NZ Chief Scientific Advisor says there are more than two sexes

Anything that brings a smile to our faces in these surprising times is worth chuckling over.

...Got me!

Could be worse. What happens when a marine biologist is out of their depth?

Thinking about how an agronomist operates outside their field makes me smile.

She got her PhD in 1992, which is pre-web, but it's not much of an excuse.

She's an agronomist. It raises the question about any govt scientific adviser and what they do about questions outside their field?

(...ask?)

I think the NZ chief advisor's biggest problem with using Wikipedia to support her claim might not be about the widespread perception of Wikipedia's unreliability; it might be more about her inability to understand Wikipedia's actual content, probably mistakenly assuming that Wikipedia's text such as "(Intersex people) do not fit the typical definitions for male or female bodies" must mean that there are more than two human sexes . Either way, her reputation is damaged.

Wikipedia can still be a very useful source of sources.
If they go to the actual sources, read them and reference from them-that would be fine. But students who have paid any attention to their library/information resources sessions would know how to use and search the university's journal collection to find what they need without going to Wiki. If they quote directly from Wiki - as in not going to the original source and using it almost as a secondary citation-that would not be considered good academic practice.

Biochemist with a PhD from Oxford.

(Am now as dubious of the Oxford science degrees as I am of Cameron's First in PPE.)

I'm starting to become more and more convinced that people are being trolled by 4channers and cyber-soldiers, and they are falling for it. There's a lot of cyber-warfare surrounding race issues, with the aim of destabilising societies

Completely agree.

Is the NZ science bod from a non-life science background, by any chance? I had a ridiculous conversation with a physics PhD re trans issues last year. I was

howlsmovingcastle84 wrote - "The first thing we tell our students when they start their degree is-do not use Wikipedia as a reference, ever!"

Wikipedia can still be a very useful source of sources.

The Wikipedia article about "Sex" cites multiple peer-reviewed sources that support the biological mainstream idea that there are only two biological sexes in humans, e.g. Proceedings: Biological Sciences, and Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology. The first sentence of the article even cites the Oxford English Dictionary's long-established biology-based binary definition of sex.

The only mention of sex spectrum that I found in Wikipedia's article about "Sex" is in its "Further reading" section that merely lists an article titled "Sex redefined: The idea of two sexes is simplistic. Biologists now think there is a wider spectrum than that". This spectrum article was was published in "Nature", which is a major scientific journal.

Rubbish is published in allegedly reputable sources much more often than is generally acknowledged by university staff, so students should treat all sources with care, even if university staff lull their students into a false sense of security by rubbishing Wikipedia while giving other sources the "all clear".

I can't see on Wikipedia where it says sex isn't binary...

I'm starting to become more and more convinced that people are being trolled by 4channers and cyber-soldiers, and they are falling for it.

There's a lot of cyber-warfare surrounding race issues, with the aim of destabilising societies, and I suspect the same now goes for transgender issues. It wouldn't surprise me if some activists are Philbys.

Oh dear god. How deeply embarrassing. I think resignation is the way forward here. Perhaps followed by transitioning to erase this unfortunate incident.

Its such a bizarre tweet that I could believe that their account was hacked and this had been posted by an activist. But it seems not!

OH MY GOD!
And recommending wikipedia?
I fucking well give up!

The Aunties also use the T*RF word on their Twitter more than once. A charity to help women escaping domestic violence at the hands of men, uses a slur against women?!? I can’t believe I previously donated to such awful people.

Maybe JY has made all of those anonymous donations h**self?

Also now seen The Aunties, a registered charity, is asking for regular donations to pay Auntie Jackie $2,000 a month ( I think that’s a lot ), and it’s Chair is Michele Arcourt who is very much TWAW and tweeted recently something about how she would have no issue explaining to her 6 year old granddaughter if they questioned why a transwomen was in the changing rooms, that women have different bodies or some rubbish.

We are not dealing with a clever bunch of people here at all.

I wonder if England’s Chief Medical officer Professor Dame Sally Davies might confirm that there are two sexes?

It might be very helpful for discussions in the UK.

It's still there. Its under Tweets and Replies for me.

I just noticed that the ‘science’ officer was replying to Speak up for women re a tweet from ‘ The Aunties’ in NZ about gender. The Aunties are very strange and say some weird stuff on race, and said pacific cultures don’t use tins of tomatoes and chickpeas and it was an insult that people kept donating this stuff. Well, I’m Māori and I can tell you, we ALWAYS had tinned veggies, esp tinned tomatoes. It’s rude to imply we can only cook certain food or that we aren’t smart enough to figure out how to use simple ingredients in our own traditional cooking. Sorry, slightly off topic!

Has this tweet been removed? I can't see it. But a few days ago the account tweeted a link to "Thoughtful piece on the need to move past ‘magical thinking’ and towards joined up evidence based thinking " but only when dealing with compostable packaging. (How do you embed tweets onto MN forums?)

Hasn’t the good doctor just come back from NZ? Maybe he’s been helping with some scientific education over there?

Wiki ffs????

In reproductive terms, what would be the point of sex being a spectrum?

What are the third/fourth/fifth etc gametes and who has them?

Can you show me some humans who have been born from these gametes combining?

Woke muppet, she should be ashamed of that load of pish.

From JY
Sex and gender, for example, are social constructs. So why does society continue to segregate people based on their social constructs that can be changed? It's wrong.

Shocked that 4 people total $240.

The replies are great.
The Cheif Science Advisor has gone very quiet.

I loved someone's reply-
"She's talking ScieNZ"