endosex
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: /ˈɛn.doʊ.sɛks/
Etymology: From endo- + sex. Coined as a counterpart to intersex by Heike Bödeker in 2000 (in English, following Bödeker's coinage of German endosexuell in 1999).
Senses: examples: text: Intersex as an ostentation of the endosex group phantasy.
ref: 2000 June 30, Heike Bödeker, "Symposium on intersexuality", at the European Federation of Sexology Congress in Berlin, Germany
text: DOING ENDOSEX
Alongside increased attention to and debate about sexual and gender diversity, more equitable social relations require serious attention to the ways social authorities do or construct the sex categories that provide the basis for doing gender and sexualities. Although many endosex people—regardless of gender or sexuality identity—treat sex as something people possess as a straightforward categorization of genital shape and appearance, these beliefs rely upon a simplification of biological diversity that negatively impacts […] intersex people.
ref: 2019, J. E. Sumerau, Lain A.B. Mathers, America through Transgender Eyes, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 139:
text: Scholars refer to those people who “fit neatly” into these male/female exclusive categorizations as endosex. Endosex people are assigned male or female, and often think very little about this assignment—or the possibility that it was incorrect in any biologically empirical way—throughout their lives unless something unexpected forces them to consider it.
ref: 2020, Alexandra C. H. Nowakowski, J. E. Sumerau, Nik M. Lampe, Transformations in Queer, Trans, and Intersex Health and Aging, Lexington Books, →ISBN, page 7:
text: [S]ocial authorities generally design and disseminate selective versions of science, religion, and media that emphasize some elements of social life (e.g., cis experience, hetero- and monosexuality, upper=class experience, endosex [i.e., non-intersex] categorization and downplay or otherwise erase other aspects of social life (e.g., Blackness or other non-white racial experience, trans experience, […]
ref: 2021, Abbie E. Goldberg, Genny Beemyn, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Trans Studies, SAGE Publications, Incorporated, →ISBN, page 237:
text: A second pathway may be found in recent work published on the ways endosex (i.e., those assigned male or female by society) people respond to the existence of intersex people (Sumerau and Cragun, 2018).
ref: 2021, Dirk vom Lehn, Natalia Ruiz-Junco, Will Gibson, The Routledge International Handbook of Interactionism, Routledge, →ISBN:
text: Kubick also did not specifically include intersex people in the class of those seeking X gender markers, writing in her opinion that because the only Orr v. Trump plaintiffs seeking X gender markers were endosex nonbinary people, it was “not clear that non-binary class representatives could fully represent the interests of intersex class members.”
ref: 2025 June 18, Samantha Riedel, “In Trans Legal Victory, Federal Judge Blocks Trump Admin From Denying Passport Gender Changes”, in Them:
synonyms: dyadic
perisex
antonyms: intersex
glosses: Not intersex; born with sex characteristics that are considered typically male or female.
Derived terms: endosexism