This is a new one to me...

[MatildaCat]

I've heard of multiple genders (am GC myself) but someone I was talking to earlier was telling me that there were actually multiple sexes because male is blue, female is red and people who are intersex could be any number of shades of purple.

Is this a thing? Is it tied up in TRAism? She told me it was widely accepted but has no source/evidence despite being a medical professional. I've looked myself but can't find anything.

In what way am I red? I identify as amazonite at weekends and burnt umber on weekdays.

Ask them what the sexes are called
Ask them if they know where babies come from

Just looking at my son who doesn't look very blue to me. I'm only red after a glass of wine.

What colour is the third gamete?

Widely accepted by whom? Herself and her multiple personalities?

Ha love these snippy retorts. I told her it was widely believed rather than accepted at which point she made out that I was denying the existance of intersex. She also questioned my wording when I called intersex a condition. It's all language and arguments I've heard before but always apropos gender issues, not sex.

But she was very clear that she was talking about sex, not gender.

Intersex is a condition I dont recall reading about anyone who has this medical condition and be blase about it 🤷‍♀️

She's presumably one of the ignorant people who assume that intersex people are neither male nor female but various intermediate sexes.

Are you likely to have to deal with her again? Because if you are I'd suggest asking her to specify these third and subsequent sexes. When she flounders tell her these additional sexes don't exist, and that people with disorders of sexual development are still either male or female.

Is there any reason why you have to listen to this twaddle? I would just walk away.

It's bollox, because 'intersex' people, ie people with genetic variations that cause differences in sexual development (ie DSD), are still either male or female. A person is male if he has a Y chromosome. He's not a bit purpler, more female, if he also happens to have two X chromosomes. Any more than a woman born with only one X chromosome is a bit purpler, less female, than one born with the normal complement of two X chromosomes. An XO woman is just as female as an XX woman.

There are some DSDs that are complicated and the person's sex may be unclear, but they are still not on some bizarre sort of spectrum between male and female.

Realised my OP makes it sound like I was quite passive. I wasn't. I told her that the definition of male and female is having either large or small gametes, that intersex people produce either large or small gametes (or none) but not additional types of gametes. I told her the NHS website describes intersex as a genetic condition etc I had a response based on actual science and facts (nothing 'widely accepted') thanks to a couple of years lurking on these boards.

I didn't walk away because, initially, I had hoped to reason but she can be very dismissive if she thinks she's right. Should have known it would be a waste of time. I wouldn't describe her as particularly bright but was floored when she said she had been told this (probably on a woke training day), hadn't questioned it and just accepted it because she's met intersex people through her work. She said I was denying their existence, at which point the conversation ended as it was futile and becoming combative.

Send her this useful diagram. If she’s educated, be prepared for the fact that she might notice the egg and the sperm are not in proportion.

Did she take one of those stupid "sex spectrum" graphs too literally? Example below, and a more accurate spectrum that showed up (from Mumsnet!) when I googled this.

Thank fuck no one showed her the Barbie- GI Joe one.

lmfao at your educational chart, Prion

Careful Kantastic Prion’s acquaintance would probably think it is true.

"She told me it was widely accepted but has no source/evidence despite being a medical professional." (my bolding)

What the hell kind of 'medical professional' is she?

there were actually multiple sexes because male is blue, female is red and people who are intersex could be any number of shades of purple.

What...? Did she expand on this at all?

Spotted this in the wild. It seems appropriate..

What the hell kind of 'medical professional' is she?
A self-IDed 'medical professional' by the sound of it!

Male is blue how? Is this supposed to represent in meme type form that male/female characteristics can appear in different proportions in the very very tiny proportion of people affected by DSDs?

Who are still either male or female?

Blue is two legs, red is no legs, there are humans born due to disorders of development with various shades of purple legs. Does that mean the human race is not bipedal? Or just that we ought to pretend they're not bipedal as some sentimental empty gesture to suggest that having purple type leg formation is not a disorder at all but a superpower/ other trite simile to be 'nice'?

As an individual affected by the rough end of disability this stuff really pisses me off. My body is not gifted with a superpower, it's a body that was fucked up at the genetic level by something going wrong. It is faulty. There's a problem with it. It's ok to say that.

What a load of incurious, unscientific, utter balls. Did she bother to go and look at any websites set up by intersex people about their conditions?

I am red due to Rosacea and menopausal hot flushes.

Love this!!