Ketil Slagstad
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slagstadk.bsky.social
Ketil Slagstad
@slagstadk.bsky.social
2.6K followers 970 following 210 posts
physician-historian at the Institute of History and Ethics of Medicine, Charité Berlin | history of psychiatry, health activism, HIV/AIDS, trans medicine

Standardizing Sex: A History of Trans Medicine (UCP, 2025)

https://www.ketilslagstad.com
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slagstadk.bsky.social
If you need a manuscript copy edited or proofread, I highly recommend the services of @emilyherring.bsky.social. I just received an edited manuscript back, and I'm very pleased with the level of detail and her excellent suggestions!
November 22, 2025 at 2:53 PM
slagstadk.bsky.social
I am very much looking forward to the publication of this important work by the brilliant historian and STS scholar @beansvelocci.bsky.social!
dukepress.bsky.social Duke University Press @dukepress.bsky.social · 12d
In "Sex Isn't Real," @beansvelocci.bsky.social traces the history of attempts to define sex and to create a world devoid of trans life, demonstrating that it is not the cis people who fit the categories but the categories that flex to make them fit. Read the intro for free now! buff.ly/TinoJLg
Cover of Sex Isn't Real: The Invention of an Incoherent Binary by Beans Velocci. The cover features a mesh grid pattern in an off white against a black background. The title is written large in a serif font in the center of the cover. Each word is a different color— ‘sex’ is a light orange; ‘isn’t’ is a grey blue; ‘real’ is a teal. The subtitle is directly below in white. The author’s name is above the title also in white.
November 18, 2025 at 2:05 PM
slagstadk.bsky.social
"Genetic determinism is one of those one-single-technofix-will-solve-everything ideas that visionaries can fall prey to, and the history of genetics is lousy with hereditarians promising to end disease, make us smarter and better our society."
@nccomfort.bsky.social

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/16/o...
Opinion | James Watson Saw the True Form of DNA. Then It Blinded Him.
www.nytimes.com
November 16, 2025 at 6:11 PM
slagstadk.bsky.social
Det er dessverre en lang tradisjon innen transmedisinen for forskning som verken er inkluderende eller brukerorientert. Disse forfatterne stiller noen gode spørsmål som har gyldighet for forskning på marginaliserte grupper mer generelt:

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Screenshot of a textbox
November 15, 2025 at 6:49 PM
slagstadk.bsky.social
Om du er i Trondheim i kveld 10.12 (kl. 19.00) eller i Bergen i morgen (kl. 17.00), kom forbi på boksamtale om den skandinaviske transmedisinske historien.

facebook.com/events/s/ket...
Ketil Slagstad: Standardizing Sex - A History of Trans Medicine
Event in Trondheim, Norway by Litteraturhuset i Trondheim on Monday, November 10 2025
facebook.com
November 10, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Reposted by Ketil Slagstad
histofsex.bsky.social
I wrote a little about my three favorite books of the year, including @slagstadk.bsky.social's "Standardizing Sex" for the book review site Shepherd. Congratulations to Dr. Slagstad on such a deeply researched and well-argued book. 📚
shepherd.com/bboy/2025/f/...
Want to know Donna J. Drucker's Top 3 Books of 2025?
Donna's top 3 reads of 2025 include Standardizing Sex and two other amazing books. Discover what makes these books unmissable!
shepherd.com
November 3, 2025 at 4:05 PM
slagstadk.bsky.social
I'm thrilled and extremely grateful to Elizabeth Reis for her thorough review of my book in Annals of Science, which concludes with the following words:

"Standardizing Sex brilliantly exposes how cultural context and social anxieties in Scandinavia,

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Standardizing Sex: a history of trans medicine
Published in Annals of Science (Ahead of Print, 2025)
www.tandfonline.com
October 31, 2025 at 12:05 PM
Reposted by Ketil Slagstad
ederummadum.bsky.social
#historians I’ve decided to bring my archival skills into the 21st century. I know, I know… I’m still a paper kinda gal at heart! What are you all using for digitally organizing photos of archival materials—especiallysoftware that allows for adding notes? #archive #primarysource #digital
October 27, 2025 at 1:31 PM
slagstadk.bsky.social
I'm honored by this incredibly generous and thoughtful review of my book "Standardizing Sex" by Os Keyes.

academic.oup.com/shm/advance-...

@sshmedicine.bsky.social #histmed
Ketil Slagstad, Standardizing Sex: A History of Trans Medicine
When historians of trans medicine discuss Scandinavia, it is too often in the form of endcaps: as the place where Christine Jorgensen first received surgic
academic.oup.com
October 26, 2025 at 8:15 AM
Reposted by Ketil Slagstad
kronisknynorsk.bsky.social
Eg hadde gleda av å intervjua Ketil Slagstad om den nye boka hans "Standardizing sex". Interessant fyr snakkar om interessante ting! Kva meir vil de ha frå eit intervju?
(+) Ny bok om transhistorie: – Skandinavia har spela ei stor rolle
Lege og forfattar Ketil Slagstad skildrar i ny bok utviklinga i kjønnsbekreftande behandling frå den spede byrjinga i Berlin under Weimar-republikken, til den særs spesialiserte greina av medisin det ...
www.blikk.no
October 21, 2025 at 10:52 AM
slagstadk.bsky.social
Wir freuen uns auf eine Reihe spannender Vorträge und Diskussionen im Rahmen des Kolloquiums Forschung und Lehre des Instituts für Geschichte der Medizin und Ethik der Medizin, das jeden zweiten Dienstag um 11 Uhr stattfindet. Kommen Sie gerne vorbei!

medizingeschichte.charite.de/forschung/ko...
Kolloquium Forschung und Lehre: Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
medizingeschichte.charite.de
October 20, 2025 at 8:19 AM
slagstadk.bsky.social
www.aftenposten.no/meninger/deb...
October 16, 2025 at 1:38 PM
slagstadk.bsky.social
Hast du im Jahr 2024 oder 2025 einen medizinhistorischen Artikel veröffentlicht? Dann bewirb dich bis zum 28. Februar 2026 für den Förderpreis des Fachverbands Medizingeschichte. #histmed fachverband-medizingeschichte.de/foerderpreis/
Förderpreis – Fachverband Medizingeschichte e.V.
fachverband-medizingeschichte.de
October 14, 2025 at 4:05 PM
slagstadk.bsky.social
Staten og Legeforeningen bør be om unnskyldning for overgrepene begått mot transpersoner. Folk som ble tvunget til kastrering for å skifte juridisk kjønn, må få oppreisning. I boka «Standardizing Sex» viser jeg at staten vel vitende ofret folks reproduktive helse for å beskytte en binær kjønnsnorm.
Bilde av avisartikkel illustrert med et foto av et symbol for mann og kvinne. Bilde av avisartikkel illustrert med et foto av et symbol for mann og kvinne.
October 13, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Reposted by Ketil Slagstad
skaar.net
Dette meiner eg er eit viktig forskingsetisk perspektiv frå @slagstadk.bsky.social (2025, s. 18).
The correspondence with research ethics committees indicates that the research committee system and the narrow focus on informed consent as defined in health research laws (like those in Norway) are not well suited to address structural power imbalances and social justice issues in research projects, or to respond to issues of structural inequality. Even if the denial of: access medical records is intended to protect the integrity of marginalized and stigmatized individuals, in effect the ethical research system risks perpetuating exclusionary and discriminatory practices by preventing silenced stories from being told, This makes it more difficult for minority groups today to take ownershıp of their own histories, and it makes it nearly impossible shed light on the misuse of power by hegemonic actors, be they physicians or authorities.
October 2, 2025 at 7:33 AM
slagstadk.bsky.social
Ein sehr lesenswerter Artikel über die Praxis der erzwungenen Sterilisation von trans* Menschen. Diese Praxis wurde in den 1950er bis 1970er Jahren in verschiedenen Ländern eingeführt und erst in den 2010er Jahren abgeschafft.

taz.de/Trans-Person...
Trans Personen in Europa: Eingriff in die Menschenwürde
Trans Personen mussten sich lange Zeit sterilisieren lassen, wenn sie ihr Geschlecht offiziell ändern wollten. Die emotionalen Folgen sind verheerend.
taz.de
September 29, 2025 at 6:31 AM
slagstadk.bsky.social
Jeg kommer på en liten norgesturné med den nye boka mi "Standardizing Sex"

- Trondheim 10. november med Eir-Anne Edgar (NTNU) og Andreas Krogstad (Skeive Studenter Trondheim)

- Bergen 11. november i samarbeid med Skeivt arkiv og PKI

Kom, kom!

litteraturhusetitrondheim.no/program/keti...
Ketil Slagstad: Standardizing Sex - A History of Trans Medicine - Litteraturhuset i Trondheim
Den skandinaviske historien er spesiell i det den belyser den sentrale rollen staten har spilt i regulering og standardisering av […]
litteraturhusetitrondheim.no
September 26, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Reposted by Ketil Slagstad
polgreen.bsky.social
This is really great reporting from Mother Jones - the "godfather" of evidence-based medicine disavows the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine for misusing his work. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
Trans health care "skeptics" lost a key ally—now they're having a meltdown
The godfather of evidence-based medicine on rejecting anti-trans "misuse" of his work.
www.motherjones.com
September 24, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Reposted by Ketil Slagstad
robin-c.bsky.social
next week at FU:

Race, Racialisation, and Racism in the European Context

w/ @schlawinerkreis.bsky.social, @aleksandralewicki.bsky.social, Urs Lindner, Magali Bessone, Murad Idris, Lee Medovoi & many others

info and program:
tinyurl.com/4udeeae7
September 16, 2025 at 12:13 PM
slagstadk.bsky.social
We have a winner: @misstillit.bsky.social! Congratulations! Thank you all for taking part in the lottery. For each participant, I will donate the value of one copy of the book to Casa Kuà, a Berlin organization by and for trans* and non binary BIPoCs to make healthcare more accessible. casa-kua.com
September 21, 2025 at 10:56 AM
slagstadk.bsky.social
Last day to participate in the lottery. I announce the winner tomorrow. Repost and tag and win your copy to learn about how physicians and researchers have worked to protect a binary norm of sex by excluding non-binary people from medical trials since the 1960s.
slagstadk.bsky.social Ketil Slagstad @slagstadk.bsky.social · Sep 14
To celebrate the release of "Standardizing Sex," I'm giving away a free ebook. For a chance to win and learn about the myriad strategies the state has followed to standardize sex, share this post and tag someone in the comments. I'll announce the winner in a week.
press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
A book placed on a table.
September 20, 2025 at 5:52 AM
Reposted by Ketil Slagstad
majben.bsky.social
New book in #histmed #histpsych #clairehilton
Book: Petty Tyranny and Soulless Discipline? Patients, policy and practice in public mental hospitals in England, 1918–1930, by Claire Hilton
Dear Hmadness readers, Claire Hilton has just published a new book entitled Petty Tyranny and Soulless Discipline? Patients, Policy and Practice in Public Mental Hospitals in England, 1918–1930. Yo…
historypsychiatry.com
September 18, 2025 at 4:58 AM
slagstadk.bsky.social
There is still time to enter the lottery. Win a free copy and find out how Christine Jorgensen tricked the eugenic sterilization laws to get surgery and learn about her plans to write a Scandinavian cookbook with recipes for smorgasbord and Danish open sandwiches. ⬇️
slagstadk.bsky.social Ketil Slagstad @slagstadk.bsky.social · Sep 14
To celebrate the release of "Standardizing Sex," I'm giving away a free ebook. For a chance to win and learn about the myriad strategies the state has followed to standardize sex, share this post and tag someone in the comments. I'll announce the winner in a week.
press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
A book placed on a table.
September 17, 2025 at 7:15 AM
Reposted by Ketil Slagstad
robin-c.bsky.social
“The far-right AfD, now the 2nd largest party, is attempting to revive the stigmatisation of the disabled, on the basis of the populist fantasy that they are the product of incestuous unions between immigrants. Prejudice against disabled people & racial minorities is being whipped up once more.“
lrb.co.uk London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · Sep 14
‘Prejudice against the disabled was still so widespread that in 1980 a Frankfurt court ordered the reimbursement of the cost of a hotel to a tourist who had been upset by the presence of a group of guests with cerebral palsy.’

Richard J. Evans on German eugenics: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Richard J. Evans · Alien to the Community: Eugenics in Germany
In Hitler’s mind, eugenics was part of Germany’s long-term preparation for victory in the struggle between races....
www.lrb.co.uk
September 14, 2025 at 10:15 AM
slagstadk.bsky.social
To celebrate the release of "Standardizing Sex," I'm giving away a free ebook. For a chance to win and learn about the myriad strategies the state has followed to standardize sex, share this post and tag someone in the comments. I'll announce the winner in a week.
press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
A book placed on a table.
September 14, 2025 at 8:23 AM