Intersexuality Research Paper

Cameron Klemczewski

Dr. Baath

Biology 133.003

9/7/15

My Life as an Intersexual by Max Beck

        The article that I read for this assignment was about an intersexual person named Max Beck. When he was born, his parents could not tell if he was a boy or a girl. He had a “rudimentary phallus” and “fused labio-scrotal folds” between his legs. Because of this, the doctors and family truly believed that Max was an unhealthy baby. However, every piece of evidence pointed to the fact that he was a well-nourished, healthy baby. After five weeks of testing, the answer was still unclear. Max was discovered to be a mosaic. This means that some of his cells were XY, and some were XO. His parents decided to raise him as a female.

        Max’s family raised him as a female named Judy. However, he was constantly recognized as being a tomboy. He looked like a boy, acted like a boy, and was constantly called “young man”. The fact that Max was raised as a girl made the already awkward adolescent years much worse. Max says, “So I reached adolescence with no physical sense of self, and no desire to make that connection. All around me, m y peers and former playmates were dating, fooling around, giving and getting hickeys, while I, who’s puberty came in pill form, watched aghast from the sidelines.“ The doctors always referred to Max as being “unfinished” and tried so hard to sell him as a girl. As most would imagine, this took a terrible toll on Max from a psychological point of view.

        Max’s sexual experiences were few and far between. Understandably, he was nervous and selective about whom he allowed to see his body. At 21, he found himself a runaway college dropout, in bed with an older woman. This was the first woman he had ever seen naked. According to Max, “The differences between our bodies were staggering.”

        Not long after, Max (then Judy” made a startling discovery. She decided that she must be lesbian. This made perfect sense to her. However, she soon changed her mind. She realized that as woman, she would always be an anomaly to the normal woman. Her only male partner had been relatively nonplussed when it came to her intersexuality. Judy’s woman partner, on the other hand, couldn’t help but be shocked about it. At this point, being so shocked and confused, Max tried to kill himself.