Revelation, Binary, and the Bodies in Between
A Reaction to Favale’s Theological Account of Intersex
Abstract
Abigail Favale’s “The Intersex Body Is a Revelation” (2022) argues that biological sex is a stable binary defined by gamete production, that intersex conditions are variations within that binary rather than exceptions to it, and that each body (intersex bodies included) is a sacrament revealing divine personhood. This reaction paper examines Favale’s claims across their scientific, bioethical, theological, and literary dimensions. It challenges her selective adoption of the lower 0.018% prevalence estimate over the widely cited 1.7% figure, demonstrating that both numbers reflect normative choices about what counts as intersex rather than neutral scientific corrections. It critiques her rhetorical contrast between intersex and transgender activism as a false opposition that intersex organizations themselves reject. It identifies a gap between her sacramental vision and the Catholic magisterial sources she draws on, which have never adequately addressed intersex existence. It considers alternative readings of Flannery O’Connor’s “A Temple of the Holy Ghost” that run counter to Favale’s interpretive framework. And it names the paper’s central tension: Favale’s essay, for all its genuine beauty, performs its own version of the instrumentalization it attributes to others, deploying intersex bodies as evidence in a debate that does not center intersex people’s own concerns.
Keywords: intersex, differences of sex development, theology of the body, bioethics, Flannery O’Connor, Catholic theology, bodily autonomy
Author Note
Grace Ann Hansen is an independent researcher and writer, and an MBA graduate student in health informatics and artificial intelligence. She is based in the Upper Midwest of the United States. She frequently writes about identity, politics, religion, and whatever seems important at the moment. Correspondence regarding this article may be directed to Grace Ann Hansen at grace@graceannhansen.com.
Revelation, Binary, and the Bodies in Between
A Reaction to Favale’s Theological Account of Intersex
I have been following a few social media personalities recently who happen to be intersex. A couple of years ago, I read “Inverse Cowgirl“by Alicia Roth Weigel. Since that book came out, I’ve seen a slight rise in intersex content creators, Jackie Blankenship, Hanna Gaby Ediele, River Gallo, and Blume, who have become very good at communicating their experience, and a few have explained the science behind their intersex condition (Shout out to Jackie Blankenship for her Intersex: 101 series). During my recent trip to Florida (See: A Queer Transgender Woman and Straight White Cis-Man Walk Into a Bar in Florida), I listened to a plethora of interviews, YouTube videos, and Reels from these creators. I was thoroughly engrossed. I even listened to some peer-reviewed papers on Speechify that posit the idea that Transgender people who show no signs of a physical DSD may actually possess intersex brain characteristics.:
As some of you know (See: Queer, Autistic, and Still Typing at 3 AM), I run Python scripts 24 hours a day that aggregate lists of articles, think pieces, and peer-reviewed research based on my chosen topics and the day’s high-traffic news stories. Recently, I was recommended some stories on Medium by Katlynn (Kat) Alexandria, great reads by a well-written transgender woman and advocate. In the comments of one of her articles, some arguments included a mention of intersex folks, and a few responses equated the idea of intersex as a birth defect, and not a real thing. I also recently found similar comments in a discussion on @jacquiedat threads.com. So, I added intersex to my media scripts, and during my trip to Florida, the results started coming in. In the glut of social media, opinion pieces, and peer-reviewed research articles, I found this article by Abigail Favale.
Favale, A. (2022). The intersex body is a revelation. Church Life Journal. https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/the-intersex-body-is-a-revelation/
Abigail Favale is a serious thinker, and her essay “The Intersex Body Is a Revelation,” published in Notre Dame’s Church Life Journal in 2022, is a serious piece of writing. Excerpted from her book The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory (Favale, 2022), the essay moves through three registers: scientific certainty, moral outrage, and theological beauty. She defines sex by gamete production, condemns nonconsensual surgeries on intersex infants, and closes with a reading of Flannery O’Connor’s “A Temple of the Holy Ghost” that casts the intersex body as a kind of Eucharistic sign. It is, at its best, a genuinely moving argument. And it is, at several turns, an argument that cannot bear the weight of its own claims.
This reaction paper does not dismiss Favale. It takes her seriously enough to press on the places where her framework buckles. The question is not whether sex has a biological basis (it does) or whether intersex people deserve dignity (they do, and Favale says so). The question is whether a theological vision that begins by classifying intersex bodies as “variations within” a predetermined binary can truly receive the revelation those bodies might carry. A revelation, by definition, tells you something you did not already know. If you have decided the answer before the body speaks, you are not listening.
