I finished reading None of the Above some weeks ago and I really liked
it for the topic it develops: intersex
people. Before reading the book I had a slight idea of what being intersex
meant (really wrong idea if you ask me, to be honest I didn't really think about
it) because of Faking It, a MTV series.
In this post I'm going to explore the description of
intersex people given in that two different contexts.
I started reading the book thinking
it would be about a different topic (more about sexuality rather than gender
identity, I don't even know why but it was my fault anyway), but I welcomed the
subject with my arms open: intersexual
people. I really hadn't much information on the theme, and I hadn't really
thought about it until that moment. It is very well explained from the medical
point of view, and also from an emotional point of view. It's an approach to
non-binary people, with little hints of the LGBT+ community.
Kristin discovers she's intersex in
a really shocking way, which explains her strong denial and hate of that
condition. However, the book tries to highlight a taboo topic without having a
very open attitude towards the queer community. That's what I did not like.
Queer people have a voice in there, don't get me wrong, it's just that they
don't really get a nice reaction from the main character. The actions are too
"hetero" based, which leads to the final point of girl-boy
relationship that solves everything. I totally did not like that. The idea of
the book could've led to a gain of Independence of the main character, which
happens but in a very small amount. The great thing about the book is the idea
of accepting oneself, no matter what.
I still recommend the book, it really
teaches a lot about AIS, and gives you different points of view.
One of the main characters in Faking It, the MTV
series, is intersex. This is not known from the start, which causes a bit of
mystery and drama through the first season. As you can see, Lauren is everything you would never think
about intersex people: she's super feminine, even the prototype of a Barbie
teenage girl. She's your typical popular mean girl, except for the fact that
she's not typical at all.
The series' main goal is to present
typical cliché scenes, characters and ideas and deconstruct them, show that in
real life, things are not just that simple. It also portrays very well queer
characters, even though it's centred on gays, lesbians ans bisexuals overall.
The general attitude is very accepting and open, which I love. Uniqueness is a
treasure.
I think they totally worked it out
with the character of Lauren, who seems very flat and simple, but ends up being
one of the most complex ones. Even though they don't explain that much about
intersex people when Lauren's secret is discovered, they indeed do a great job
of accepting her as a whole, not just a person whose main feature is being
intersex. She has some issues relating to her condition, she always feels
different and less than other girls, that's why she does a show of being super
confident and the girl that can have whatever she wants. She has to take some
pills in order to help her hormonal system, but in medical terms that's more or
less all. It's explained that she was born intersex but developed as a female,
and due to her hormonal system she has good skin. In None of the Above,
Kristin's body is explained in more detail, saying that she developed as a
female, but in fact has the masculine gonads inside of her, whereas from the
outside she just seems a female with no period, because she doesn't have
ovaries at all.
In both contexts, one of the issues relating to
intersex people is sex. In None of the Above, the
situation is directly presented, and let me tell you, it's not nice or
pleasurable at all. In Faking It, the drama comes because Lauren is one of the
few girls that are still virgins, which she simply cannot stand considering the
fact that she's beautiful and popular. But she's not ordinary, what makes her
boyfriend/ex-boyfriend uncomfortable. The difference here is that, while boys
only get uncomfortable around the idea of having sex with Lauren, Kristin has a
much worse time. Boys think she's a "faggot", even a monster, and
they can't even stand touching her. The environment Lauren is in, is much more
comprehensive. She's a girl. She's intersex, whatever that means. In my
opinion, the sex issue relating to Lauren is much more ordinary, because sex is
still a taboo in society. People are pretty scared of sex, and intersex
relationships are confronted from the point of view of the unknown in an
innocent way. Not like poor Kristin, who cannot even deal with speaking to other
people without being verbally abused.
In all, Kristin and Lauren are just two sides of the
same coin. Different girls, different environments, different ways of dealing
with it.
I highly recommend you to read the book and watch the
series!
Did you know about intersex people? Have you
read the book or watched the series?
