Reply #20: Most Intersexed people dislike the term

[bethling]

The vast majority of people who have intersexed conditions don't like the term because it's not really descriptive of the situation. A hermaphrodite is an organism that can reproduce as either a male or as a female. Some intersexed people may have reproductive tissue from both sexes, but the vast majority don't.

Being intersexed is complicated, and when people reduce it to something that it's not (i.e. "hermarphrodite"), it doesn't really help with bringing understanding to the situation. It's not derogatory per se, just not correct and doesn't help people realize that physical sex isn't just male/femle/(or both I guess), but a spectrum with all sorts of variations.