Bodies Outside the Gender Binary: Transitivity Analysis of Intersex News in Thai Newspapers

Thai newspapers limit the recognition of intersex autonomy. They often portray intersex bodies as obstacles to the expression of naturalized masculine and feminine identities. This study analyzes how Thai newspaper clauses representing intersex individuals contribute to meaning-making within a Systemic Functional Grammar perspective. The study assumes that intersex bodies are consistently depicted as sites of gender performativity and serve as focal points for broader societal debates about the “real” sex and gender. Data were collected from online news articles published between 2012 and 2023 by seven Thai news agencies: BBC Thai, Daily News, Ejan, Khaosod, Matichon, MGR Online, and Thairath. A total of 36 articles were examined. The findings show that intersex voices predominantly appear in mental and relational clauses. These clauses construct experiential meanings that encode categorical relationships between intersex individuals and atypical conditions, framing them as matters of medical necessity. Thai newspapers frequently invoke authoritative medical voices to reinforce the perceived need for medical intervention, particularly in the case of intersex children. These medical voices mainly occur in verbal and material clauses, where they interact with the voices of parents, government agencies, and charity officers to legitimize appeals for “sex-normalizing” procedures. Government voices foreground social constraints through behavioral clauses, reinforcing the alienation experienced by intersex children. This study argues that Thai newspapers align biological sex with the gender binary, thereby perpetuating the perceived naturalness of masculine and feminine identities. Variations in sex development, especially among children, are framed as urgent problems that require intervention to conform to socially accepted gender norms.