Comment on Being Trans Isn't Normal or Part of Nature...or is it...?

• powerstruggle@sh.itjust.works ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  This is often a point of confusion, but human sex is binary. There’s edge cases that require clarification as to how they fit into the binary, but don’t disprove it.

  Human sexuality overall is complex and that’s why we differentiate gender from sex. The sex binary and gender spectrum complement each other though, and don’t clash.

  If you’re interested in learning more, here’s some background reading:

  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonochorism

  We fall into that category, where we have two body plans, each organized around producing either sperm or ova. Other species have more body plans, such as recognizably distinct males, females, and hermaphrodites:

  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trioecy

  Those species are a good contrast. Humans don’t have that variation, and so sex is binary in humans.

  There’s literature that explains this specifically in detail, though most of it doesn’t really explicitly talk about it, much like math papers don’t generally explain that integers can be added together.

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  • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    There’s edge cases that require clarification

    Ok, yes. That’s where I believe the binary is false.

    You have red, you have blue, and then there’s a bunch of egde cases. To me that’s not the end of the story. I believe purple exists.

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    • ewigkaiwelo@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      It is binary if you define it as a concept of reproduction, which it is. Every human that has ever been born had two parents. Looks pretty binary. Intersex people and edge cases cannot reproduce naturally, to my knowledge. So only those belonging to those two specific biological categories of sexual reproduction (males & females) can reproduce.

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      • ewigkaiwelo@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Also sex is defined by a pair of chromosomes, at conseption sex cells merge, each of them has only 23 chromosomes, the resulting cell has 46, which is why they say that sex is defined at conception, you can’t determine the sex at this stage without destroying the single cell (zygote), but the chromosomes will not change nevertheless

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    • powerstruggle@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Do you have a particular edge case in mind? One that’s commonly brought up is en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovotesticular_syndrome, but that doesn’t fall outside the sex binary. Having a bit of nonfunctional tissue doesn’t affect one’s sex.

      Colors aren’t a great analogy either, because in anisogamous species, gametes are strictly binary. There’s sperm and ova, with 0 overlap and 0 other options. “Purple gametes” just don’t exist.

      This also isn’t my opinion, this is the accepted definition in the field of biology.

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