If “vandalism” is cutting up a book that is not yours, what do we call cutting up a body
that does not belong to you? I was inspired by the idea that medical violence is
perpetrated everyday against Intersex people. The book is an exposé into the surgical
assignment of sex and gender to infants who are incapable of making the choice regarding
genital surgery intended to “normalize” their bodies. The piece is also a statement about
the hubris of the misguided pediatric surgeons who decide what is in the best interest of
the child, denouncing a social construct that our bodies should reflect the entrenchment of
gender mores in our sexual identities—we must all turn out to be good little heterosexuals.
The book vandal cut a hole into the cover of the book. I cut the back cover and made it
into the “goggles” for people to look into a world that is mostly hidden from view—the
operating room where unwanted infant genital surgeries are performed nearly every week
in San Francisco. The cover is intact so that the viewer can read what the book is about
since they cannot read the book itself.
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