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.[4][5][6] Her activism began slowly following a meeting with Curtis Hinkle, the founder of Organisation Intersex International, in Montreal in 2005.[4] She has participated in the second and third International Intersex Forums.[2]
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,[7] 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 (Zentrum für transdisziplinäre Geschlechterstudien), Humboldt University of Berlin.[3]
Her book, La virilité en jeu (Manhood at stake), 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.[8]
In recent work, Bastien-Charlebois critiques the medical treatment of intersex voices.[2][9]