What happened to hermaphrodites in the past?
By the past, I mean no more than a century ago, if that, all the way to as far as you want to go.
I’m reading a book called The Book of Shadows which features a hermaphrodite in nineteenth century France, who is based on an actual person. The book is partially Gothic erotica, and it has witches and demons and stuff, but the protagonist’s adventures are initially triggered by her ’‘difference’’. She’s treated horribly by the convent she grew up in when they find out, is branded as a witch, and then rescued by an actual witch and well…that’s not my point. Lol.
What did people make of hermaphrodites back then? A big part of our history is devoid of scientific study, leaving medical anomalies to the care of superstition. Were hermaphrodites branded as demons or witches? Did people perform exorcisms on them? I mean, people had exorcisms performed upon them for sleeping problems, (nocturnal paralysis/terrors) or for women who squirted upon orgasm. Example.
Some places in the world are still highly superstitious when it comes to this kind of stuff. So imagine just a few hundred years ago, when someone was a hermaphrodite, how they must have been treated. Hell, gender role TODAY is still a big deal, and that’s based on what you should be depending on what gender you are… so just imagine what that would have been like for a hermaphrodite back when social and gender roles were even more set in stone than now. It must have been a whole other ballpark. :/
While I say science was basically non existent, that’s actually terribly false of me to say. Despite that, knowledge wasn’t as widespread to everyone as it is today, at least in many cases, or so I understand. So anywhere around the world in the past, what did people make of hermaphrodites? Is it possible that hermaphrodites weren’t always treated as freaks, and could lead happy lives? What about today? Are there places in the world where they think this is some kind of curse or something? I spoke with a younger girl a while back who is really unruly and a troublemaker…and her parents actually hired ’‘exorcists’’ to set her straight. I’m talking about fucking 2009 here. No joke, unless she made it up. Or you see this often…a malformed child born in a place like India, and is seen as the coming of a deity.
So that book makes me wonder what hermaphrodites got treated like, and how they may still be treated today. Thoughts, squishy bros?
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I don’t know about that far back but last century they were called people of ambiguous/gender/genitalia and usually brought up as girls from my understanding often undergoing surgery.
When I was a student I saw a great documentary called The fight to be Male about an island community where it was quite common to have ambiguous gender children who were brought up as girls until they hit puberty and then if they developed secondary sexual characteristics of maleness were then socially moved into male roles. It appeared they transitioned well as this was an accepted norm!
I believe some of the first written accounts were in the first century BC. The extra tissue/organs were seen as tumours. However, some hermaphrodites were seen as vile creatures and killed for it (I think that reaction was rare though).
If I remember correctly, after the second/third century AD, surgery/castration was often performed. There was a general understanding that it was a medical condition. There were different variations/severities of the condition. Hermaphrodites were rare but common enough for society to know they existed.
There hasn’t been a lot of ancient information recorded but it does exist. I know someone in my city did a paper on it and the lack of records… I’ll see if I can find it.
“The word hermaphrodite entered the English lexicon in the late 14th century, derived from Greek Ερμαφρόδιτος Hermaphroditos, the son of the Greek god Hermes and the goddess Aphrodite.[2] The word intersex has come into preferred usage for humans, since the word hermaphrodite is considered to be misleading and stigmatizing,[3] as well as “scientifically specious and clinically problematic” Wikipedia
I found a 95 page thesis by a history student at the University of Essex entitled : The Historicisation of the Hemaphroditic/Intersexed Body: From Medicalisation to De-Medicalisation. Have at it.
Probably most of them lived with whatever their outward appearance was, because of the fact that being born a ‘hermaphrodite’ could have resulted in being institutionalized or even being killed. A great many people have a real problem when they have to address a problem about which they know nothing. (You have to consider the problems that face the Transgendered in today’s world.)
I imagine they were either the subject of a freak show, much like a bearded lady or the elephant man dude John Merrick, or suffered the accusation of witchcraft.
Basically they were fucked both ways, which is kind of ironic when you think about it for about 9 minutes or so.
I found the paper but can only view it in pdf format. Not sure how to share that on here.
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