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elfpie @beehaw.org

Beyond XX and XY: The Extraordinary Complexity of Sex Determination

I believe the problem is never showing evidence, but that the evidence is overwhelming. I could explain the general idea and, maybe, one or two specifics. People that use the XX/XY binary argument wouldn’t be able to explain either, but it’s usually only used because it conforms to a bias. And we are only talking about humans here. Language would implode if we tried to maintain convenient binaries and still back it up with science.

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23 comments

  • Say it with me now: Sex is a social construct.

    A 'convenient' fitting into boxes usually two, but accurately not always.

    The problem with such a system is that it's limiting and not at all useful in trying to help people.

    We should be specific in what we are trying to say, because the miasma of a sex binary isn't useful, even in medical fields as it conditions doctors to think in very limiting ways and not actually help accurately.

    It also has many roots in patriarchal violence in determining what a person (though to them a body) is for.

    It's also problematic in a racist sense because of the colonialist white 'western' ideas of what makes a certain sex or gender often don't fit those who aren't in those categories (except colonised).

    Which is why the 'science' is very problematic in this regard because that is the bias/lens with which it looks at this specific 'field' through.

    • Sex is not a social construct. Gender is.

      It's true - we are learning more about sex every year and understanding it's not completely binary. But your sex is assigned at conception.

      That's one of the reasons doctor's don't ask about your gender, but your sex - because treating could be different. And, as an example, IHE (medical standard) recognizes about 7 sexes.

      Gender, on the other hand, defines social norms we expect from certain sex. How gender is perceived changes from culture to culture and from one period of history to another - sex doesn't.

      That being said, I do believe that gender roles should be a thing of the past. You do you, whatever you're comfortable with.

      • The concept of a rigid biological sex binary is a social construct, that's basically the entire point of this post.

      • Yes, sex is a social construct in terms of that it's just a thing that is assigned and a label that has been assigned to people based on what it's assumed their bodily makeup.

        Doctors and others don't exactly do karyotype or other genetic testing at birth, they look at the genitals and usually apply one of two boxes to you and unless you look into it that label follows you around the rest of your life. Often, if you don't fit into those boxes they try to make you.

        It isn't helpful nor accurate, because bodies are not the same. This is what we mean when we say sex is a social construct, it's just a label, a shortcut through language meant to imply homogeneity forgoing accuracy and meaning, and it doesn't mean anything because it's not specific enough to.

        Sex is a social construct in all the ways gender is, because as stated it's just a label that gets assigned to you. What with HRT, surgery etc most, if not all biological characteristics of a body can be changed and this makes the distinction useless. Especially because people are so hung up on what bodies look like and what their functions are supposed to be, yes this is partially to do with gender but it also speaks to 'sex' too.

        Even scientists understand this now and though I don't necessarily agree nor disagree with this, they call sex a bimodal distribution, not a distinct binary any more.

        But regardless of what it's called or how many 'sexes' are recognised, it's still a social construct because it's taking a bunch of characteristics and applying labels to it. That's it.

23 comments