Jordan Alcasas
News Editor
Author Pidgeon Pagonis discussed their book – “Nobody Needs to Know: A Memoir,” which is about their journey as an intersex person – during the annual One Book, One University lecture Wednesday.
All freshmen at the University are reading Pagonis’s book in their writing classes this semester.
Pagonis lectured twice on Wednesday, once for the freshman writing classes in the Sports Science and Athletic Pavilion, and again for the entire community in Morgan Auditorium.
Pagonis began their second lecture explaining what it means to be intersex.
“Intersex is when somebody falls outside society’s predefined binary,” Pagonis said. “Intersex, I like to say (is) ‘Born too cute to be binary.’”
Pagonis described what being intersex is like, beginning with development in the womb, and they used their own life’s journey and their book to help the audience understand.
“All babies start off with what is called bipotentiality,” Pagonis said. “The tissue that’s called gonadal tissue will either become ovarian or testicular.”
Pagonis explained that for some, the gonadal tissue will not become expressly ovarian or testicular, leading to an intersex identity that falls outside the gender binary society accepts. Throughout the description of the process of gonadal tissue development, Pagonis used jokes to keep the topic light, allowing the audience to laugh along with them during the discussion.
Later, they cited some statistics regarding intersex people. Currently, there are over 20 intersex variations, and the known percentage of intersex people is between 0.5-1.7% of all people.
Shortly after giving these statistics, Pagonis shifted gears and discussed what the life of an intersex person is like once they are born.
“They use surgery and hormones, and tell us stuff against our will when we’re little kids to force us into the mold of normal girl or normal boy,” Pagonis said. “In reality, everything they do to us is abnormal. In the pursuit of normality, there’s the production of abnormality.”
While these surgeries are a choice parents make for their children, Pagonis explained that often parents are pressured by doctors into these surgeries. Pagonis described how parents frequently told by doctors that their child may develop cancer, or about the difficulties children may experience remaining intersex.
Pagonis showed a short documentary detailing their own experiences discovering they were intersex. The documentary is titled “A Normal Girl,” and features clips from throughout their life with interviews with the people involved in their life.
In the documentary Pagonis describes their experiences with struggling with gender identity, and the various surgeries performed on them. There was a particular one they described that took place at age 11, where they found themselves feeling largely different after a surgery that was supposedly on their bladder.
Pagonis described struggling with trusting their parents, and the effect that had in their life upon finding out they are intersex. Pagonis emphasized that the true threat is the doctors who pressure parents into these surgeries and conduct them on children.
“I want to end these surgeries that doctors happen to use,” Pagonis said. “These doctors are still doing this every single day in my city of chicago and throughout the world. Every single day kids are getting surgeries and intersex gender mutilation.”
Audience members found themselves appalled by the prejudice intersex people have to endure.
“I read the book, but it’s still shocking that the doctors do that,” sophomore Spanish major Alondra Ortega said. “I think there needs to be a lot of change, because they’re hurting a lot of people with this.”
After the video, Pagonis answered student questions. To close the lecture, they read an excerpt from their book.
“If there’s one takeaway I want you to take from this lecture, it’s this: ‘Scars don’t form on dead flesh, and scars are indicative that we are alive,’” Pagonis said.
Jordan Alcasas can be reached at jordan.alcasas@laverne.edu.
Jordan Alcasas is a sophomore journalism major with a concentration in print and online journalism. He is the news editor for the Campus Times, and previously served as social media editor and a staff writer.
Anthony Eramya, a senior journalism major, is a staff photographer for the Campus Times and La Verne Magazine. He has previously served as a staff writer for both publications.
