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lilacsupernova · 3 months

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A post- postmodernist world of gender?

And at the turn of the millennium, something occurred with the term gender: it stopped wandering around, froze and turned to stone. Suddenly it was no longer a system to be subverted, but an individual identity – no longer a cultural construct, no longer even something people do. At that point, gender became something a person is, an eternal inner essence beyond culture and power structures, even beyond genitalia. Now, gender is said to be something innate that no society on earth can change. We are being told that gender emanates from within us and only we ourselves can know is truth – list your pronouns and I will know who you are! Once you discover your gender, there is no turning back and no doubt - this is the real you. You 'are' woman, man, non-binary, trans or agender and have therefore always been so.

This is a giant step away from queer theory. In fact, postmodernism and queer theory seem rather outdated. They were merely stepping stones that abolished the notion of material sex, whose ruins the new-fangled essentialism then built on. The grand narrative now returns, claiming to own the truth about gender. Cue the cliche's about pink/blue, dolls/weapons, makeup/machines, passive/active.

This ideological shift from sex, to sex/gender, to gender, to gender/sex, represents a shift from metaphysics to dialectical materialism to postmodernism to postmodern essentialism. However, seamless the change might appear, it is important to not that in gender identity theory, we are dealing with an idea that diverges significantly from queer theory in its basic tenets. Whereas queer theory saw everything as discourse and nothing as real, gender identity theory in fact sees gender as very real and innate. Whereas queer theory was engaged in a constant, parodic, satirical subverting of gender, gender identity establishes that the discovery of ones true gender is a final verdict – and a deadly serious matter. Whereas [Judith] Butler postulated gender was an external system, imposing itself on us through interpellation, making us succumb, gender identity theory sees gender as a truth coming from the inside.

This postmodern essentialism is strange indeed, a biological determinism without biology, where the idea of becoming who you want to be is combined with the belief in gendered souls. Yet this is the only possibility for patriarchy to return inside neoliberalism. This way, one maintains notions of individual liberty at the same time as strict rules on gender return with a full blast. (Patriarchy also returns outside the neoliberal paradigm, with a conservative backlash on abortion rights and a clamping down on female sexuality, but this current is unable to fully penetrate ideologically progressive societies and circles.) Biological determinism of old was monolithic and fateful: born in a woman's body, you were told your brain was unfit for higher office. There was no escape. Anyone trying to break boundaries would hit their head against a wall. As opposed to that, biological determinism of today, gender identity-style, is fragmented: body and soul are said to each have a sex of their own. Thus, an escape route is inbuilt: anyone who feels their gender role is too narrow is given the opportunity to change and find a 'truer' self. Both determinisms juxtapose gender and sex, but in reverse order: sex determines gender versus gender determines sex.

– Kajsa Ekis Ekman (2023) On the Meaning of Sex: Thoughts on the New Definition of Woman, pp. 93-4.

#kajsa ekis ekman #on the meaning of sex #feminism #gender #postmodernism #queer theory #biological reality #lilac posts

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redditreceipts · 6 months

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The best tactic to force transactivists to admit the importance of sex is to push the concept of the afab trans woman.

I think feminists should take this concept very seriously and create a movement based on this identity to redefine trans woman as "anyone who identifies as a trans woman."

I would really love to hear why people can identify as women at will, but can't identify as transwomen at will.

If defining women by their biology is reductionist, why is it not reductionist to define trans women by their biology?

If it is liberating to open up the term "woman" to people assigned male at birth, why is it not liberating to open up the term "transwoman" to people assigned female at birth?

(it's actually a genuine question that I have lmao)

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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 2 years

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By: Daisy Stephens

Published: Jul 24, 2022

The Black Trowel Collective, a group of American archaeologists, claimed there are suggestions that many historical cultures had more than two genders and so archaeologists should be "wary of projecting our modern sex and gender identity categories onto past individuals".

The group claimed scientists have a "long history of imposing modern patriarchal gender and sexual norms onto the past".

"Human gender is highly variable and... human beings have historically been comfortable with a range of genders beyond modern 'masculine' and 'feminine' binaries," the group wrote in a blog post.

The Daily Mail claims that some academics are beginning to label ancient human skeletons as 'non-binary' or 'gender neutral'.

The idea has been criticised by historian Jeremy Black, who said gender is key to understanding history.

"It is an absurd proposition as the difference between genders, just as the difference between religious, social and national groups, are key motors in history," he told the Daily Mail.

"This very ideological approach to knowledge means that we're in danger of making knowledge itself simply a matter of political preference."

Life continues to imitate parody. 🤡

"projecting our modern sex and gender identity categories onto past individuals"

Current gender woo is the invention and imposition of bored, modern first-world academic elites, which makes this absurdly ironic.

"we're in danger of making knowledge itself simply a matter of political preference."

This is literally the postmodern, social constructivist belief and objective.

No one ever needs to respond to this deranged ideology with anything other than "no."

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butch-reidentified · 2 years

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I mentioned being adopted in a post earlier in the context of infertile women like my (adoptive) mom being used by TRAs to "prove" woman doesn't equal female, and how absurdly offensive and sexist that is.

In that post I used the term "biological children" and it got me thinking.

As an adoptee, I am not and materially can never be her biological daughter. Even if she or I wanted that more than anything in the world, it's impossible. The fact that I'm not her biological daughter is largely irrelevant in most social contexts (though there certainly are times it is!), but extremely important in other contexts - particularly my health. If I presented a doctor with my adoptive parents' family history, that could result in important things being missed, unnecessary tests being performed, incorrect medications being prescribed, and my health risks miscalculated, among other things.

It's also important that I am not her biological child, because adoption comes with unique issues and struggles, and is traumatic for most adoptees. How could I have received proper psychological care if I had denied the reality of my history as someone else's biological daughter?

Obviously there are many reasons being adopted isn't the same as being trans, but I do have to wonder why adoptees universally accept these material realities - despite the fact that it can be extremely painful and emotionally devastating - and the fact that we simply are what we are, and our situation is what it is. If that's something we all go through and come to terms with, why is it so hard for some trans people to accept their biological reality, their history, their unique situation and needs, etc? Why can't they go through the same sort of process we adoptees go through to come to terms with their reality? Why are they so often not even willing to consider doing so, to the point they claim it's identical to conversion therapy?

"Transitioning" from one woman's daughter to another's changed my whole life, of course. But it didn't change my genetic makeup or erase the true story and context of my birth. To my knowledge, no adoptee has ever claimed it does. So why is this thinking not remotely mirrored among genderists?

#radfem thoughts #adoption trauma #biological reality #mine #rambles #radblr #radfem #gender critical #gender ideology

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coochiequeens · 1 year

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Australia…. Where the government knew which members of the disabled community to subject to forced sterilization yet believes a sex offender with a penis is a woman.

An Australian man convicted of sexually abusing a child in a public restroom has begun identifying as a woman and is being referred to as female by the court, with multiple references to “her penis” appearing in hearing records. Khadir Kamoun, 33, plead guilty to charges of intentionally inciting a 14 year-old boy to sexually touch him, an offense that carries a maximum penalty of 10 years but for which he was handed a 2 year sentence.

According to court records, on the evening of February 18, 2021, the victim was at Bankstown Centro Shopping Centre in Sydney with a friend and members of the friend’s family. The boy indicated that he needed to use the restroom, and reportedly saw Kamoun walking nearby. He was carrying a bag on his shoulder.

When the boy located and entered the facilities, he saw Kamoun exiting a cubical, and noticed that Kamoun had left his bag inside the cubicle. Kamoun retrieved the bag and then ushered the boy inside, saying: “It’s okay go, go, go.” The victim entered the cubicle, closed and locked the door.

After exiting the cubicle, the boy made his way to the sinks and, through the mirror, he saw Kamoun standing inside the cubicle behind him. Kamoun was looking directly at the boy, with his pants partially down and his penis exposed.

The boy saw Kamoun masturbating himself, at which point he urged the victim to come closer, whispering for the boy to be quiet and waving him over with one hand. Frightened, the boy ignored Kamoun and began using the automatic hand dryer located next to the sink in the restroom.

Kamoun then approached the victim and grabbed his hand, which he attempted to place on his exposed genitals. The child pulled his hand away and ran out the restroom. Kamoun began to follow him, prompting the child to run faster until he was able to meet up with his friend’s family. In tears, the boy called his own family and relayed details of the incident to them.

The legal representative defending Kamoun, barrister Ronald Driels, attempted to portray the incident as a one-off occurrence of public exhibitionism “with a bit more.” However, Magistrate Glen Walsh argued that the claim “substantially understates the seriousness of the offending” and highlighted Kamoun’s history of sexual crimes.

In December of 2012, Kamoun was accused of sending indecent materials to groom a child under the age of 16 for sex. He was also charged with sexual assault and indecent assault. The details of the case are limited. According to court records, Magistrate Walsh stated that “this is not a record that entitles [him] to leniency.”

While he was detained in a men’s prison awaiting trial, forensic psychologist Dr. Kris North diagnosed Kamoun as having ‘gender dysphoria’ in addition to depression and PTSD.

In light of what the court determined was a “a dysfunctional upbringing” that involved “difficulties at school and an erratic employment history,” as well as “violence perpetrated against the offender by [his] father arising from or relating to [his] gender or sexual orientation,” Kamoun was granted a lenient sentence despite his “serious offenses” that involved sexually abusing children.

The court also noted the “inconvenience” faced by Kamoun at having been placed in a men’s correctional facility which resulted in “unwanted sexual advances in custody and inability to obtain hormone replacement treatment.”

Despite the leniency of the sentence, Kamoun attempted to file a severity appeal, arguing the sentence was “crushing” when considering the fact he has been in custody since April of 2021. But the appeal was rejected by the district court, which affirmed the 2-year jail sentence that had been handed down by the local magistrate in December of 2022.

While each state in Australia has different policies with respect to housing transgender inmates, according to Women’s Forum, New South Wales, where Kamoun was sentenced, has a “self-identification policy,” meaning that prisoners are meant to be placed in a facility based on how they identify. Exceptions are made in cases where there are safety “concerns or doubts around the authenticity of the prisoner’s gender identification.”

As Kamoun has now been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, it is likely he will apply for transfer to the female estate.

By Genevieve Gluck

Genevieve is the Co-Founder of Reduxx, and the outlet's Chief Investigative Journalist with a focused interest in pornography, sexual predators, and fetish subcultures. She is the creator of the podcast Women's Voices, which features news commentary and interviews regarding women's rights.

Australian women with disabilities face “reproductive violence”, including forced sterilisations, abortions and contraception, an inquiry will hear.

Organisations set to give evidence to the Senate inquiry into universal access to reproductive healthcare on Friday have said in their submissions that carers and a discriminatory healthcare system are violating women’s rights.

Forced sterilisation is not prohibited in Australia, while women with disabilities are vulnerable to family violence including being forced to have abortions or use contraception.

The Victorian Women’s Health Services Network said women with disabilities were “refused the right to consent to medical treatment including abortion, and are more likely to experience reproductive coercion than women without disabilities”.

Victorian organisation Women’s Health in the South East said forced sterilisation was often performed to prevent pregnancy, that it breached “every international human rights treaty to which Australia is a party” and “constitutes torture”.

The Family Planning Alliance said parents, guardians and doctors are making decisions on behalf of women with disability, with “no strategies in place to improve their understanding of their reproductive choices and rights”.

The Public Health Association of Australia said people with disabilities should be given disability-specific information about contraception use and managing menstruation, and should have their right to be pregnant and parent protected.

Women With Disabilities Australia told the inquiry in February that widespread discrimination and ableist attitudes resulted in “multiple and extreme” violations of rights.

Carolyn Frohmader, WWDA’s executive director, said the right “for everybody to make their own choices about their body, to have full control over their body, their sexuality, their health, relationships, if and when to get married or not, if and when to have children or not, without any form of discrimination, coercion or violence” was a fundamental human right.

“[Everyone should have the right to] be free from anyone else making personal decisions about sexuality and reproductive matters, and to access sexual and reproductive health information, education, services and support,” she said.

“These egregious forms of reproductive violence have no place in a civilised world, and yet remain lawful in this country.”

She said Australia was “a wealthy country that still allows practices such as forced sterilisation, forced abortion, forced contraception and menstrual suppression”.

“This is nothing short of shameful,” she said.

The latest statistics on forced sterilisation from the Australian Guardianship and Administration Council show there were nine forced sterilisations in 2020-21.

Frohmader said women with disabilities were put on long-acting reversible contraceptives (Larc) for years or decades longer than they should be, which can lead to osteoporosis.

“One woman, 47 years old, complaining constantly of lower back pain, is given Panadol. She had been on a Larc for 25 years and, of course, had never had a bone density test,” she said.

“After agitation, advocacy and intervention from our organisation, of course we got her a bone density test, and she was absolutely riddled with osteoporosis.”

The Australian Lawyers for Human Rights women and girls’ rights co-chair, Tania Penovic, said there was anecdotal evidence that women who were assaulted or raped, or deemed incapable of looking after a child, were forced to have abortions.

Decisions on behalf of women with cognitive disabilities could be made by a “substitute decision-maker” or through a guardianship arrangement.

In January, the royal commission into violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of people with disability published a report on supported decision-making, where the person with a disability has trusted advisers to help them make choices.

It proposed a framework around universal principles including dignity and risk, co-leadership and equal rights to make decisions, support and safeguards.

ALHR highlighted the “urgent need” to prevent forced sterilisation and contraception.

It called on Australia to “introduce national uniform legislation to ensure that the use of sterilisation, abortion and the administration of contraception can only be carried out with prior, free and fully informed consent”, and to “take immediate steps to replace substitute decision-making with supported decision-making and repeal all legislation that authorises medical intervention without the free and informed consent of the persons concerned”.

The committee will report in May.

#Australia #gender ideology #biological reality #Khadir Kamoun #Another male sex offender who started identifying as a woman while in court #Only 2 years for having a minor to touch him sexually?#Fire that judge #one-off occurrence of public exhibitionism “with a bit more.” WTF #New South Wales #Reproductive violence #Victorian Women’s Health Services Network #Doctors finding excuses to not provide women with access to abortion #Violating international treaties #Family Planning Alliance #The Public Health Association of Australia #Women With Disabilities Australia #long-acting reversible contraceptives (Larc)

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cisnormative-and-proud · 6 months

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Sick of TRAs claiming fictional characters, especially fictional characters from eras where transgenderism was highly abnormal, as "transgender". Sick of the lack of backlash to this behavior.

"Trans activism" will never be retro.

#op is a terf #terfs please interact #terfsafe #terfs do touch #biological reality #gender critical #nostalgia #early 2000s #1990s

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turiyatitta · 27 days

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The Mirage of Self

Unveiling the Illusion of Biological ExistenceIn the profound journey of spiritual awakening, there comes a moment of startling clarity, where the veils of illusion are lifted, and the mystical truth of our existence is unveiled. This truth, often elusive and wrapped in layers of misconception, shatters the conventional belief in our biological reality.Imagine, for a moment, that what you…

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#absolute monism #Biological Reality #Consciousness #Cosmic Play #Eastern Philosophy #Mystical Illusion #nonduality #Oneness #Self-Discovery #spiritual awakening

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sailorgokaidecade · 1 month

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#biological reality #science #womens rights #child protection #biology #scientific truth

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chamerionwrites · 6 months

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Intellectually I understand where people are coming from, but personally I do THE biggest double take every time someone boils down conservative Christian ideology (and/or secularized cultural reflections thereof) to a kind of dour puritanism that proclaims happiness is sin/suffering is a moral good/everyone should be miserable all the time. Like I get it! I do. But also, institutionally, I have never met a group of more passionate worshippers and vicious defenders of their own comfort than evangelical Christians. There is a reason the common thread between my various weird triggers more or less boils down to "toxic positivity." There is a REASON my exvangelical tag is #walking away from omelas.

#one of my biggest problems with half-cooked critiques of christianity tbqh #and fundamentally it's just the flip side of the same coin #to liberal christians going 'well republicans aren't REAL christians bc they flout the teachings of their own holy text'#religions are socially as well as ideologically constructed! 'real' christianity is christianity as it is really practiced!#valid critique WITHIN the faith perhaps but not that meaningful (and in fact kind of willfully dense imo) take on christianity as a whole.#likewise trying to pin the evils of institutional christianity on some fatal underlying theological flaw is getting the issue backwards #in much the same way that treating race as a biological reality as opposed to a social construct is getting things backwards #empires do not rob and murder and enslave because they are racist.#they do those things out of naked self interest and invent racism to justify themselves and prop up their power.#walking away from omelas #my posts

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lilacsupernova · 3 months

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On the face of it, it may seem that the problem lies in discussing biology, since "we must not be limited by our biology." Such assertions appear appealing: we are more than our bodies, biology is not destiny and so forth. Yet if we cannot talk of biology, we cannot mention the word trans either, since what is seldom mentioned is that the category 'biological sex' is in fact a prerequisite for the terms trans and cis. Any mention of the words 'trans' and 'cis' is referring to biological sex. The basis of the dichotomy is precisely the relationship to one's own biological sex. Those who remain in the sex they were born in are now known as 'cis', while those who want to 'cross over' to the other sex are known as 'trans'. When defining cis, the Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research writes without hesitation that those born with a vagina are women, just as Mathilda Aokerlund writes unambiguously about being "born in a specific sex." Thus, the proverbial bathwater is flowing back just as quickly as it was washed down the drain and what is now considered 'problematic' is not talk of biology but an analysis of power based on sex.

This is an example of the asymmetry of gender identity theory. As long as one employs the dichotomy cis/trans, one is permitted to use biological sex as a common denominator. Yet if exactly the same dichotomy is used to advance an analysis of men and women in patriarchy, the thought police are summoned.

– Kajsa Ekis Ekman (2023) On the Meaning of Sex: Thoughts on the New Definition of Woman, p. 232.

#kajsa ekis ekman #on the meaning of sex #radical feminism #feminism #trans #biological reality #mathilda aokerlund #womanhood #sweden #lilac posts

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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 9 months

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By: Richard Dawkins

Published: Jul 26, 2023

In 2011, I was invited to guest edit the Christmas double issue of the New Statesman. I enjoyed the experience, which involved a visit to Christopher Hitchens in Texas to conduct what turned out to be his last interview. I didn’t ask him, “What is a woman?” In 2011, it wouldn’t have occurred to anyone to ask such a daft question. Today it is hurled at embarrassed and perplexed politicians, in tones that are challenging to the point of belligerence. It isn’t hard to imagine Hitchens’ response if he could be asked it today.

My main contribution to that Christmas issue was a long essay on “The tyranny of the discontinuous mind”. Everywhere you look, smooth continua are gratuitously carved into discrete categories. Social scientists count how many people lie below “the poverty line”, as though there really were a boundary, instead of a continuum measured in real income. “Pro-life” and pro-choice advocates fret about the moment in embryology when personhood begins, instead of recognising the reality, which is a smooth ascent from zygotehood. An American might be called “black”, even if seven eighths of his ancestors were white.

Anthropologists quarrel over whether a fossil is late Homo erectus or early Homo sapiens. But it is of the very nature of evolution that there must be a continuous sequence of intermediates. You can vote on your 18th birthday but not before, as though the stroke of midnight signals a quantum leap in your political competence. Universities award first-, upper second-, lower second- and third-class degrees, even though everyone knows that the top of any one class is much further from the bottom of the same class than it is from the bottom of the class above. There are Oxford dons with faith in something they call “the alpha mind”, a Platonic “ideal form”, like a perfect triangle hanging pristine and aloof above messy reality.

If the editor had challenged me to come up with examples where the discontinuous mind really does get it right, I’d have struggled. Tall vs short, fat vs thin, strong vs weak, fast vs slow, old vs young, drunk vs sober, safe vs unsafe, even guilty vs not guilty: these are the ends of continuous if not always bell-shaped distributions. As a biologist, the only strongly discontinuous binary I can think of has weirdly become violently controversial. It is sex: male vs female. You can be cancelled, vilified, even physically threatened if you dare to suggest that an adult human must be either man or woman. But it is true; for once, the discontinuous mind is right. And the tyranny comes from the other direction, as that brave hero JK Rowling could testify.

Sex is a true binary. It all started with the evolution of anisogamy – sexual reproduction where the gametes are of two discontinuous sizes: macrogametes or eggs, and microgametes or sperm. The difference is huge. You could pack 15,000 sperm into one human egg. When two individuals jointly invest in a baby, and one invests 15,000 times as much as the other, you might say that she (see how pronouns creep in unannounced) has made a greater commitment to the partnership.

Anisogamy is the rule in most animals, but it hasn’t always been so. Some primitive animals and plants are still “isogamous”: instead of macrogametes and microgametes, they have medium-sized (iso)gametes. Both partners contribute equally to the joint investment. To make a viable zygote you need the sum of two isogametes, each worth half a zygote. The same requisite sum can be achieved if one partner contributes a slightly smaller isogamete, but this will work only if the other partner chips in with a larger isogamete to redress the shortfall. You could say the minority investor is exploiting the partner who commits the larger gamete.

You can perhaps see where this argument is going, and it has indeed been modelled mathematically. Isogamy is unstable. Under plausible conditions, we get runaway evolution towards some individuals making smaller and smaller gametes, while others go in the other direction, making larger and larger gametes. At the end of the runaway, we now have microgametes that actively seek out macrogametes, and they evolve wriggling tails to propel their pursuit. Macrogametes are in demand, and have no need to go out looking for microgametes. Because microgametes are so small, individuals who make them can afford to make many. Macrogametes have to be few because, as economists love to say, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. The imbalance also means that microgamete producers (“he/him”) can mate with lots of different macrogamete producers (“she/her”), deserting each one in turn. Or they can sequester for themselves a harem of she/hers. There’d be no point in a she/her gathering a harem of he/hims around her: she doesn’t have enough macrogametes to benefit.

The anisogamy binary furnishes the oldest and deepest way to distinguish the sexes. There are others, but they are less universally applicable. In mammals and birds, you can do it with chromosomes. Each body cell of a normal human has 46 chromosomes, 23 from each parent. Among these are two sex chromosomes, called X or Y, one from each parent. Females have two Xs, males one X and one Y. Any mammal with a Y chromosome will develop as a male. When a male makes sperm (“haploid”, having only one set of 23 chromosomes), 50 per cent of them are Y sperm, destined to beget sons, and 50 per cent are X sperm, which make daughters. Birds and butterflies have a similar system, but the other way around. It is females that have XY, except that they’re called ZW. In flies, the equivalent of the Y chromosome is a zero. If a fly has two sex chromosomes she’s female. A fly with only one sex chromosome is male. Many reptiles use temperature instead of chromosomes. Turtles that are incubated below 27.7°C develop as male, warmer eggs as female.

Clownfish determine sex not by temperature but by dominance. All but one of the members of a group are male, and like many animals they sort themselves into a dominance hierarchy. There is only one female in the group. When she dies, the dominant male changes sex and becomes the female. What this means in gametic terms is that his testes shrink and ovaries grow instead. The principle of binary sex at the level of micro- and macro-gametes is maintained. Hermaphrodites such as earthworms and land snails have testes and ovaries all in the same body at the same time. Snails are capable of exchanging sperm both ways, having first violently fired harpoons into each other. Angler fish also have both male and female organs in the same body. But it comes about in a curious way. Males are diminutive dwarves; they locate a female, sink their jaws into her body wall, and then become part of her as no more than a tiny testicular excrescence.

In mammals, including humans, there are occasional intersexes. Babies can be born with ambiguous genitalia. These cases are rare. The highest estimate, 1.7 per cent of the population, comes from the US biologist Anne Fausto-Sterling. But she inflated her estimate hugely by including Klinefelter and Turner syndromes, neither of which are true intersexes. Klinefelter individuals have an extra X chromosome (XXY) but their Y chromosome ensures that they are obvious males, producing microgametes, albeit from reduced testes. Turner individuals are unambiguous females with no Y chromosome and only one (functioning) X chromosome. They have a vagina and uterus, and their ovaries, if any, are non-functional. Obviously, Klinefelter (always male) and Turner (always female) individuals must be eliminated from counts of intersexes, in which case Fausto-Sterling’s estimate shrinks from 1.7 per cent to less than 0.02 per cent. Genuine intersexes are way too rare to challenge the statement that sex is binary. There are two sexes in mammals, and that’s that.

But what about gender? What is gender, and how many genders are there? It is now fashionable to use “gender” for what we might call fictive sex: a person’s “gender” is the sex to which they feel that they belong, as opposed to their biological sex. In this meaning, “genders” have proliferated wildly. When I last heard, there were 83. But that was yesterday. What does “gender” actually mean?

Language evolves, and many words change their meaning on a timescale of centuries. But “gender” has been fast-tracked. It is primarily a linguistic technical term. Linguists classify words of a given language according to such things as the suffixes on adjectives that qualify them, or their agreeing pronouns and articles. All French nouns follow either le or la. They take different pronouns, and adjectives agree with them in a gendered way (le chapeau blanc but la robe blanche). Normally (there are exceptions, such as la souris for a mouse of either sex) males are le and females la. This makes it convenient to use the label “masculine” for le words and “feminine” for la words. Table is a feminine word, but French speakers don’t think of a table as a female piece of furniture. It’s just a la word. Lithuanian also has two genders, but possessive pronouns agree with the gender of the possessor (as in English) whereas in French they agree with the gender of the object possessed. Estonian has only one gender, which I suppose means no gender – the very idea of gender is meaningless. Some Bantu languages such as Nyanja, the dominant language of my childhood home of Malawi, have many. Steven Pinker’s The Language Instinct quotes Kivunjo as having 16 genders. These are not 16 sexual identities, they are 16 families of nouns classified according to how verbs agree with them.

In English, as in French, gender and sex align. All female animals are of feminine gender, all males are masculine, all inanimate things are neuter (with whimsical exceptions such as ships and nations, which can be feminine). Because of the perfect correlation between sex and gender in English grammar, it was natural for English speakers to adopt “gender” as a genteel euphemism for sex: “Sam is of female gender” sounded more polite than “of female sex”.

But that convention recently gave way to another one. The fashion for females to “identify as” male and for males to “identify as” female has emplaced an assertive new convention. Your genes and chromosomes may determine your sex, but your gender is whatever floats your boat: “I was assigned male at birth, but I identify as a woman.” Finally, the wheel turns full circle, and self-identification has now gone so far as to usurp even “sex”. A “woman” is defined as anyone who chooses to call herself a woman, and never mind if she has a penis and a hairy chest. And of course this entitles her to enter women’s changing rooms and athletic competitions. Why should she not? She is, after all, a woman, is she not? Deny it and you are a transphobic bigot.

High priests of postmodernism teach that lived experience and feelings trump science (which is just the mythology of a tribe of oppressive colonialists). Catholic (but not Protestant) theologians declare that consecrated wine actually becomes the blood of Christ. The dilute alcohol solution that remains in the chalice is but an Aristotelian “accidental”. The “whole substance” (hence the word “transubstantiation”) is divine blood in true reality. In the new religion of transsexual transubstantiation, a “woman’s penis” is just an “accidental”, a mere social construct. In “whole substance” she is a woman. A trans-substantiated woman.

Sarcasm aside, gender dysphoria is a real thing. Those who sincerely feel themselves born in the wrong body deserve sympathy and respect. I was convinced of this when I read Jan Morris’s moving memoir, Conundrum (1974). As what she called a “true transsexual”, she distanced herself from “the poor cast-aways of intersex, the misguided homosexuals, the transvestites, the psychotic exhibitionists, who tumble through this half-world like painted clowns, pitiful to others and often horrible to themselves”. Under “misguided” she might have added today’s unfortunate children who, latching on to a playground craze, find themselves eagerly affirmed by “supportive” teachers, and au courant doctors with knives and hormones. See Abigail Shrier’s Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters (2020); Kathleen Stock’s Material Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism (2021); and Helen Joyce’s Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality (2021). Many of us know people who choose to identify with the sex opposite to their biological reality. It is polite and friendly to call them by the name and pronouns that they prefer. They have a right to that respect and sympathy. Their militantly vocal supporters do not have a right to commandeer our words and impose idiosyncratic redefinitions on the rest of us. You have a right to your private lexicon, but you are not entitled to insist that we change our language to suit your whim. And you absolutely have no right to bully and intimidate those who follow common usage and biological reality in their usage of “woman” as honoured descriptor for half the population. A woman is an adult human female, free of Y chromosomes.

#Richard Dawkins #biology #human biology #biology denialism #biology denial #gender ideology #identify as #queer theory #reality denial #biological reality #gender studies #religion is a mental illness

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