Puppets controlled by the system

Trans and intersex individuals often need to rely on the health care system, for example to transition and get hormonal treatment and surgeries, or the opposite: to deal with the consequences of unnecessary surgical interventions. In this dialogue Ugla Stefanía Jónsdóttir and Kitty Anderson talk about trans people, intersex people and the health care system, their personal experience and the treatment they have received. They describe how trans and intersex people are often denied the right to bodily integrity and self-determination – like they are puppets controlled by the health care system. Kitty and Ugla have both felt pressured to conform to certain stereotypes of how male and female bodies are supposed to look like, and they emphasise that the health care and the society in general need to stop telling people how ‘real’ male and female bodies look like.