Utopia
Obioma Chukwuike: I've always imagined a world where intersex people have their freedom to be whoever they want to be. Live their life, nobody asking them questions. They grow up and be what they want to be.
Eliana Rubashkyn: How I would imagine an utopia is that it's a place in where, as humans, we recognize and we celebrate everyone's existence. And it's the multiple dimensions that build up that diversity. For intersex people that diversity will be our bodies, and the celebration that bodies are meant to be celebrated and loved, no matter how they are and no matter how they should be. Our bodies should be celebrated just for the fact that we are human, celebrating what actually, you know, are corpo ralities and I would say corpo realities.
Mani Bruce Mitchell: I think this is really really important. We need our own words, our own images and so do what we are doing tonight which is to sit and dream and laugh and imagine a world where you could be happy and you could feel comfortable yourself about this unique and wonderful body that you were given.
Crystal Hendricks: You know I just think of this world where everybody shares everything with each other on this island, you know, having all these fruits, all the animals everybody just living together in perfect harmony. Children playing in the ocean, you know just free, just living their lives and just be. [Hiker laughing]
Hiker Chiu: It seems to me where I live is very close to your imagination because I live in a tropical island.
Crystal Hendricks: Ok, ai, me too...
Hiker Chiu: This is Hiker Chiu. I'm based in Taiwan.
Crystal Hendricks: So my name is Crystal Hendricks. I'm from South Africa. I'm from an organization called Intersex South Africa.
Mauro Cabral Grinspan: An inter-utopia sounds for me like something really easy to achieve. You know it would be anywhere where intersex people can live as we are, without being subjected to medical violence or other forms of violence in childhood. But at the same time, like, as an utopia it's not very much like ›oh my God this is so different‹ or it would be like a complete different world. It's just that something is going to be different, but that something is everything. When I think of what makes intersex people different from other people, like, we are all different among ourselves. The main difference is, like, of course we were born with certain bodies, but everyone is born with a body or another or another. It's mostly the experience of violence. So for me, an utopia would be a place where people don't live that experiences. Which makes it difficult to imagine that, from my perspective, that utopia only will take place in the future. Because I would really love to live in a place where people didn't have, like ... To imagine an intersex utopia it will be a world where everyone is safe, all intersex people are safe, since the moment they are born. And that's the reality for them, and they remember what happened before, but actually none of us is alive. No one, no living human being, have had the experience of violence. It's like we are really in the past. So it's not that we remember or ... no. Like people remember because we remember the past, but not because we are still giving testimony. I would really love to live in a world that is so different that no one ever living in that world had the experience of violence. Or that particular kind of violence.
Eliana Rubashkyn: Then I think we will come to a point where we will start celebrating also the narratives in the bodies of intersex people. And actually that will translate in better experiences. Because in my utopia, it would be a world in ... actually you will be lucky for being intersex. Because people will like to celebrate you, or you will be special. You will have this unique gift of nature that you are just, you know, you have a particular body, and you have a superpower in your body, and you have a beautiful manifestation that just shows how beautiful nature can be.
Eliana Rubashkyn: How I would imagine an utopia is that it's a place in where, as humans, we recognize and we celebrate everyone's existence. And it's the multiple dimensions that build up that diversity. For intersex people that diversity will be our bodies, and the celebration that bodies are meant to be celebrated and loved, no matter how they are and no matter how they should be. Our bodies should be celebrated just for the fact that we are human, celebrating what actually, you know, are corpo ralities and I would say corpo realities.
Mani Bruce Mitchell: I think this is really really important. We need our own words, our own images and so do what we are doing tonight which is to sit and dream and laugh and imagine a world where you could be happy and you could feel comfortable yourself about this unique and wonderful body that you were given.
Crystal Hendricks: You know I just think of this world where everybody shares everything with each other on this island, you know, having all these fruits, all the animals everybody just living together in perfect harmony. Children playing in the ocean, you know just free, just living their lives and just be. [Hiker laughing]
Hiker Chiu: It seems to me where I live is very close to your imagination because I live in a tropical island.
Crystal Hendricks: Ok, ai, me too...
Hiker Chiu: This is Hiker Chiu. I'm based in Taiwan.
Crystal Hendricks: So my name is Crystal Hendricks. I'm from South Africa. I'm from an organization called Intersex South Africa.
Mauro Cabral Grinspan: An inter-utopia sounds for me like something really easy to achieve. You know it would be anywhere where intersex people can live as we are, without being subjected to medical violence or other forms of violence in childhood. But at the same time, like, as an utopia it's not very much like ›oh my God this is so different‹ or it would be like a complete different world. It's just that something is going to be different, but that something is everything. When I think of what makes intersex people different from other people, like, we are all different among ourselves. The main difference is, like, of course we were born with certain bodies, but everyone is born with a body or another or another. It's mostly the experience of violence. So for me, an utopia would be a place where people don't live that experiences. Which makes it difficult to imagine that, from my perspective, that utopia only will take place in the future. Because I would really love to live in a place where people didn't have, like ... To imagine an intersex utopia it will be a world where everyone is safe, all intersex people are safe, since the moment they are born. And that's the reality for them, and they remember what happened before, but actually none of us is alive. No one, no living human being, have had the experience of violence. It's like we are really in the past. So it's not that we remember or ... no. Like people remember because we remember the past, but not because we are still giving testimony. I would really love to live in a world that is so different that no one ever living in that world had the experience of violence. Or that particular kind of violence.
Eliana Rubashkyn: Then I think we will come to a point where we will start celebrating also the narratives in the bodies of intersex people. And actually that will translate in better experiences. Because in my utopia, it would be a world in ... actually you will be lucky for being intersex. Because people will like to celebrate you, or you will be special. You will have this unique gift of nature that you are just, you know, you have a particular body, and you have a superpower in your body, and you have a beautiful manifestation that just shows how beautiful nature can be.
