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Crystal Britt's avatar

The exclamation points and the cheerful design of the measurement tool are so dystopic, it’s almost ironic. Like, how did they not see how fucking broken it was? I’ll be thinking about this one for a while. Thank you 💖

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Vicky's avatar

So the “Phall-o-Meter” as presented is not a real-life medical measuring instrument. It’s satirical, but based on the range of “medically acceptable” measurements for infants genitals. In reality the determination of whether an infants genitals were “””incorrect””” was made pretty much based on vibes (which honestly… maybe worse?). So yes, it is dystopic, because it is supposed to be. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phall-O-Meter

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Slack System's avatar

Wow, this was a wonderful article and I feel very blessed to have read it. I suspect I might be intersex,but do not know for sure, and a lot of the things you said, both about Elphaba and yourself, really resonate with me. Thanks for sharing

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Kris Nusskern's avatar

Thank you for this mix of literary analysis, history and personal story.

I just started rereading the book and regret that I didn’t start with enough time to get through it before I see the second movie tonight (already have tickets). Either way I’m excited to read it again, because like many, I didn’t appreciate what I was getting into when I first read it.

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Leah A-M's avatar

Wow, thank you for this. I too read this at too young an age from well-meaning parents who gifted me Wicked tickets. I haven't read it since after being scarred by the bestiality scenes. I completely missed these very clear lines. I must believe Maguire knew what he was doing. Why else would he add these details?

BTW: a polite edit, if you can forgive me. The intro says the book is from 1993 and later it says 1996. The book was published in 1995.

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Parker's avatar

You don’t need to air out her personal business like this

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Que você viva até morrer's avatar

I need to reread the book. When the movie came out I was very bothered by it (and haven't seen it, might I add). Reading words I have a vague memory of.. I remember why. Thank you for the reminder.

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Nov 24
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Slack System's avatar

Oh look, it's weird lady who has nothing better to do than harass trans and intersex writers on subtract. I'm sorry you don't have anything happy going on in your life that you could spend your time on instead. Do you not have any hobbies?

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