Eeksteek
I am sorry this is long, but I wanted to reply to your long post since you put so much effort into it.
Chromosomes? Are we chromosome testing these kids?
Hermaphratidism in people happens.
Please do not bring people’s differenced in sex development into this as a counterpoint. Maybe you got it from your biology degree, but it was a weak argument there for destabilising known science about sex in humans.
In fact, the overwhelming majority of those with differences in sex development are in fact categorised into male and female due to their specific medical condition. Something you would know from your degree.
Please take notice of those across the internet with these medical conditions, and stop using them for your own political purpose. Whatever that is.
Hermaphratidism in people happens. Some people have a mix of sexual organs.
No one is born with both ovaries and testes that both work. That is point. And very miniscule numbers of people with differences of sex development are born with both. About 500 people have had ovotesticular disorder from a study I have read. And about two thirds of those have a combined tissue of ovotestes. I am sure you must know this if you studied it in your degree.
But, I am very happy to see other facts about this. I would love to see the information that convinced you.
hormone levels.
Yes. PCOS is a female medical condition and it produces an increased amount of testosterone. The increase barely touches, if at all, the male range. It is normal within the female range. I have attached a chart below, apologies that it is unclear. I believe the person who produced it has been suspended from twitter for stating biological sex exists. It comes from some of the information contained in this paper though.
academic.oup.com/edrv/article/39/5/803/5052770
Dr Handelman is an Endocrinologist and his particular speciality is testosterone and its impact on human bodies.
Again, I don’t feel that PCOS is not a strong enough reason to say that males can be female etc. It does not weaken what defines a female or a male in terms of reproduction, which is the purpose of sex categories.
And again, adding artificial sex organs or removing sex organs is just that. Adding artificial sex organs to any person is a male or female with artificial sex organs. And same with the removal. Of course, it does not change the genetic make up of the body.
Plenty of other hormones can be affected by all kinds of things. They must be, otherwise we couldn’t alter them with medications. Some times, the levels are normal, but some people are more sensitive than others, so even an objective hormone range isn’t definitive.
If a male artificially changes their hormone levels, they are simply males with artificially changed hormone levels. They are not female. If a male retains their testes, and stops suppressing their testosterone, their cells will revert to producing testosterone. If they remove their testes, they will still not be female… just males without testes who need supplemental hormones.
Again, it does not weaken proven science on the reproductive needs of the human race.
External sex organs? Y’all know blokes with boobs, right? And anyway, they don’t always correspond with chromosomes, which is the ultimate biological sex, even though it isn’t always accurate. So we’ve come full circle.
Of course, males have breasts. Breasts on females are there to feed infants and have a different tissue arrangement to do this. Males do not have all these components within the breast. Yes, they may secrete a substance, but it is not designed to feed nutrition to a child at a specific age, under specific conditions. It is not comparable as a nutrition source to infants.
So… yes, they have breasts, but that doesn’t influence whether they can change sex. Males have moobs too. Still not a female breast.
So, we need a real mix of characteristics to define sex. It’s much more nebulous scientifically than people seem to think. And while wild discrepancies are well documented in the medical literature, as it’s so complex its hardly surprising there are more mild cases of gender fluidity. Because gender is different from sex anyway. It’s not physical, is a societal construct. It’s how we treat people based on their appearance, which is never a good thing, is it?
Sex is binary. You require a sperm and an egg to create a new life. There is no third sex and never has been.
I am happy if you have other information though, please do share it.
A female human has a body formed around the production of eggs, the large gamete that is needed to reproduce, whether that body has ever, will ever, or is producing those large gametes. The stage of production is irrelevant for the categorisation of those females being categorised as females. It matters very much on a personal level for that individual, but not for the sex categorisation.
Female bodies come with a very wide range of differences. But they are ALL formed around that specific function.
No male can change sex. Ever. There are no third sexes. There are no humans producing a third gamete, and nor are they self-fertilising.
And with that female body, comes negative sexist discrimination, bodily control and abuse. Because of the female body.
Should we be ensuring children’s health is protected and teens have good mental health support? Hell yes. Should we be protecting women’s spaces and (especially) sporting events? Yep, for sure. Are there likely to be other issues. Yep. Can we solve is without all this hyperbole and hysteria around ‘knowing what a woman is?’ Of course, if people calm down and stop being so childish about it.
If you cannot have a stable definition of what is a female in law, you cannot protect females.
We have seen this already through many instances where the word ‘woman’ has been used to allow males access into female single sex spaces, sports, roles set aside for females for a variety of needs and the list goes on. This is not a drill. This has already happened in the UK in some areas of policy. You can call it hyperbole and hysteria, however, some of us will work towards reversing these changes that are already beginning to cause harm where sex actually does matter.
The harm has already been done to our children, it is too late for some, but not for others. The changes are now underway because of that very ‘hyperbole and hysteria’ you are denouncing.
If you are untouched by these changes, then in my opinion, you are in a privileged position in this instance. Others have been harmed, I am about working to strengthen their protections and get their needs met.
So by all means be sceptical about trans people. But don’t claim it’s a scientifically sound position on gender, because it’s not.
I don’t believe anyone who has followed this closely makes that position. Sex is scientifically proven to be either male and female and this has not changed for millennia or more. Gender is completely different.
And don’t claim that it’s feminist position either.
Sorry, what is this feminist position you are referring to please?
It’s a patriarchal strategy to divide and rule, as always. We are going to end up with a patriarchal Tory government (again) because they have successfully convinced the large majority of women that a tiny sub-set of trans women threaten their rights and identity. When the actual problem is, as it always has been, the patriarchy.
Sure. The Patriarchy. … who are they again? Which people are the patriarchy please?