Inscriptions of “Difference”: Body, Subjectivity and Intersexual Experience in Hospital Spaces

This article reflects on the uses, inscriptions, and meanings of certain social markers of difference in the care of three patients with intersex variations in a high complexity public hospital in Rio de Janeiro. Beyond the social and medical administration of these patients, I analyze the biomedical script for administrating certain “truths” about intersex bodies and lives. In the daily regulation of these cases, some analytical themes are brought into play to demarcate the incitement or silencing of the registers of “difference” in hospital spaces, notably in reference to the experience of intersexuality.

Intersexuality; Social Markers of Difference; Vulnerability; Inequality; Consent