Deviation Actions
Description
The word "hermaphrodite" originally meant "a person or animal having both male and female sex organs or other sexual characteristics, either abnormally or (in the case of some organisms) as the natural condition."; it is a stigmatizing and misleading word when used to refer to an intersex person. There is growing momentum to eliminate the word "hermaphrodite" from medical literature and to use the word "intersex" in its place. While some intersex people do reclaim the word "hermaphrodite" with pride to reference themselves (like words such as "dyke" and "queer" have been reclaimed by LGBT people), it should be generally avoided except under specific circumstances.
This word is not interchangeable with intersex and you should only refer to someone as hermaphrodite if they specifically tell you that you can.
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