About the Jam

The aim of this jam is to promote & encourage the creation of art featuring intersex characters (i.e. human or human-adjacent characters with a real-life intersex variation, not futanari characters) or otherwise pertaining to the intersex experience.

Of the 46 total characters recorded on the "List of fictional intersex characters" Wikipedia page, only 10 are realistic or adjacent to realistic. The others were made as mockeries, or are non-human, or fall into the bigenital altersex/futanari category.

The majority of intersex depictions in fiction are jokes, or exoticised, or fantastic. (If you are intersex yourself, you already know this.) It is a disservice to your friends, your family, your colleagues, your neighbors, the strangers you pass on the street, and even you yourself, all of whom may (knowingly or not) fall on the broad scale between the two dyadic positions of "perisex female" and "perisex male". It is more common than you might think.

By building a larger body of works to read and reflect on, intersex people will become better known as real, living, tangible people in the world. This jam hopes to encourage the creation of new works that center intersex people.

Note: The moderators of this jam are intersex themselves.

  

Rules & Guidelines

Requirements:

Anything that you submit MUST:

• Focus on one or more intersex character(s)  AND/OR  prominently focus on intersex topics.
• Include the word "intersex" in either the title or the short description.
• Include the tag "intersex" in the tags field.

What is allowed?

• Any medium that you can think of is good! Consider what is usually hosted on Itch.io: video games, books, short stories, interactive fiction, visual novels, comics, zines, music, etc.
• NSFW is allowed. So long as your smut is respectful to real-life intersex people, you can submit it :]
• While we'd rather all submissions to be made during the jam period, you can absolutely submit stuff that you've made or started prior to the jam beginning.
• Any genre and additional focus is welcome, so long as intersexuality is a core component of your submission. Adventures in a fantasy setting, body horror and gore, poetry, biographical slice-of-life - it will all be accepted. There are no restrictions in this regard! 

What is NOT allowed?

• Futanari, altersex, or Salmacian content. These concepts are not synonymous with "intersex," and are therefore unrelated to the topic at hand.
• Any "intersex non-human species" sci-fi fantasy worldbuilding, such as the chieri in Marion Zimmer Bradley's novel The World Wreckers. That is not what "intersex" means in humans, and they are therefore unrelated to the topic at hand.
• Fusions of two people with different genital sets are not intersex. Stevonnie from Steven Universe, Jade Harley from Homestuck, Hermaphroditus from Metamorphoses Book IV, and other similar characters do not have an intersex variation, and are therefore unrelated to the topic at hand. Note that this is different from genetic chimerism.
• While you can include trans and non-binary characters, or even include a transgender intersex character, please keep in mind that "intersex" is not synonymous with "non-binary" or "transgender."

  

Resources & Links

• The website of Organisation Intersex International USA
• An Intersex Zine: a primer on what "intersex" means
• An Intersex Writing Reference: a collection of information on various intersex conditions
• Amnesty International: It's Intersex Awareness Day: an article covering a few common myths about intersex people
• HRC Understanding the Intersex Community: a short article that explains a bit about the intersex community
• interACT Intersex Variations Glossary: a glossary page listing a wide number of intersex variations

 

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this jam ranked?

It is not! Entries will not be voted on.

Is there a prize?

The prize is that I will personally check out your submission!
Or, on a more serious note, the prize is the contribution to intersex fiction, which is an underrepresented demographic.

I am not intersex myself. Can I still participate?

Of course! By participating, you may even learn something new about the nature of your body. Please use this time as an excuse to learn something interesting!

Can I work in a team?

You can. Feel free to use the "community" tab to look for teammates :]

Will I retain rights to my work if I submit?

Of course!

May I use pre-made assets or code?

Absolutely! Observe the licensing of the assets you use and include credit where it is due. Use of generative models (colloquially called "generative AI") in the creation of your project is not desired or permitted. This covers images, texts, music, research, et al. Alongside their other issues, generative models will not provide accurate information on intersex experiences, and this fact will be glaring. Please understand. Thank you.