Philippa Gregory thinks that two sexes, male and female, is a "myth"

Whatever the term is, they do exist. And given there are so many transgender people around and I'm sure it's not a 'lifestyle' most would choose so many of the comments here are so ignorant and dismissive. I bet people were like this about gay people too about 50 years ago.

Hermaphrodite is an outdated and inaccurate term.

It isn't, it's not outdated or inaccurate in mollusks or tunicates, also in flowering plants, but it's extremely rare in vertebrates and unheard of in mammals and also in birds. I think people who bring the term up to claim there are more than two sexes have no idea what it means.

Well she can think what she likes. She is of course entitled to her opinion just as we are entitled to think she is a wagon jumper of the worst kind.

No there isn't. Hermaphrodite is an outdated and inaccurate term. There are people with disorders of sexual development who are ALL either male with a male specific disorder or female with a female specific disorder.

DSDs affect only 0.017% of the population, they aren't common.

*citation needed

Erm, there is such a think as hermaphrodites? Its actually quite common

So has she (or anyone) come up with an actual example for someone of the 3,4,5 etc. sex, and if anyone suggests a book I could read on it that is proably the mess the author has got themselves in the first place

Or to rephrase it in plain speak:

why do supposedly intellectually honest people keep deliberately confusing what is easy and simple to tell apart?

I thought the explanation of how Women were supposed to have to orgasm to conceive in the 14th century so men were expected to know how to make them orgasm to women aren't even supposed to want sex by the 18th century interesting.

If this is true, might have to clear my search history medieval sex and orgasm might throw up some interesting ads 🤣

Reviving the thread not that anyone might be interested as I knew her book would have been discussed here!

I wonder how well researched it is I'm listening to it on audible so can't see the references?

Such a shame as if factual she sets out the history of women over time well.

I believe it was Christopher Hitchens who said, "If you make an extraordinary claim, you need extraordinary evidence." I'd like to hear from PG her 'extraordinary evidence', or even an example, to support her claim that two sexes are a myth. Is she in possession of a petri dish with a new gamete? May we look through her magical microscope and see?

Just read that extract from her book! It’s mind numbingly stupid! These are the terrible arguments you have to create to defend gender ideology.

Absolutely this.

Because despite their professed progressiveness, they’re actually quite conservative and can’t perceive a feminine man as a ‘real man’ and a masculine woman as still a woman.

Scratch a ‘progressive’ GI fan and you’ll find regressive attitudes underneath.

Nailed it.

I'm so sick of reading this gender crap. It's making kids sick and making them want to mutilate their perfectly healthy bodies.
I agree some people genuinely feel they have been born the wrong sex and want to have surgery and treatment for it, fair enough but most are just kids and they don't need this kind of confusion when they are growing up. It just adds to the already difficult time of puberty.
Certainly when I was growing up I wanted to be a boy, I hung out with boys and wasn't interested in dolls. Now I'm a perfectly normal if rather mannish woman and I'm just so glad I didn't have the pressure of worrying about gender dysphoria and treatments for it in my teens, I just needed time and space to find and accept the kind of woman I eventually turned out to be without any interference from anyone else.

Anyone who goes by the words of Anne fuckin Fausto-Sterling should not be taken seriously. Absolute joker.

Personally I will take the opinion of Professor Lord Robert Winston who has spent an entire , very distinguished medical career dealing with the outcome of the differences between women and men and whose stated view is that there are two sexes, female and male, over that of Phillippa Gregory no matter how many novels she has sold.

Philippa Gregory thinks that two sexes, male and female, is a "myth"

Well Phillipa Gregory is a fucking idiot then, isn't she?

Some people are just so full of shit.
Everyone's jumping on this ridiculous bandwagon right now.

When this fad fizzles out, you just know these people will backtrack and come out with all sorts of bollocks yet again.

Was being kind.
Afraid to speak out.
Didn't understand biology.
Etc etc

I am afraid 'rapey and salacious' sells.

Most historians don't do that sort of history. Indeed, Marxist history (still current) is only interested in movements, economics and social change on the general scale. Rape in warfare doesn't make much of an entrance - which is probably why most people are still surprised rape happens in war. It's a weapon.

She is historically inaccurate all the time.

It is good news though- we only need to fear the men we know rather than all men, seeing as men are unlikely to attack women they don't know. Hoorah.

I'm infuriated by PG here. We can only reproduce as a species by having one of each biological sex getting involved. Or one of each gamete if you want to put the finer point on it. Does she not understand that gender is the adjective, but sex is the indisputable fact.

I read a Jenny Coogan book where she had a supporting character who was a transwoman. She found love and romance with a man who overlooked his sexual orientation (straight) because she was so lovely and gender is more important amiright. The joyful gaslighting was worrying.