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Intersex and Education: What Can Schools and Queer School Projects Learn from Current Discourses on Intersex in Austria?

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Queer Social Movements and Outreach Work in Schools

Part of the book series: Queer Studies and Education ((QSTED))

Abstract

Binary conceptions of gender, sex, and sex characteristics are omnipresent in society and consistently (re)produced in educational systems. The existence of intersex bodies and identities radically challenges these conceptions. In recent decades, intersex movements have challenged public, scientific, legal, and political discourses worldwide in order to protect the bodily integrity of persons with variations of sex characteristics. Drawing on current discourses on intersex and focusing on biographical narratives about experiences at school, we explore how queer social movements (QSM) doing outreach work at school may open up spaces for intersex students. Our analysis shows, how the (re)production of binary concepts of gender and sex characteristics at school may foster the development of a pathological instead of a positive self-image. By creating visibility for intersex biographies and realities and by introducing non-stigmatizing self-empowering language, queer school projects may contribute to opening up new spaces of reflection on bodies, gender, and sexualities for all students.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Andrea Arnold (queerconnexion), Dan Christian Ghattas (OII Europe/OII Germany) and Luan Pertl (OII Europe/OII Austria) for their valuable feedback.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Martina Enzendorfer

  2. HOSI Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria

    Paul Haller

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  1. Martina Enzendorfer
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  2. Paul Haller
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Correspondence to Martina Enzendorfer .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Stellenbosch University, Matieland, Western Cape, South Africa

    Dennis A. Francis

  2. University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland

    Jón Ingvar Kjaran

  3. Gender Studies, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Jukka Lehtonen

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Enzendorfer, M., Haller, P. (2020). Intersex and Education: What Can Schools and Queer School Projects Learn from Current Discourses on Intersex in Austria?. In: Francis, D., Kjaran, J., Lehtonen, J. (eds) Queer Social Movements and Outreach Work in Schools. Queer Studies and Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41610-2_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41610-2_12

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-41609-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-41610-2

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