The Phall-O-meter is a satirical measure that critiques medical standards for normal male and female

phallus A phallus is a penis (especially when erect), an object that resembles a penis, or a mimetic image of an erect penis. In art history a figure with an erect penis is described as ithyphallic. Any object that symbolically—or, more precisel ...

es. The tool was developed by Kiira Triea (Denise Tree) based on a concept by Suzanne Kessler and is used to demonstrate concerns with the medical treatment of

intersex Intersex people are individuals born with any of several sex characteristics including chromosome patterns, gonads, or genitals that, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical bina ...

bodies.

Schematic representation

Phall-O-meter', Intersex Society of North Wellcome L0031936

History

The Phall-O-meter was developed by Kiira Triea based on a concept by professor of psychology Suzanne Kessler. Kessler summarized the range of medically acceptable infant penis and clitoris sizes in the book ''Lessons from the Intersexed''. Kessler states that normative tables for clitoral length appeared in the late 1980s, while normative tables for penis length appeared more than forty years before that. She combined those standard tables to demonstrate an "intermediate area of phallic length that neither females nor males are permitted to have", that is, a

clitoris The clitoris ( or ) is a female sex organ present in mammals, ostriches and a limited number of other animals. In humans, the visible portion – the glans – is at the front junction of the labia minora (inner lips), above the ope ...

larger than 9mm or a

penis A penis (plural ''penises'' or ''penes'' () is the primary sexual organ that male animals use to inseminate females (or hermaphrodites) during copulation. Such organs occur in many animals, both vertebrate and invertebrate, but males do n ...

shorter than 25mm. The meter was printed by the now-defunct

Intersex Society of North America The Intersex Society of North America (ISNA) was a non-profit advocacy group founded in 1993 by Cheryl Chase to end shame, secrecy, and unwanted genital surgeries.Matthews, Karen (Oct 22, 2000). Debate Grows Over Using Surgery on Infants with Amb ...

as a means of demonstrating concerns with the medical treatment of intersex people.

Anne Fausto-Sterling Anne Fausto-Sterling ( Sterling; born July 30, 1944) is an American sexologist who has written extensively on the biology of gender, sexual identity, gender identity, gender roles, and intersexuality. She is the Nancy Duke Lewis Professor Emer ...

described how members of the intersex rights movement had developed a phall-o-meter, in her book ''

Sexing the Body ''Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality'' is a 2000 book by the biologist Anne Fausto-Sterling, in which the author explores the social construction of gender, and the social and medical treatment of intersex people. ...

'' in 2000. Fausto-Sterling noted that, despite the existence of normative tables, clinicians' practices are more subjective: "doctors may use only their personal impressions to decide" on an appropriate clitoris size. Similarly, in a paper presented to the American Sociological Association in 2003, Sharon Preves cites Melissa Hendricks, writing in the Johns Hopkins Magazine, November 1993 on subjective clinical norms and their relationship to surgical management: Copies of the Phall-O-Meter are now held by the

Wellcome Library The Wellcome Library is founded on the collection formed by Sir Henry Wellcome (1853–1936), whose personal wealth allowed him to create one of the most ambitious collections of the 20th century. Henry Wellcome's interest was the history of med ...

in London, and the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

Related concepts

While the scale as used by the Intersex Society of North America was a satirical tool for activism, numerous clinical scales and measurement systems exist to define genitals as normal male or female, or "abnormal", including the

orchidometer An orchidometer (or orchiometer) is a medical instrument used to measure the volume of the testicles. The orchidometer was introduced in 1966 by Swiss pediatric endocrinologist Andrea Prader of the University of Zurich. It consists of a string of ...

Prader scale The Prader scale or Prader staging, named after Andrea Prader, is a coarse rating system for the measurement of the degree of virilization of the Sex organ, genitalia of the human body and is similar to the Quigley scale. It primarily relates to v ...

and

Quigley scale The Quigley scale is a descriptive, visual system of phenotypic grading that defines seven classes between "fully masculinized" and "fully feminized" genitalia. It was proposed by pediatric endocrinologist Charmian A. Quigley et al. in 1995. It is ...

References

{{Male congenital anomalies of genital organs , state=collapsed Male genital procedures Female genital procedures Intersex and medicine

Schematic representation

History

Related concepts

See also

References