Language, Gender and Biopolitics: Meaning-Making and Intersex Variations in Healthcare

This Element examines language, power and intersex variations within clinician accounts in Hong Kong, examining how they communicate about intersex traits to patients and their families. Employing interactional sociolinguistics, the research analyses clinician interviews as dynamic social interactions, focusing on how communicative stances are negotiated and social practices are enacted. The Element probes the influence of biopower on clinicians’ stances (encompassing gender, sexual difference, racialization and ableism) and explores the possibilities of emancipation from these biopolitical constraints. Findings highlight the tension between medical structuring forces and the formation of intersex subjects and bodies, impacting their autonomy and livability. Gender is relevant as both a power system and a lived reality, critical for understanding the bioregulation of innate sex characteristics and advancing broader implications for gender and language studies and healthcare communication. This research challenges gender-sceptical discourses and highlights the transformative potential of gender frameworks in medical and social contexts.