Artigenda
Intersex Solidarity Day
When: Annually, November 8.
Intersex Solidarity Day is on November 8 and is an awareness day that focuses on both remembrance and solidarity. Together with Intersex Solidarity Day (October 26), this day is part of the Fourteen Days of Intersex.
Remembrance or solidarity
This day is either about remembrance or solidarity. Or both. With the intersex community worldwide. The day marks the birthday of Herculine Adélaïde Barbin, also known as Herculine Barbin (November 8 – March 13, 1868).
The name Abel Barbin is also mentioned as her name. That is the name she was assigned after a court interfered. This interference led to her being forced into a life as a man. How could it only come to this?
Birth sex
At birth, a doctor determined that Barbin should be a girl. Based on physical characteristics observed at the time by the same doctor. Therefore, this was recorded as such and nothing was wrong during childhood. There was nothing wrong during Barbin’s childhood. Barbin’s family lived in the south-west of France (Saint-Jean-d’Angely). There was no money for an education, so a scholarship from a neighbouring convent (the Ursuline convent) was gratefully used. It was there that it became clear that Barbin was “different” from other girls. The body was different. More masculine features, though you have to be careful with these kinds of terms. The same goes for references to birth sex.
Life looked beautiful when Barbin fell in love with Sara. Remember, before the law, Barbin was still a young woman. She had completed her studies and was working as an assistant teacher at a primary school. Sara was also an assistant teacher at the same primary school. The rumours of love life were just not as bad as the physical pains Barbin faced for which she was sent to a doctor. The latter diagnosed things that, in his opinion, were not true. At least, he drew that conclusion based on his medical knowledge at the time and was thus based on misunderstanding and partly ignorance. She decided it was time to seek counsel from the church. Then she made a crucial mistake. She decided it was a good idea for Jean-Françios-Anne Landriot (1816 – 8 June 1874) to be allowed to break anonymity during confession. Landriot was not just anyone, he was the bishop of La Rochelle. This led to a medical examination and then a legal ruling. From then on, Barbin was a man.
Intersex woman
Barbin was not a man, but an intersex woman. Despite this, she changed her name to Abel and, as if this humiliation was not enough, her name was even mentioned in the press. Her relationship ended at her request and she moved to Paris, where no one knew her.
Although in public she did what was required of her: ‘behave’ like a man, she wrote about herself as a woman. She did so in her memoirs. As you can read here, she described herself as an “exceptional woman” in those memoirs. As soon as these memoirs were completed, she committed suicide by inhaling the coal gas from her stove. Her memoirs were published in 1872 and translated into English in 1980.
According to Canadian sociologist and intersex activist Morgan Holmes, the theory refuted that there was a crisis for “modern ideology.” This was something anthropologist Gilbert Herdt wrote about Barbin. Holmes showed through her memoirs that she identified herself as an exceptional woman.
On solidarity
A day like today, besides commemoration, is a moment of solidarity. A moment for non-intersex persons to show solidarity with intersex persons. To show that intersex persons matter. That the daily struggle should be visible. These persons should not be forgotten.
On this day, you may show this solidarity by speaking out against genital mutilation. So forced surgeries. A very sensitive subject. It is also a day when you may “break” with the binary system. Although Barbin indicated in her memoirs that she was an exceptional woman, there may be intersex persons who do not explicitly state this. It is possible, it does not have to be.
The English proverb goes without saying: “you can’t judge a book by its cover.” Only that it is common. Especially with intersex people. We think we see ‘something’ or ‘what’ and draw conclusions. We base assumptions on that and in very extreme cases, decisions are made. Decisions that can have a big impact on individuals’ lives.
