intersex-variations
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- PaperApplied Linguistics15 May 2026
Abnormal deceivers? Biopower in clinician accounts of embodiment and life for people with intersex variations
Brian W King
This study examines how clinicians in Hong Kong discuss intersex variations with patients and families, using interactional sociolinguistics to analyze interviews. It identifies deficit and non-deficit framings shaped by gender, ableism, and cultural norms, and highlights the role of language in reproducing or disrupting biopolitical paradigms. The findings challenge Western-centric models and demonstrate the relevance of applied linguistics in healthcare.
Original abstract
This research underscores the power of direct clinician–patient interaction to both reproduce and disrupt biopolitical paradigms, offering insights for improving practice and policy in our responses to intersex variations. I examine how clinicians in Hong Kong give accounts of their professional talk about intersex variations of innate sex characteristics, foregrounding the role of language in shaping medical decision-making and biopower in healthcare. Drawing on interactional sociolinguistics, I show via close analysis of in-depth interviews the stancetaking processes through which interviewed clinicians negotiate social, institutional, and personal ideologies regarding intersex variations. I identify deficit and non-deficit framings in the accounts, with attention to gender, ableism, and cultural norms inflecting how embodiment is reportedly discussed with patients and families. By situating the findings within the Hong Kong context, the article challenges Western-centric theoretical models and demonstrates the global relevance of applied linguistics in healthcare settings. I explicate how language choices contribute to patient understanding and agency, the perpetuation or contestation of binary gender norms, and the broader management of bodily diversity.