Daniela Crocetti, L’invisibile intersex: storie di corpi medicalizzati, Edizioni ETS, 2013
10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17265
application/pdf
2038-3460
17265
2
en
Silvia Fornasini
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/
Tecnoscienza – Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies
Daniela Crocetti, The invisible intersex: histories of medicalised bodies, Edizioni ETS, 2013
Text.Serial.Journal
https://tecnoscienza.unibo.it/
6
Book Reviews
2016-01-29
2023-06-19
2016-01-29
2023-08-03
174-176
TS
Silvia Fornasini
2015
10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17265
174
FBK - Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Trento
2038-3460
2
en
176
Daniela Crocetti, The invisible intersex: histories of medicalised bodies, Edizioni ETS, 2013
https://tecnoscienza.unibo.it/article/download/17265/16123
6
Book Reviews                                                    Tecnoscienza – 6 (2)

    Daniela Crocetti
L’invisibile intersex: storie di corpi medicalizzati [The invisible intersex:
histories of medicalised bodies].
Pisa: Edizioni ETS, 2013, pp. 192

Silvia Fornasini and Enrico M. Piras
FBK - Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Trento

    We would like to start, if we may, with a critical note: the title of Dan-
iela Crocetti’s work does not do justice to the complexity and the richness
of its content. Intersexuality and its medicalization are only a part, albeit
significant, of a more extensive discourse proposed to the reader, a jour-
ney starting from the Classical antiquity and continuing to this day.
L’invisibile Intersex examines in depth the history of hermaphroditism,
intersexuality and DSD (Disorders of Sex Development), the scientific
observation of the gendered body, and the social approaches towards
gender and bodies. If on the one hand the author has suggested to high-
light some intrinsic levels of social perception in the scientific theories of
the gendered body, on the other hand she tried to gaze on the experienc-
es related to such scientific theories.
    The book is open to a wide range of interpretations. The first, as sug-
gested by the author, is a historical approach that shows the relationships
between professions, bodies of knowledge, explanations, classifications,
bodies, and their changes in the course of time. If we imagine the book as
a play, the first act would take place during the western ancient times,
and on the stage we could spot philosophers-physicians discussing on the
hermaphrodite, a body where the shape of the genitals does not match
the expectations suggested by overall appearance. The second act, that
brings the story until the sixteenth century, would show the Church
around the hermaphrodite, interested not so much to the body but rather
in searching the origin of the “monstrosity” and its moral implications.
Only from the third act we could see the medicine appear: it acquires un-
disputed authority in the field, and uses also deeply invasive methods of
inquiry. It is precisely with the arrival on the scene of medicine as an in-
dependent science from philosophy and religion that we can strictly talk
about medicalization.
    With the “gonadic era” (1870 – 1915) medicine, by now a discipline
legitimized to discuss about the body, takes an interest in the biological
construction of sex starting from hormones, genes and chromosomes,
which illustrates the sexual distinction in scientific (and more and more
normative) terms. During this period the definition of hermaphrodite it-
self appears to be disputed: it is first restricted by “pseudo hermaphrodit-
ism”, and fully overcome by “intersexuality” during the twenties. As the
author says, the linguistic change reveals the transition from a classificato-
ry logic to an interventionist one. The surgical techniques allow to act on
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Book Reviews                                                             175
the “different” body and bring it back to “normality”. Starting from the
fifties and until 2005 the interventions aimed at modify children’s genitals
become the main part of a medical procedure, resting on the assumption
that a healthy psychosexual development depends on the genital’s ap-
pearance. In this third act we can find medical knowledge, or better, sev-
eral exponents of a more and more specialized discipline (endocrinolo-
gists, surgeons) but also of similar disciplines (psychologists, geneticist).
Not only the scene became more and more crowded, but the term “inter-
sexuality” is modified in specific syndromes (an explosion of syndromes,
as the author explains), until it is replaced by DSD. In the fourth act of
our hypothetic play, we would observe the body coming alive on the
stage. Patients and their relatives become vocal, show an interest in in-
formed consent and right to information, disapproving the interventionist
model and building their presence through the associations, contributing
to the advent of the PCC (Patient Centred Care Model) in which patients,
parents and doctors are invited to collaborate as experts. We can say that
we have seen a transition from a paternalistic model (where patients have
no role whatsoever), moving from a period of disagreement, and coming
to a condition in which we can speak about expert patients and able to
negotiate.
     In addition to the historical reconstruction, the readers of “Tecnosci-
enza” will find in the book some familiar recurring themes, although not
addressed by the author through the lenses of the STS debate. To be
brief, we will simply considerate only a few.
     The first theme is the production of body through the professional
gaze. The body is brought into being through a multiplicity of practices: it
is sliced, colored, probed, talked about, measured, counted, cut out or
prevented (Mol 2002). Each professional community observe the DSD in
different terms: surgeons focus on some aesthetic and functional charac-
teristic of genitals; endocrinologists only consider hormones and genetics;
gynaecologists are interested just in sexual and reproductive functions;
geneticists some selectable markers; psychologists the psycho-social and
gender issues; patients and their parents the informed consent and right
to information; social scientists the bioethics issues related to gender
medicalization.
     A second theme is the ethical and political dimension of classification
system which often are only partially interested in what is categorized.
The book shows accurately how the body of ‘hermaphrodite’ / ‘pseudo-
hermaphrodite’ / ‘intersex person’/ ‘DSD patient’ is an ‘object’ that does
not fit a dichotomic male-female scheme. In these cases, to put it with the
words of Geoffrey Bowker and Susan Leigh Star: “the individual's trajec-
tory— […] — is at each moment twisted and torqued by classifications
and vice versa” (Bowker and Star 1999, 324). Daniela Crocetti shows how
the ‘torquing’ becomes dramatic when the classification system and surgi-
cal procedures are aligned and they allow the success of the intervention-
istic model through which, for half a century, bodies where altered to
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Book Reviews                                                     Tecnoscienza – 6 (2)

make them fit with the predominant classification system.
    A third theme is that of the silent bodies that build their voice organ-
izing in associations contributing to knowledge production and sharing,
recalcitrant bodies that do not fit in classification schemes that build their
legitimacy in the arena of medical experts. The last chapter of the book is
dedicated to Italian DSD associations and to the analysis of their role as
they gain respect and participate side by side with healthcare profession-
als. STS scholars will find significant resemblance with the body of work
on patients associations and, in particular, with the notion of “evidence
based activism” (Rabeharisoa et al. 2013) through which patients’ expert
knowledge is transformed into credentialed knowledge.
    These three themes are not just what might interest the STS communi-
ty but also some topics we hope the author will develop in forthcoming
publications.
    Let us take the last theme as an example. The book focuses only on
Italian associations but their relevance could emerge more clearly if com-
pared more extensively with international ones. Another theme that could
be further developed are the narratives of the patients which, presented
in the frame of medical congresses, lose part of their relevance becoming
somehow marginal. In more general terms, while we found the historical
part of the work accurate, the last sections of the book does no justice to
a 5-years ethnographic work. And we look forward reading more about it.

References
Bowker, G. and Star, S. L. (2000) Sorting things out: Classification and its conse-
      quences, Cambridge, MA, MIT Press.
Mol, A. (2002) The body multiple: Ontology in medical practice, Durham, NC,
      Duke University Press.
Rabeharisoa, V.R. Moreira, T. and Akrich, M. (2014) Evidence-based activism:
      Patients’, users’ and activists’ groups in knowledge society, in “BioSocie-
      ties”, 9 (2), pp. 111–128.



                                      ***

   Patrick Forterre, Louis d'Hendecourt, Christophe
   Malaterre et Marie-Christine Maurel
Da l’inerte au vivant. Une enquête scientifique et philosophique [From
inert to living: a scientific and philosophical inquiry]. Paris: La ville
brûle Éditions, 2013, pp. 256
Francesca Merlin Université Paris 1Panthéon-Sorbonne and CNRS


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