Intersexuality is not only prevalent in humans but also
animals and not wild animals that are extremely weird but of those who you
might have living in your house. This thought came to me while my mom and I were
in our kitchen and she was holding my little sisters Guinea Pig and trying to
get it a carrot from the refrigerator. My mom handed me Turbo, the male Guinea
Pig, or what we were told was a male. As my mom handed me the Guinea Pig I
noticed that his male genital resembled that of an intersexual human. I found
this interesting knowing we had discussed this in class and now there is a specific
relationship to my life. So there for I researched this prevalence in Guinea
Pigs a little bit further and I found that this condition is not uncommon. However
we still give them a female or male sex. Although the chance of our Guinea Pig
being an intersexual is very slim it is possible. I found a study done on
intersexual Guinea Pigs and I thought it was interesting that this is not just
in humans yet we think this “condition” is so weird. In this study they found
that there are cases where they refer to a Guinea Pig as being “partial somatic
intersexuality”[1]
which means that a single Guinea Pig has the genital of a male and a female. It
isn’t male or female but both.(Intersexuality, Lipschutz, p. 406) I found this
journal entry to be very interesting and this man actually went as far as to
implant testicles to a female Guinea Pig who had the characteristics of a male.
This study though did not just consist of just Guinea Pigs but also of I believe
sixty-three other organisms. The article was written in 1923 and is very hard
to follow and understand not having prior knowledge of Guinea Pigs and their anatomy.
What could be taken from this article that more pertains to this course is that
intersexuality is not an uncommon condition. It is only uncommon to the total
human race because these individuals are made to feel like they are not normal
so it is kept hidden. I feel like this should be known. That intersexuality is
normal, it is common across thousands of other organisms, so why should humans
be any different?
Lipschutz, Alexander. "On A Peculiar Type Of Intersexua;ity In
the Guinea-Pig." On APeculiar Typ Of Intersexuality In The
Guinea-Pig. (926): 227-22.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&sqi=2&ved=0CCcQFjAA&url=http://jeb.biologists.org/content/4/3/227.full.pdf&ei=EQnfUu6CJ9SssQTe3YG4DA&usg=AFQjCNHY7a47PRhaUauYbAI0x89YZ11q_w&sig2=l7hCyeB0MPM9q5gkAJGZyw&bvm=bv.59568121,d.cWc
(accessed January 19, 2014).
Female 
Male
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