Janik Bastien-Charlebois


Janik Bastien-Charlebois is an intersex woman, sociology professor, and advocate for intersex rights. She teaches at the Université du Québec à Montréal, and her areas of study include cultural democracy, testimony, epistemology, homophobia and feminism.

Personal life and activism

In an interview with the Montreal Gazette, and with Être, Bastien-Charlebois describes the medical "normalization" of her body at age 17 as a process of dispossession. Her activism began slowly following a meeting with Curtis Hinkle, the founder of Organisation Intersex International, in Montreal in 2005. She has participated in the second and third International Intersex Forums.

Career

Janik Bastien-Charlebois is a professor in the Department of Sociology at the Université du Québec à Montréal, where she works in research groups on "Testimonial Cultures", homophobia, and the Institute for Research on Feminist Studies. During 2014 and 2015, Bastien-Charlebois was a visiting scholar at the Centre for Transdisciplinary Gender Studies, Humboldt University of Berlin.
Her book, La virilité en jeu , examines the inevitability of boys' homophobic behaviors through interviews with adolescent boys. Bastien-Charlebois disputes arguments focused on human nature and male identity formation, suggesting instead that heterosexuality is socially constructed.
In recent work, Bastien-Charlebois critiques the medical treatment of intersex voices.
Bastien-Charlebois speaks internationally, and has been interviewed by the Montreal Gazette, Le Nouvelliste, Le Devoir and Être.

Selected publications

Book

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