A Twitter chum pointed out to me last week that to LGBT had been added the letter ‘I’. Thinking myself a jolly witty sort of chap, I tweeted ‘Does it stand for Indecisive?’ She tweeted back to say ‘Intersex’.
Further bewildering research has since revealed to me that it’s actually the human typology we used to call hermaphrodite, but it seems that this was long ago dumped as “vague, demeaning, and sensationalistic, conjuring mythic images of monsters and freaks”. It thus became gender identity disorder, but this too made the disastrous mistake of sounding abnormal, so it then became – you’ll love this – gender dysphoria.
As that took us back to the ‘vague’ problem, it morphed yet again into Intersex….which I think sounds like a multiple chain retailing rumpy-pumpy, but there you are. Or rather you aren’t, if you follow.
There’s more: LGBT is now officially LGBTQIAPD, which stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender , Queer/questioning, Intersex, Asexual/aromantic, Pansexual/polysexual and demisexual. If you need someone to explain to you the difference between demisexual, transgender and questioning, then you are not alone. However, if you look up Owen Jones on Twitter, he’ll be only too glad to help. Just don’t argue with him about it, as he tends to get upset.
Personally, I’m quite keen on the idea of being pansexual, because it strikes me as a condition wherein you fancy everyone – a sort of catch-all term for ‘Will shag anything with a pulse’. I suspect, however, that I am demisexual: I’m carnally attracted to adult humans with frontal bumps who don’t sit on public transport with their legs pointing east and west respectively.
If you’re interested, Intersex occurence is 2 per 3,000 of the world population. And of course, the ever-growing identity politics acronym is still incomplete: it doesn’t include those into bestiality, dead persons and pre-pubertal kids. Also missing are the oppressed sexual minorities whose shtick is Jihadist men, blowup women, dinosaur exhibits in the Natural History Museum, and having maids throw prunes at you in the bath.
Oh….and, er…..the rest of us.
We are the 93.5%
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