Being an Intersex Nudist; Nicky’s Story

This is a guest post by the lovely Nicky who blogs over at Nicky’s World. Thanks for sharing 

As an intersex person, body acceptance is one of the most difficult things an intersex person has to do. It’s hard for some intersex people to accept their body because medicine and society try their hardest to hide and erase intersex people. Intersex people like myself have come to terms with our bodies and even accepted our intersex body for what it is. As an Intersex person who is also a nudist, I have come to terms with my intersex body and because of nudism, I have accepted my intersex body for what it is.

About myself, I was born with an intersex condition called Kallmann’s syndrome.  I was born with ambiguous genitals, some breast growth and a micropenis. At birth my folks called me Nilavong, a Thai girls name. When I came to America, I was given a gender-neutral name – Nick or sometimes Nicky. As for my medical condition, most of my doctors see me as having a biological indeterminate sex and don’t see me as either a man or a woman. For myself, I don’t see myself as a man or a woman and that’s because I was never born as a man or a woman. So I never developed as a “normal”  man or a woman.

I have been a nudist since my teenage years. I learned about nudism, when a friend of mine in high school took me out skinny dipping at a local lake. It was at that time I learned about the different body types and learned not to be ashamed of my naked body type including my own intersex body. Through nudism, I learned to accept my body for what it is, and learned to love my body for what it is. Even all the flaws and imperfections!

As an intersex person and a nudist, I am one of those in the intersex community who accepted their body for what it is and is very comfortable with the skin I am in. Most intersex people are scared of their bodies and forced to hide it by the medical community and society. For me, I am not ashamed of my intersex body. I’m happy with all the flaws and imperfections it has. Being a Nudist helps me accept my body for what it is and even taught me to accept my flaws and imperfections – it has made me feel comfortable with the skin I am in. Being a Nudist helped me deal with being born intersex and I don’t have to be pressured into being male or female.  It lets me be myself and who I am regardless of my intersex condition or who I am.

Definitions and Further Reading:

According to the Survivors Project:

“Intersex” is the word that describes those of us who, without voluntary medical interventions, possess bodies that doctors can’t neatly classify as male or female. This includes people who have chromosomal sex other than XX (female) or XY (male), or primary or secondary sex characteristics that defy the medical definitions of male and female. Somehow, doctors get freaked out when a newborn baby is found to be intersexed, and often mutilate their genitals to conform them to the doctors’ idea of what a normal baby should look like, even though intersex conditions usually do not threaten the health of the infant. Parents are often not given enough information or support to make an informed decision regarding their babies’ care.”

A guide for intersex allies and interested parties: http://www.intersexinitiative.org/publications/pdf/intersex-activism2.pdf

UK Intersex Association: http://www.ukia.co.uk/

Intersex UK: http://intersexuk.org/

Intersex Society of North America: http://www.isna.org/

Advocates for Informed Choice (US based group): http://aiclegal.org/

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