Georgiann Davis

Last updated
Georgiann Davis
Born
Illinois, United States
OccupationProfessor of sociology
Known forAuthor, educator

Georgiann Davis is an associate professor of sociology at the University of New Mexico [1] and author of the book Contesting Intersex: The Dubious Diagnosis. [2] Davis formerly held similar positions at University of Nevada, Las Vegas [3] and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. [4] Born with Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, she writes widely on intersex issues and the sociology of diagnosis.

Contents

Early life

In a video for The Interface Project, Davis states how she was born with complete androgen insensitivity syndrome and diagnosed as an adolescent after experiencing abdominal pain. Her testes were removed, but she wasn't told her diagnosis: she was told she had cancer. [5] In an article for Ms. Magazine , she says:

"cancer rhetoric is used to justify surgical interventions ... A body that challenges binary understandings of sex is scary to those who refuse to embrace natural biological diversity found across species. For years, many medical doctors reached for their scalpels to ease their fears and assert their authority over the body." [6]

Works

Book

Contesting Intersex: The Dubious Diagnosis by Georgiann Davis examines the history of the U.S. intersex movement, with a focus on the medicalization of intersex bodies and a contested shift in clinical language from intersex to "disorders of sex development". [2] Published by NYU Press, the book has been positively reviewed. Elizabeth Reis comments that Davis's work contains "piercing interviews and astute analysis", while Choice describes he book as a "compelling account of how activists, parents, assorted medical specialists and institutions, and people with intersex traits respond to the diversity of human reproductive development". [2]

Scholarly and other works

Georgiann Davis has written both scholarly articles, and opinion articles for broader audiences. Her scholarly work includes articles on the issues of Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD), Olympic sex-testing, and both medical terminology and the medical profession.

In the 2011 article, "'DSD is a Perfectly Fine Term': Reasserting Medical Authority through a Shift in Intersex Terminology", Davis examines the state of medical treatment for intersex traits, following a 2006 Consensus Statement on the Management of Intersex Disorders. [7] She describes how: [8]

Medical professionals needed to maintain their authority in the face of intersex activism, and they did so linguistically through a reinvention of the intersex diagnosis. The new DSD terminology constructs "sex" as a scientific phenomenon, and a binary one at that...This places intersexuality neatly into medical turf and safely away from critics of its medicalisation.

Davis's analysis was referenced by a committee of the Senate of Australia in 2013. [9]

In "Out of Bounds? A Critique of the New Policies on Hyperandrogenism in Elite Female Athletes", a collaborative article with Katrina Karkazis, Rebecca Jordan-Young, and Silvia Camporesi, published in 2012 in the American Journal of Bioethics , they argue that a new sex testing policy by the International Association of Athletics Federations will not protect against breaches of privacy, will require athletes to undergo unnecessary treatment in order to compete, and will intensify "gender policing". They recommend that athletes be able to compete in accordance with their legal gender. [10] [11]

In 2013, her article "The Social Costs of Preempting Intersex Traits" was published in the American Journal of Bioethics . She questions the use of Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis to select against intersex traits, arguing that intersex traits reflect necessary natural diversity; deselection of intersex embryos essentially protects "binary ideologies about sex and its presumed correlation with gender". She describes this as a form of sex eugenics that would "obliterate" an intersex community of individuals leading full and happy lives, a community that forces "society to disentangle sex and gender, and in the process, open up new possibilities for embracing all sorts of human diversity." Further, if de-selection of intersex traits is “morally permissible” due to stigma and poor social outcomes, then "we need to recognize that a major source of the shame and stigma individuals with intersex traits face originates in the medical profession" [12]

Selected bibliography

Scholarly works

  • Davis, Georgiann (2015). Contesting Intersex: The Dubious Diagnosi. New York: NYU Press. ISBN   9781479887040.
  • Davis, Georgiann (2015). "Normalizing Intersex: The Transformative Power of Stories". Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics. 5 (2): 87–89. doi:10.1353/nib.2015.0055. PMID   26300130. S2CID   38270082.
  • Davis, G.; Dewey, J. M.; Murphy, E. L. (September 2015). "Giving sex: Deconstructing Intersex and Trans Medicalization Practices". Gender & Society. 30 (3): 490–514. doi:10.1177/0891243215602102. ISSN   0891-2432. S2CID   143196138.
  • Davis, Georgiann (February 2, 2014). "The power in a name: diagnostic terminology and diverse experiences". Psychology & Sexuality. 5 (1): 15–27. doi:10.1080/19419899.2013.831212. ISSN   1941-9899. S2CID   145413579.
  • Davis, Georgiann; Murphy, Erin L. (2013). "Intersex Bodies as States of Exception: An Empirical Explanation for Unnecessary Surgical Modification". Feminist Formations. 25 (2): 129–152. doi:10.1353/ff.2013.0022. ISSN   2151-7371. S2CID   144869690 . Retrieved 2016-05-16.
  • Davis, Georgiann; Allison, Rachel (November 2013). "White Coats, Black Specialists? Racial Divides in the Medical Profession". Sociological Spectrum. 33 (6): 510–533. doi:10.1080/02732173.2013.836143. ISSN   0273-2173. S2CID   144510374.
  • Davis, Georgiann (October 2013). "The Social Costs of Preempting Intersex Traits". The American Journal of Bioethics. 13 (10): 51–53. doi:10.1080/15265161.2013.828119. ISSN   1526-5161. PMID   24024811. S2CID   7331095.
  • Karkazis, Katrina; Jordan-Young, Rebecca; Davis, Georgiann; Camporesi, Silvia (July 2012). "Out of Bounds? A Critique of the New Policies on Hyperandrogenism in Elite Female Athletes". The American Journal of Bioethics. 12 (7): 3–16. doi:10.1080/15265161.2012.680533. ISSN   1526-5161. PMC   5152729 . PMID   22694023.
  • Davis, Georgiann (2011). ""DSD is a Perfectly Fine Term": Reasserting Medical Authority through a Shift in Intersex Terminology". In PJ McGann; David J Hutson (eds.). Advances in Medical Sociology. Vol. 12. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing. pp. 155–182. doi:10.1108/S1057-6290(2011)0000012012. ISBN   978-0-85724-575-5.

Opinion pieces

Academic interests

Davis is an associate professor of sociology at University of New Mexico, where her academic interests include intersex traits, sex and gender, body and embodiment, and the medical profession.

Advocacy work

Davis is a former president of the AIS-DSD Support Group and is presently on the board of interACT. [13]

Awards and recognition

Davis received the 2014 Vaughnie Lindsay New Investigator Award from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, following her identification "as the most promising new researcher on her campus". [14] She has also received the 2013 Midwest Sociological Society Research Grant. In 2012, she received the Outstanding Thesis Award, University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). In earlier years she received the 2010 Rue Bucher Memorial Award and the 2010 Brauner Fellowship at UIC. In 2009 she received the Beth B. Hess Scholarship Award from Sociologists for Women in Society. [15] [16]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intersex Society of North America</span> Advocacy group for intersex people in the U.S. and Canada

The Intersex Society of North America (ISNA) was a non-profit advocacy group founded in 1993 by Cheryl Chase to end shame, secrecy, and unnecessary genital surgeries on intersex people. Other notable members included Morgan Holmes, Max Beck, Howard (Tiger) Devore, Esther Morris Leidolf and Alice Dreger. The organization closed in June 2008, and has been succeeded by a number of health, civil and human rights organizations including interACT.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex verification in sports</span>

Sex verification in sports occurs because eligibility of athletes to compete is restricted whenever sporting events are limited to a single sex, which is generally the case, as well as when events are limited to mixed-sex teams of defined composition. Practice has varied tremendously over time, across borders and by competitive level. Issues have arisen multiple times in the Olympic games and other high-profile sporting competitions, for example allegations that certain male athletes attempted to compete as women or that certain female athletes had intersex conditions perceived to give unfair advantage. The topic of sex verification is related to the more recent question of how to treat transgender people in sports. Sex verification is not typically conducted on athletes competing in the male category because there is generally no perceived competitive advantage for a female or intersex athlete to compete in male categories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Foekje Dillema</span> Dutch track and field athlete (1926–2007)

Foekje Dillema was a Dutch track and field athlete. She competed in sprinting where she was a rival of Fanny Blankers-Koen. When she refused a sex verification test, she was banned from competition by the International Association of Athletics Federations in 1950. After her death, it was determined that she was an intersex person.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intersex medical interventions</span> Performed to modify atypical or ambiguous genitalia

Intersex medical interventions (IMI), sometimes known as intersex genital mutilations (IGM), are surgical, hormonal and other medical interventions performed to modify atypical or ambiguous genitalia and other sex characteristics, primarily for the purposes of making a person's appearance more typical and to reduce the likelihood of future problems. The history of intersex surgery has been characterized by controversy due to reports that surgery can compromise sexual function and sensation, and create lifelong health issues. The medical interventions can be for a variety of reasons, due to the enormous variety of the disorders of sex development. Some disorders, such as salt-wasting disorder, can be life-threatening if left untreated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Organisation Intersex International</span>

The Organisation Intersex International (OII) is a global advocacy and support group for people with intersex traits. According to Milton Diamond, it is the world's largest organization of intersex persons. A decentralised network, OII was founded in 2003 by Curtis Hinkle and Sarita Vincent Guillot. Upon Hinkle's retirement, American intersex activist Hida Viloria served as Chairperson/President elect from April 2011 through November 2017, when they resigned in order to focus on OII's American affiliate, OII-USA's transition into the independent American non-profit, the Intersex Campaign for Equality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disorders of sex development</span> Medical conditions involving the development of the reproductive system

Disorders of sex development (DSDs), also known as differences in sex development or variations in sex characteristics (VSC), are congenital conditions affecting the reproductive system, in which development of chromosomal, gonadal, or anatomical sex is atypical.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intersex</span> Atypical congenital variations of sex characteristics

Intersex people are individuals born with any of several primary sex characteristics including chromosome patterns, gonads, or genitals that, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies".

Rebecca M. Jordan-Young, is an American feminist scientist and gender studies scholar. Her research focuses on social medical science, sex, gender, sexuality, and epidemiology. She is an Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Barnard College.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hida Viloria</span> American activist (born 1968)

Hida Viloria is a Latine American writer, author, producer, and human rights activist. Viloria is intersex, nonbinary, and genderfluid, using they/them pronouns. They are known for their writing, their intersex and non-binary human rights activism, and as one of the first people to come out in national and international media as a nonbinary intersex person. Viloria is Founding Director of the Intersex Campaign for Equality.

Anne Tamar-Mattis is an American attorney, human rights advocate, and founder of interACT. She currently serves as interACT's Legal Director.

<i>Fixing Sex</i>

Fixing Sex: Intersex, Medical Authority, and Lived Experience, a book by Stanford anthropologist and bioethicist Katrina Karkazis, was published in 2008. Described as "thoughtful", "meticulous", and an "authoritative treatise on intersex", the book examines the perspectives of intersex people, their families, and clinicians to offer compassionate look at the treatment of people born with atypical sex characteristics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morgan Carpenter</span> Intersex activist

Morgan Carpenter is a bioethicist, intersex activist and researcher. In 2013, he created an intersex flag, and became president of Intersex Human Rights Australia. He is now executive director. Following enactment of legislative protections for people with innate variations of sex characteristics in the Australian Capital Territory, Carpenter is a member of the Variations in Sex Characteristics Restricted Medical Treatment Assessment Board.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katrina Karkazis</span> American anthropologist and bioethicist

Katrina Alicia Karkazis is an American anthropologist and bioethicist. She is a professor of Sexuality, Women's and Gender Studies at Amherst College. She was previously the Carol Zicklin Endowed Chair in the Honors Academy at Brooklyn College, City University of New York and a senior research fellow with the Global Health Justice Partnership at Yale University. She has written widely on testosterone, intersex issues, sex verification in sports, treatment practices, policy and lived experiences, and the interface between medicine and society. In 2016, she was jointly awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship with Rebecca Jordan-Young.

Maria José Martínez-Patiño is a Spanish former hurdler, whose dismissal from the Spanish Olympic team in 1986 for failing the gender test is a notable moment in the history of sex verification in sports.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Discrimination against intersex people</span>

Intersex people are born with sex characteristics, such as chromosomes, gonads, or genitals that, according to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies". "Because their bodies are seen as different, intersex children and adults are often stigmatized and subjected to multiple human rights violations".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intersex and LGBT</span> Relationship between different sex and gender minorities

Intersex people are born with sex characteristics that "do not fit the typical definitions for male or female bodies". They are substantially more likely to identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) than endosex people, an estimated 52% identifying as non-heterosexual and 8.5% to 20% experiencing gender dysphoria. Although many intersex people are heterosexual and cisgender, this overlap and "shared experiences of harm arising from dominant societal sex and gender norms" has led to intersex people often being included under the LGBT umbrella, with the acronym sometimes expanded to LGBTI. Some intersex activists and organisations have criticised this inclusion as distracting from intersex-specific issues such as involuntary medical interventions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intersex rights in the United States</span> Overview of intersex peoples rights in the United States of America

Intersex people in the United States have some of the same rights as other people, but with significant gaps, particularly in protection from non-consensual cosmetic medical interventions and violence, and protection from discrimination. Actions by intersex civil society organizations aim to eliminate harmful practices, promote social acceptance, and equality. In recent years, intersex activists have also secured some forms of legal recognition. Since April 11, 2022 US Passports give the sex/gender options of male, female and X by self determination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genetic diagnosis of intersex</span>

Intersex people are born with natural variations in physical and sex characteristics including those of the chromosomes, gonads, sex hormones, or genitals that, according to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit the typical definitions for male or female bodies". Such variations may involve genital ambiguity, and combinations of chromosomal genotype and sexual phenotype other than XY-male and XX-female. Preimplantation genetic diagnosis allows the elimination of embryos and fetuses with intersex traits and thus has an impact on discrimination against intersex people.

The testosterone regulations in women's athletics are a series of policies first published in 2011 by the IAAF and last updated following a court victory against Caster Semenya in May 2019. The first version of the rules applied to all women with high testosterone, but the current version of the rules only apply to athletes with certain XY disorders of sexual development, and set a 5 nmol/L testosterone limit, which applies only to distances between 400 m and 1 mile (inclusive), other events being unrestricted.

References

  1. "Dr. Georgiann Davis, Associate Professor, Sociology - Advance UNM". Advance.unm.edu. 2021-07-12. Archived from the original on 2021-08-04. Retrieved 2021-09-20.
  2. 1 2 3 Davis, Georgiann (2015). Contesting Intersex: The Dubious Diagnosis. New York: NYU Press. ISBN   9781479887040.
  3. "University of Nevada, Las Vegas: Georgiann Davis, Ph.D." Archived from the original on 2014-12-29. Retrieved 2014-12-28.
  4. Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. "Department of Sociology & Criminal Justice Studies". Archived from the original on 2007-05-02. Retrieved 2014-01-10.
  5. "Georgiann Davis". The Interface Project . November 7, 2012.
  6. Davis, Georgiann (2013-05-09). "Standing with Susie the Dachshund". Ms. Magazine.
  7. Lee, P. A.; Houk, C. P.; Ahmed, S. F.; Hughes, I. A. (2006). "Consensus statement on management of intersex disorders". Pediatrics. 118 (2): e488–500. doi:10.1542/peds.2006-0738. PMC   2082839 . PMID   16882788.
  8. Davis, Georgiann (2011). ""DSD is a Perfectly Fine Term": Reasserting Medical Authority through a Shift in Intersex Terminology". In PJ McGann; David J Hutson (eds.). Advances in Medical Sociology. Vol. 12. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing. pp. 155–182. doi:10.1108/S1057-6290(2011)0000012012. ISBN   978-0-85724-575-5.
  9. Community Affairs Committee; Senate of Australia (October 2013). "Involuntary or coerced sterilisation of intersex people in Australia".
  10. Karkazis, Katrina; Rebecca Jordan-Young; Georgiann Davis; Silvia Camporesi (July 2012). "Out of Bounds? A Critique of the New Policies on Hyperandrogenism in Elite Female Athletes". The American Journal of Bioethics. 12 (7): 3–16. doi:10.1080/15265161.2012.680533. ISSN   1526-5161. PMC   5152729 . PMID   22694023.
  11. Karkazis, Katrina; Jordan-Young, Rebecca (23 July 2012). "Rip up new Olympic sex test rules". New Scientist .
  12. Davis, Georgiann (October 2013). "The Social Costs of Preempting Intersex Traits". The American Journal of Bioethics. 13 (10): 51–53. doi:10.1080/15265161.2013.828119. ISSN   1526-5161. PMID   24024811. S2CID   7331095.
  13. "interACT Board" . Retrieved 2016-11-20.
  14. "Recently minted Georgiann Davis (PhD, 2012) receives award at new campus". University of Illinois at Chicago . May 14, 2013.
  15. "When Feminists Mentor". SIUE Women's Studies Program blog. October 21, 2013.
  16. "Awards". Georgiann Davis, Ph.D. Archived from the original on 2014-01-02. Retrieved 2014-01-01.