homem envergonhado por isso?
we could live in a society
viver numa sociedade
consegue ou não fazer.
that our bodies do or do not do.
about biological sex in this society --
o sexo biológico na sociedade
que o mundo era redondo, certo?
the world as round, right?
como um distúrbio mental
with mental disorders
é causada pelo demónio, o que é bom.
by the devil anymore, so that's cool.
the more we understand as a society.
crescemos e evoluímos como sociedade.
pode salvar crianças intersexuais
save intersex kids
pode ser benéfico para todos.
inadequado ou envergonhado
inadequate or ashamed
you were too girly,
ou por ser demasiado feminina?
por não se ajustarem aos moldes,
for not fitting into a box,
because it prevents them from seeing
porque tal impede que se apercebam
não encaixamos nos nossos moldes.
inside our boxes, either.
se encaixa dentro desses moldes
nobody actually fits in a box,
foi algo que construímos,
is something we constructed,
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