Did you know that almost 150 million people worldwide are born intersex — with biology that doesn't fit the standard definition of male or female? (That's as many as the population of Russia.) At age 10, Emily Quinn found out she was intersex, and in this wise, funny talk, she shares eye-opening lessons from a life spent navigating society's thoughtless expectations, doctors who demanded she get unnecessary surgery — and advocating for herself and the incredible variety that humans come in. (Contains mature content)
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One kiss burns around 6 calories.
Weird flex but okay
Love is an ice cream sundae, with all the marvelous coverings. Sex is the cherry on top.
“Yes AND”. Yes we are a sexually dimorphic species where we need male and female to reproduce AND we also have people born who are different from that binary.
Yes our culture has evolved to serve the continuing reproduction and generations of our species AND our lives are not just about sex and reproduction. “Yes AND”.
Perfect response.
Our life isnt only about sex but yet that’s what most people only have to offer. Take sex out of the equation and most people are nothing on the surface. So are we really moving away from just reproducing and surviving, or have we just became more efficient in providing for ourselves and in the rise we believed us to be moving onward and upward. But yet we really have only stayed in the same place, just our quality of life has improved nothing else.
Thank you. I agree. Except that reproductive sex is like 1% of sex for our species and we have already reproduced *without* sex.
Evolutionary sex reasons died long ago.
she just got the best deal no acne no body hair and no menstruation, also this takes a lot of balls
Well on the other hand she can’t have children, but otherwise yes it’s pretty cool actually
+Someone Somewhere neither can I, but I got hairy. Eww..
That would be great, those are 3 things I can’t stand but still have to deal with. I don’t wanna have children, so that would also be great, not worrying about that.
Thank you so much, wonderful person!
Yes we will join u to educate society.
kind, generous, friendly, thats things you learn.. your not born with those skills.
Yeah, it’s like she’s never even been around actual human children.
Much like grammar, spelling, punctuation, and capitalization.
“You’re not born with… skills. ” What? Have you ever interacted with humans? Wtf dude.. Yes people are born with differences that translate into societal normative skills.
Yes, I WILL join you! Let’s Break It Down!!
Kinda disappointing to hear that doctors try to label normality based on society
Very brave of you. I learned something today and I thank you.
Thank you for coming to my TED Talk!
Thank you for sharing your story.
Subscribed. Make new videos.
hatts of to you, love from india..
Great talk! I’m glad to see information about this stuff become more widely known. It must have taken a lot of courage to stand up there and tall about such intimate information about yourself, but if it’s any consolation, I think it really means a lot more when you do so. When non-intersex people speak of these issues it has less of an impact.
Btw if you’re not used to the internet, don’t worry the dislikes on this video. There is a large group of people that are very hostile to this kind of information. Something about science challenging their folk wisdom really grinds their gears or something, I don’t know.
+Truthful Chap great book! I actually just finished it today! Also everyone should watch his Human Behavioural Biology lecture series on YouTube. The classes on sexuality cover the complexities of this topic well.
Not sure this level of biochemistry is required for this conversation though, even if it is really interesting.
Amazing…
Changed my perception
Bravo on your bravery and fantastic talk Emily. I challenge every person behind a thumb down to be as brave as you. I predict, they will ALL fail that challenge.
Good talk, very informative, I’m not afraid to say I learned something new….glad I clicked on it
Wonderful talk by a wonderful human being! Love this!
I really enjoyed this video. I think the title is very misleading and turns people off. What we know is not wrong, we simply dont know everything. There are two sexes and some of us fall in between but most of us don’t. I support research and actually enjoyed this talk even though I thought I wouldn’t (because of the title). Thanks for doing what you do Emily! I hope more attention can be brought towards these kinds of things in a respectful manner.
To come up to talk about these things…she gotta have some balls of steel
If I’m hearing correctly, the main call is for greater tolerance by society of people that do not fit rigid definitions of biology and for doctors to improve their treatments of them. I think that can be accommodated without even getting to the debate about whether society needs to be overhauled more radically. I think there’s calls for “things that need to change” that are incorrectly linked to the valid concerns of intersex people.
I love Emily Quinn. Was introduced to her via a coworker and she is a great educator.