Denying the Human Sex Binary Turns Biology into Nonsense

Comments

• Rivalarrival@lemmy.today ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Nothing of the science requires any social distinction on the basis of what gametes (if any) an individual produces.

  Any such distinction you - or anyone - cares to make about any individual is not based on science.

  source

  • communist@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Yes, i’m left wondering… when does this ever come up? Are biologists complaining about this constantly in peoples minds?

    source
  • tahira@hilariouschaos.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Do you agree with the basic scientific consensus, that sex is binary and immutable?

    source

    • Zagorath@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      There is no such consensus. Scientifically, “sex” is so much more complicated. Hormones, hormone receptors, gonads, genitalia, secondary sex characteristics, and reproductive gametes, to name just a few of the components of biological sex.

      People who are biologically known to be inter-sex (never mind anything about gender or identity) outnumber those with natural red hair.

      But all of this is relatively unimportant. Only a doctor would ever need to know most of these things about a person, and only a doctor or a potential sexual partner would need to know the others. There’s no circumstance in which anyone else needs to know any of these details about a person in order to decide how their interactions with that person should go. Especially not anyone who doesn’t have a close personal relationship with the person. Gender is how someone expresses themselves in society, and that’s the only thing that matters in most circumstances.

      source

      • -> View More Comments
    • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Do you know what gametes I produce, if any? Do you need to know what gametes I might produce in order to conduct this conversation?

      I think I’m managing to convey my meaning to you, and receiving your meaning in return, without knowledge of what’s happening in your abdomen/pelvis.

      Whatever concern you have about the terms “sex”, “binary”, and “immutable”, it isn’t scientific.

      source

      • -> View More Comments
    • Irelephant@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Do you agree with the advanced scientific consesnus, that sex is not binary?

      source

      • -> View More Comments
• WhatYouNeed@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  What should hermaphrodites do?

  source

  • tahira@hilariouschaos.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Live a happy, fulfilling life? I’m not sure what you mean.

    source

    • WhatYouNeed@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Are they male or female?

      source

      • -> View More Comments
• tahira@hilariouschaos.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Unfortunately, this definition of sex is muddled and incoherent. Making gametes just one of many characteristics defining sex may free us from a politically unpopular binary, but at the cost of our ability to describe reality correctly and clearly.

  Lemmy needs to drop the gender woo. It’s unscientific and makes you no better than godbotherers that you sneer at

  source

  • communist@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Gender is not a scientific concept, sex is. Gender is a cultural construct.

    source

    • tahira@hilariouschaos.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      From the opening sentence of the article:

      In a new piece for Scientific American, Princeton anthropologist Dr. Agustín Fuentes argues that the binary of male and female is too simplistic to describe the complexity of human sex

      Academia has become gripped by a new religious dogma that must not be questioned. They’re trying to redefine the basic scientific terminology of sex in order to appease an unscientific political movement.

      source

      • -> View More Comments
• crt0o@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Biology isn’t even relevant here, we’ve surpassed evolution, there is absolutely no reason why someone shouldn’t change their gender if they want to. Apart from that, I find it hilarious how confident conservatives are about this, the situation isn’t that simple, there is a number of naturally present aneuploidies including the sex chromosomes. Even in the usual XX and XY variants, parts of the Y chromosome are homologous to X and the expression of sex-specific genes is modulated by epigenetic factors. In practice the concentrations of the sex chromosomes are not on/off and can vary fluidly. With these simplifications, you are just displaying your ignorance of biology.

  source

  • tahira@hilariouschaos.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Those are all variations within a sex. You’re confusing sex with the phenotype and genotype.

    Anyone can change their gender because it’s all made up. Nobody can change the type of gametes they do or would produce.

    source