Artm0nt3r

They did address it in a chapter that it was an accidental mistranslation

Hey, not to be that person but bisexual has both the meaning to have both sexual organs and to be attracted to two or more sexes. The former has just fallen out of use and the latter skyrocketed in the public consciousness. I’m not saying they should have used it, it’s outdated. But using hermaphrodite to describe a human being is considered both outdated and offensive so it’s def not better.

Anyways here’s a research article using bisexual, the opposite of unisexual. If anything, a case could be made that bisexual is equally offensive as hermaphrodite because in the biology context they are synonyms. But that’s not the point of my reply
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7264839/

Yeah I put my tag as hermaphroditism cause it’s not bisexuality. Also to scratch up, even if that *was* the case, the politically correct term now is hermaphroditism as that’s what it would be called in medical records. Bisexual is in reference to sexual preference. Even if they use to be synonymous, they aren’t now.

Hermaphrodite is considered offensive now? I had no idea. Ill make sure to make a mental note to not use that terminology again. I appreciate you informing me /gen

It isn’t considered offensive. It’s a medical terminology. Just like how people with dwarfism are called dwarfs. Hermaphroditism is a medical condition. Intersex is the term people with hermaphroditism call themselves when they choose to not conform to one sex or the other. Usually, people with hermaphroditism will have been assigned a sex at birth. That practice is looked down upon now so “intersex” was born.

I’m kinda tired of this conversation because it shows a lack of research on the topic, yes hermaphroditism is considering offensive in the context when speaking about human beings because it is misleading and in many cases stigmatizing.
Here is a trusted web clinic as my source but you can also see information about it from organizations focused on intersex rights
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/16324-intersex

Calling a human being a hermaphorite is misleading as it is so rare even if they have both a penis and vagina. To be one it requires you be both fully male and fully female which is close to impossible. The main character of this story cannot be a hermaphrodite as he does not have complete male anatomy (balls, which is why he wants to get pregnant). The label is now used for animals like certain lobsters, snails, worms, and fish which do have two complete sex organ systems (many of which can reproduce with themselves)

Alongside that there is a stigma surrounding the word despite it being a medical term and has thus fallen out of use. This happens commonly because often the public adopts medical terms and turns them into insults and slurs. Stupid, moron, and recently r*tarded are examples of this and are now no longer used in practice. If you want a lgbt example there is transsexual, which though some trans people take pride in the label, it is no longer used for similar reasons to hermaphrodite, it is misleading to most in the trans experience and is stigmatized.

Of course a word being offensive doesn’t mean everyone who it is targeted towards is offended by it. There are some intersex people that use the label hermaphrodite and I don’t find value in criticizing them for that. But there is a reason why it is outdated in regards to describing most intersex people with characteristics like the mc and why many intersex people find it offensive.

Not trying to dunk on anyone btw, this will be my last reply, I just think it’s important to acknowledge what people in the communities we make stories about are saying.

You can claim it’s offensive all you want but stating a medical condition (hermaphroditism) is ABSOLUTELY not the same as saying it as a slur. As for how calling babies hermaphrodites is misleading, it’s not. Yes, it’s rare to find a “true hermaphrodite” in humans but there are subcategories to hermaphroditism like there are with all other medical conditions. I’ve met lovely people at pride conventions and other places who have been diagnosed at birth with hermaphroditism and none of them care in the slightest if you talk about their condition nicely. You can give me all the information you want but saying the name of a medical condition is not disrespectful unless said medical condition was renamed for public safety like how consumption became tuberculosis after everyone romanticised it or how cupids disease became syphillis. I said earlier that people with dwarfism are called “dwarfs”. Homosexuals are technically homo. People used that as a slur so people call them gay but even gay was a slur. People will find a way to make every single word a slur if they wanted to. People who choose to call themselves intersex or hermaphrodites can do as they please. What we are not going to do is get outraged on the behalf of people perfectly capable of speaking up on their own. What we are not going to do is shame people using a medical condition’s official terminology when describing a characters medical condition. It’s like when people get outraged when someone says someone is “black” or “fat” or “disabled”. These are perfectly fine descriptions of a person but a select few decided to make it an issue by using it as a slur but those people retook the descriptor. I’m a POC with a disability and I’m part of pride myself. The amount of people who try to use normal words as slurs against me is incredible. I’ve been called a “pig” and “monkey” as a Muslim child. Are the words “pig” and “monkey” not allowed to be spoken of again? It’s important to spread awareness, yes, but don’t speak for the community unless you yourself are said community otherwise it’s like when the white people tried to tell people what is and isn’t cultural appropriation in POC communities and got it completely wrong.

I’m done with this conversation because this I already went over all your arguments. The medical community does not diagnose ppl with hermaphroditism anymore. So many words were once medical terms and are now not/ are used in specific contexts, this is one of them. See the cite I shared last time. We moved on.
Second, foundations created by intersex people and are based on supporting their rights do not use the term, because it’s based on a mythical creature that isn’t even accurate to any of their conditions, no human being is a “true” hermaphrodite. If it’s found that something actually isn’t what it’s thought to be, it’s not surprising it’s called something else, 2+2 =4 even if 3.9 is really close.
Cite, maybe go read this on this time:
https://isna.org/faq/hermaphrodite/
Third, yeah some intersex people call themselves hermaphrodites and that’s fine, again i said that I don’t find value correcting something they identify with. These people are often older, they are in a similar position to older trans people that call themselves transsexual or older autistic people that say they have Asperger’s, the term is outdated, the medical community doesn’t use it anymore, but they were diagnosed with it and we can’t take it away from them and no one wants to.
As for your identity, I don’t care. I’m a black, disabled, intersex person. Pika Boo. I don’t like talking about my identity because my arguments speak for myself. I only use who I am to provide perspective and inform people on my biases which wasn’t needed here so why tell strangers. So now what? The intersex person who cares showed up and didn’t tell you because anyone with half a brain would’ve understood my point without my identity getting involved. Or maybe it’s not good enough because I’m not intersex the way “hermaphrodites” are. But since we’re using “I met many lovely people with this condition” then I can say I met intersex people with similar conditions that agree with me; strange, now who’s right? Veering a bit off, guess what, I would be offended if someone called me a monkey, fuck that person. I don’t care if monkeys exist, good for the monkey population, that doesn’t mean you get to call me a monkey. You know some black people don’t care if a white man gets dreads and only makes reggae music and they’re from Seattle. If you only interacted with them you’d be misinformed on the wider black opinion on cultural appropriation. Maybe we should go to a source, maybe like a foundation founded on people with the lived experience and dedicated their lives to advancing their rights. I think the intersex community has some of those, I wonder what they’re saying… oh, I’m right, you’re wrong.

I know it sucks being wrong in every measure and all your arguments lead to no where but like it’s your fault for not doing any research on the topic. Even a simple google search would get you a, “yeah, we don’t do that anymore” then you can read from the accrediting MEDICAL and COMMUNITY sources for more. You said everybody wanna be offended about every word when it’s the intersex community not using a term that isn’t even medically recognized anymore. It’s used by just biologists now. Now I’ve given you two sources, one medical and the other community and you’ve provided “well I met this guy and…” and “it’s a medical term so it can’t be offensive” so I wonder who is based in reality. This was stupid. If you read back the conversation objectively you would realize why you were being stupid. Don’t worry, since stupid was once a medical term I wasn’t being rude, I’m not responding to this nonsense anymore.

Also, I’d like to apologize to the original commenter for getting in a discourse with someone in your own comment replies when you already moved on. You’re a chill person and you seem to understand how easy it is to adjust language when met with information that it might not be appropriate. Thank you