Panoramic Gutter View ~ Voices of an Underclass : Content Making, Interfaking

For an introduction & Mikey Chanel, please see here

Everyone likes to feel special, and for some of the TQIA2SS+etc gang, claiming a mythical "intersex" status brings kudos in the same way some small kids lie about being born with a tail.

Except, those kids who stand around in playgrounds bigging up their coccyx are interesting. And they're not making things harder for a genuinely misunderstood and sometimes mistreated collection of people.

And, they're children.

Kidology

/ (kɪˈdɒlədʒɪ) / noun.

British informal

the art or practice of bluffing or deception.

Sydney Kidney Bean is a Tiktok account with a sizable following.

For several years now she has been producing supposed education on not only what she claims to be her own intersex condition(s) but on 'intersex' as a whole, which she frequently describes as a singular thing, a third sex.

It is important to remember, 'intersex' conditions occur within the binary; for example, only men are diagnosed with Klinefelter's syndrome, and only women diagnosed with MRKH or Turners' syndrome. There are a tiny few which can be difficult to initially identify, but they are all identifiable and all are male or female.

Alongside this, Sydney also says she won a shit tonne of money on a scratch card and advises on finance, which you should treat with as much suspicion as the advice that a big clitoris means you're not really a woman.

Not Like Other Girls™

Luckily for Sydney, with her discovery of a nebulous, unnamed, intersex condition, she felt (those totally not cult-like descriptors) validated and affirmed. Because Sydney was yet to learn she was also one of those non-binary kids, known for their depth, ineffable spirit and authentic idiosyncrasy. Wiping back fears of being shamed, she embraced the kooky and quirky to be "the person and resource I needed" back then.

Sydney asserts she is neither male or female because that's what 'intersex' means. Well, it is if you're goofed out on largactyl, an imbecile, or young enough to believe that kid in class really does have a scar where her tail was removed, she just can't show you because that'd be rude.

The story goes Sydney was just 17 when she discovered, by her own clever self, that she had a microperforate hymen.

There's a few articles on Sydney, and I imagine she may want to claim this, in the Daily Mail (referring to 'anonymous', who wrote an essay on a page now beyond reach) was not her, but it so obviously is - from the age of discovery and self diagnosis with doubting gynaecologist, to the same specific condition, the begrudging parent and the religious upbringing (Catholic or Mormon) they're nearly interchangeable.

Even the circumference of her hymenal perforation changed only from the tip of a pin to the head of a pen.

Anyhow, you're free to read this with the just plausible explanation it was not. But I am assigning 'anonymous' the name Sydney. Ok? Because, inexplicably, it just so happens, this woman is also called Sydney.

'Vagina Hole' ❌

In the Daily Mail version, Sydney says she started her period at the age of 14, and was anxious about using tampons. Which is understandable. She tried, but after a couple of failed attempts she forgot about it.

That is, until she was missing out on pool parties and visits to the beach. So she gave it another bash, only to be confronted with a Gandalfite hymen, forbidding trespass.

Having reached the age of SEVENTEEN without ever feeling her vagina, anon Sydney sought help from a friend who in turn sent images. On consulting with a mirror, she realised something was up.

Tampon Taboo

Now it gets better, because her "conservative Catholic mother didn't want her using tampons" but Sydney was assertive, taking her health in her own hands, and told her mum of the tampon tribulations.

In a somewhat unconventional move, mum "awkwardly" said she'd try inserting the tampon herself. This was declined as "they didn't have an open relationship when it came to sexuality" which is just mind boggling.

I have never known a mother and (especially teen) daughter able to casually traverse the intimate nature of that, not unless it's something urgently leaving the vagina, in the shape of an infant.

So Sydney set off to the gynaecologist, only to be dismissed when she told them what was what until, triumphantly, she was examined, verily vindicated and validated.

"The gynecologist explained that the opening was 'probably smaller than the tip of a pin' and just large enough that it was able to 'let the blood out' when she had her period" which instantly seems odd to me, because menstrual blood is especially thick and viscous, often containing clots. How on earth was a pin tip size hole enough? Can you imagine the vaginal pressure required to force it out? It's gotta at least require the force needed when blowing an egg out.

To correct it, Sydney required surgery but "her conservative mother initially refused to let her have the surgery" - BOO! Bad mother!

So, like any normal teen, Sydney set about "creating pie charts and PowerPoint presentations on why she should be allowed 'to have a vagina hole'". Thusly, her mother finally conceded. Hurrah. I can only wonder what went into the pie charts?

Vagina Hole Achieved ✅

"'Ironically, I still do not use tampons, and it would be a few years before I'd actually have sex with anyone,' she wrote. 'But at least I got to have a vagina hole like all the other girls.'"

Now we get to the confirmed story in BuzzFeed, based on Sydney's original TiKToK video, where, interestingly, 'non-binary' Sydney refers to herself as a woman.

Sydney also bemoans the poor state of public education for the lack of bodily awareness. I would agree. It does seem there's an awful lot of ignorance about. I didn't have any middle or upper school education, and I can see this is bullshit. Perhaps that's my University of Life credentials finally vindicated. Praise the lord.

Spectator Sport

Anyway, we're told the same story of being disbelieved and then proven correct. Once the gynaecologist confirmed Sydney's assessment, a strange kind of excitement erupted, and Sydney (who at 17 is a minor, remember) was asked if it was cool if others came in to) have a gander - "the office lady, the secretary" because "She's been in this business a long time, and we got a med student" and in they come, to see Sydney's Spectacular Snatch™.

Gynae-lol-agist

Stoic and always the raconteur, Sydney made light of a situation that is entirely normal for poor Jazz Jennings - "take a picture. It'll last longer" she japed, like a pro; "I'm notoriously hilarious in my gyno appointment. I really bring out a lot of one-liners."

Or is that one-lie-ners?

Interestingly, in the BuzzFeed article, Sydney says she doesn't menstruate, or "doesn't menstruate naturally".

What does this mean?

At this stage they needed to do "exploratory surgery" to ascertain whether she actually had female internal organs, because the menstruation wasn't a clue apparently, and a scan wasn't sufficient.

Ultimately, rather than the normal hymenectomy, which would be needed to create an opening and remove the excess, especially fibrous tissue, Sydney describes an "X incision" being made. Before then claiming it was a hymenectomy. Yeah.

"My dad, by the way, did not want to pay for this surgery and asked my mom if it was necessary" to which I suppose I have to say, BOO! Bad dad.

Finally, into the Yahoo article, which is mostly identical to the BuzzFeed one.

Sydney: "no one should have to feel scared about not fitting into the confines of binary gender".

Hmmm. That (gender) has nothing to do with intersex conditions or CVSDs. Sex and gender aren't the same. As a self-styled educator, the conflation of gender and sex is disappointing and entirely predictable. .

Although, this is hardly a rarity - so much pish is spoken about Complex Variations of Sexual Development, sometimes from publications who really should know better, I don't blame people for believing at least some of this. Not everyone has the obsessive compulsive scepticism about this particular issue, driving them up the wall when they should be hoovering. No wonder the terven are hated and feared.

Hymenal Highness

In line with at least one of her TikToks, in this article more of Sydney's Substantial Specialness is alluded to - that is, when "on certain forms of birth control, I do have the experience of menstruating" and this is "the second part of my intersex identity". Is Sydney saying she was on birth control as a virgin, before the microperforate diagnosis? Despite the conservative parents?

She hints at this a lot, these "heightened androgens" which is why she also claims to be a detransitioner, and how she was put on 'certain hormones' having been regarded as too masculine. Regarded as too masculine by whom?

Misidentified as female

Gender expectations.

Not female, on hormonal meds.

Somehow identified as too masculine, and being forcefully medicated to conform to some ideal. By whom?

Also now female.

Hormone analyses find she's producing too much androgen. This is not addressed further, and it was supposedly treated with androgen blockers but nothing following up which may identify a hymen anomaly.

Sounds now like she was maybe just on some treatment for acne.

"Forced" into a body which wasn't hers

God only knows ...

She also says her parents had no idea of her condition, so I'm not holding my breath for a clear answer.

It also seems a little odd, no one thought to ask why she wasn't menstruating (as this version suggests) by seventeen years old. Everything she says seems full of misdirection, vague allusions and waffle.

Tiktok need to act, because this is wrong.

Sydney's Sins

Sydney mentions her family when talking of her lottery win, because her mother bought her and her siblings a scratch card each. I wondered how they feel about her autobiographical TiKToks, but in one, she says she's blocked them all.

I started this off feeling very angry with Sydney. I have a couple of friends with 'intersex' DSDs/CVSDs, and for them this rhetoric is not only insulting but hurtful, degrading and infuriating, as they try so hard to educate people on the facts of their developmental differences.

But now, I feel pretty sad for her. I don't actually think she's orchestrating some devilish grift, just developed a script with possibly some truth to it, and found her audience boom, presumably providing much needed reassurance she is worth something, attention and surely some cash.

What really concerns me is the batshit mental rhetoric she and her followers partake in. For example, she blocked me and deleted my comments, which were polite but slightly challenging. And I only ever made a couple of them (all of this came up when I had to factory reset my phone, and on opening TikTok saw yet more of her).

However, some of the shit she has not deleted, and things she has asserted, is dangerously wrong.

Let's have a quick run down on other worrying claims she makes:

1) 'Intersex' is an additional sex - it isn't. It's an umbrella term for over forty different conditions. Reliable information here and here

2) Gynaecomastia is intersex - this is absolute shit, originating from a horse's ringpiece.

Don't tell Ice T!

3) "Chromosomal variations outside the binary are all intersex" - how about Downs' syndrome? Patuas' syndrome? Edwards' syndrome?

4) A big clitoris means that woman is intersex, thus neither male nor female.

How exactly is she defining a clitoris as big? Is there any conversation about where the urethra leaves the body?

5) Insinuating that intersex is one condition with any number of varying presentations.

6) Suggesting that there is anyone with a medical background unsure of whether trans is synonymous with intersex.

7) The common lie that 'intersex' is as common as red hair. - This is just not true, although oft repeated (and, red head where? In Scotland and Ireland or Papua New Guinea?)