My school science department is confusing sex with gender

[beatrice14]

To all you wise mumsnetters out there,

I know I'm not really the right demographic for this board, (I'm 15), but I've really enjoyed lurking and reading posts here, and I was interested to see what people on here might think about this. My science teacher just sent round this email which mixed up sex and gender and then said that sex was a spectrum, and conflated intersex with transgender. I'm gender critical myself, and I disagreed with a lot of it, and found it rather odd. I've pasted it below, with the links they sent.
As we approach half term midway through this month of LGBT+ History month, you might like to read some of the materials below on the biology of sex and gender. We think it’s important to recognise that, whilst biology textbooks teach about sex in a fairly binary way, X and Y chromosomes are by no means the only factors that determine biological gender. It’s also important to note the damage that a binary concept of gender can have on the physical and mental health of those who don’t identify as male or female, or as their assigned gender. The following links might give you some interesting scientific material that presents the concept of gender in a much more recognised spectrum. To quote the final article in this list, which summarises it so well:

“Science tells us that gender is certainly not binary; it may not even be a linear spectrum. Like many other facets of identity, it can operate on a broad range of levels and operate outside of many definitions. And it also appears that gender may not be as static as we assume. At the forefront of this, transgender identity is complex – it’s unlikely we’ll ever be able to attribute it to one neat, contained set of causes, and there is still much to be learned.”

Articles

Sex Redefined: The Idea of 2 Sexes Is Overly Simplistic - Scientific American

Sex isn't binary, and we should stop acting like it is (massivesci.com)

Sex redefined : Nature News & Comment

When Sex and Gender Collide - Scientific American

Between the (Gender) Lines: the Science of Transgender Identity - Science in the News (harvard.edu)

Podcasts

BBC Radio 4 - BBC Inside Science, Sex, gender and sport - the Caster Semenya case and the latest Denisovan discovery

We hope these provide an interesting source of material for you to extend your understanding of this important topic.

I think the right approach is to ask the teacher to avoid using gender at all and to differentiate between sex and gender identity. You could claim to find it confusing and ask for clarity of which she means where, as you are finding it a bit jumbled.

Gender is too widely used synonymously with sex, and as a term to mean the consequences and associations of your sex, to just hand it over to mean identity. We should always insist on "gender identity," as the term when it is right to do so. Keeping things clear also means you are less likely to talk in circles and give people the original meaning of gender to bring into arguments around identity.

OP I am so pleased to see someone your age actually questioning all the gender ideology that is being pushed on you from so many angles. As others have said, sadly your best course of action may be to get your parents to raise this with the school for you (rather than doing it yourself) - although that does not stop you wording the email for them!
I would suggest that, so this does not get swept under the carpet, they email all of the following: head teacher, head of safeguarding and head of personal development (may be one teacher or two) and copy in the link governors for safeguarding, quality of education and personal development (there will definitely be one for safeguarding, maybe not for the others/they may have different titles)). I am a school governor and it is really, really important that other governors start to see how important this issue is so that they can hold schools to account. As this is not subject matter that is on the science curriculum it seems to me it will therefore fall to be assessed under the RSE policy which, as others have mentioned, has new guidelines that cover this sort of thing so you should raise questions about how the school thinks this material fits in with the RSE guidance. Take a look on the Transgender Trend and Safe Schools Alliance website to look at their resources about RSE teaching which should help you word the email for your parents to send.

Good luck OP. Let us know how you get on and whether your parents are happy to speak for you (though you can clearly speak very well and clearly for yourself).

Of course there's a gender spectrum. My husband loves shopping, chatting, looking after people. I'm the opposite. But I still know I'm female and he's male. Two sexes (apart from the miniscule proportion of intersex) - genders all over the place.

Hi,
Thanks for all this stuff and for fixing the links 😊
I will check the RSE guidance rules and ask my mother to send an email to the people MsFogi mentioned. I definitely won't raise it with the teacher myself, (who's taught me for two years running), as I have a feeling it might get nasty.
, you are joking about the teacher not having a biology degree, aren't you? She isn't a new teacher, and is actually a year head as well. The thing is, I'm not sure if I can complain it was bad RSE, because strictly speaking it was an extra email sent to all the year groups about LGBT history month,but I will still have a go. For a bit of info, I don't want to be outing, but my school is a well-thought-of independent school, and they have made quite a big thing about being transinclusive. They brought the 'genderbread' thingy in last year, for the Year 8s.

Sorry, the person I was asking it they were joking ( I hope) 😂was Still I Rise.

Of course there's a gender spectrum

Although spectrum is the wrong word because spectrum implies a continuum.

“Spectrum: any of various continua that resemble a color spectrum in consisting of an ordered arrangement by a particular characteristic (such as frequency or energy): such as
(1) : ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM
(2) : RADIO SPECTRUM
(3) : the range of frequencies of sound waves”. (Merriam Webster)

People aren’t that easy to organise.

This is also why ‘sex is a spectrum’ doesn’t work.

An independent school? I'd ask for my money back. That said, independent school teaching has always been more about social capital than content, and teaching the new elites to fit in. This is an elite ideology. Maybe that explains it.

What your teacher is teaching you is not science. This should not be included in science teaching. It's full-on misinformation. (To a previous poster who thinks 'intersex' people are neither male or female, that's also not the case.) The fact that she is muddling the boundaries between sex education and relationship education makes it even worse as AFAIK the two have to have separate teaching now.

Isn't it the case that independent schools have more leeway when it comes to recruiting? And yes, it may well be the case that your teacher doesn't have a biology degree, and even if she does, maybe she studied the biology of clownfish and is therefore confused.

A biology teacher who doesn't recognise the difference between fish and mammals? If that were the case then there are bigger issues.

link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12129-020-09877-8

Send her this.

The pieces she cited are opinion pieces and blogs in scientific magazines and websites and not published journal articles.

www.transgendertrend.com/department-for-education-rse-guidance-schools/ I know she didn't circulate that info as part of a lesson but would imagine all info from school needs to be lawful

OP it is worth reading up a little on the hierarchy of evidence. Opinion pieces are basically the gossip column of the scientific world and at best just tell you what the author thinks. Narrative reviews are little better and the worst simply reference opinion pieces. Then you have observational studies - retrospective or prospective. These show you what happened to the subjects but you have no way of knowing whether this would have happened anyway, whether they might have done better if left alone, whether any change was caused by something completely different, etc. Observational studies are about as good as it gets in terns of evidence for transideology but most articles tend to be just narrative reviews.

What is really needed is good double blinded randomised controlled trials.

Yes - get your parents to fight this fight.

I think you seriously need to consider the effect on your grades and future if you challenge the teacher as the head of bio. If they're a lovely person willing to have an intellectual discussion that's great. A lot of people in authority are petty and will punish students they think are in the wrong/ uppity/ bigots.

There are a lot of accurate evidence based arguments being suggested here but your school is not a fun online chat. Consider how much power this person could have on your schooling outcomes.

I second others' advice not to engage with this directly yourself, op. You don't want to get yourself I to hot water (not that it should, but it sounds like your school is very 'woke' and won't take kindly to your comments). Get your parents to complain to the Head. In a private school parents have a lot of power as they pay the wages - the Head won't want to be pissing off parents.

I agree, I will definitely NOT mention it myself, especially I have been in trouble with her a few times for late hw, and she is a... firm disciplinarian. I'll ask my parents if they could get clarification on the school's position on gender and sex teaching in RSE, especially as these subjects really ought to be addressed in class when they can be discussed freely, i.e. PSHE, and not in a throwaway email presented like it's not up for debate. Thanks again for all the advice, this is why I love mumsnet!

OP sadly I wasn't joking about the biology degree. Schools often find it hard to recruit suitable staff, partcularly in STEM subjects and it's not at all unknown for people to be teaching subjects where they have no advanced knowledge. Although this is less likely for an exam level class.
As you are at an independent school I guess this is less likely. However AFAIK independent schools can appoint who they like, so you might get the situation in reverse, ie a 'teacher' very well qualified in their subject, but with no teaching qualification. On the plus side, I imagine the consumers voice carries more weight at an independent school.
Good Luck !

Not only is this not the curriculum, I suspect it might be the total opposite of the curriculum, and if you answered anything GCSE like with this twaddle, you would fail! Biological gender, sex is a spectrum nonsense indeed..from a bloody teacher. What a state the country is in right now.

I have sent an email to the head via my mum, who is supportive, and I'm also mentioning it on the anonymous feedback form for PSHE/RSE. I actually can't believe how many wrong statements there were in what she wrote and the articles she sent! From stuff I've read on here, I think that many intersex people find being lumped with transgender issues offensive, as like a pp said, it sort of implies they're a third sex, which they're not. (Correct me if I'm wrong). Also, I've said that the school promised last year to make RSE more inclusive for LGB people, but it turns out we only get information about the T! I'm a bit apprehensive about the email to the head, but she does say that if someone actually transitioned to become male they would have to leave, so she might see sense.
Thanks for all the advice!

I'd have been tempted to engage with it at face value. If gender is a spectrum, is it a one or two dimensional spectrum? If it is one-dimensional, from male to female, then does each person have an intrinsic value between 0 and 1 and a position at which they lie along the axis (even if this value is unmeasurable)? If it is two dimensional, then what are the names of the axes? If there are more than two dimensions, what are the axes that define these dimensions? If it is dimensionless, in what manner is it a spectrum? What is her definition of a spectrum? Is this different to the usual scientific definition of a spectrum? Would she classify the statement "gender is a spectrum" as a scientific fact, an opinion or a belief?

I'm a bit apprehensive about the email to the head, but she does say that if someone actually transitioned to become male they would have to leave, so she might see sense.
Is this an all-girl school?

"but she does say that if someone actually transitioned to become male they would have to leave"

Oops sorry posted too soon. You can't change sex and under 18s can't change their legal sex. If yours is a single sex school then girls who decide to identify as boys are still girls (female). To ask a girl to leave because she idwntifies as a boy would be gender reassignment discrimination.

I'm a bit apprehensive about the email to the head, but she does say that if someone actually transitioned to become male they would have to leave, so she might see sense.

I read this the opposite of hopeful. As she seems to be saying that if a girl decides she identified as a boy, she IS a boy and would need to leave the school. Which presumaby means, transgirls (male people) can join because of their magical inner female essence or something? So seems 100% convinced by gender woo at the moment.

Unless I am reading that wrong. If I am reading it right, thats really not a good start.

Hi Tibtom and Head,
Sorry, I didn't explain very well. The policy is (I think) that if a sixth-former turned 18, while still at school, and had the op, to become male, they would need to leave school early, as they would be 'male in the eyes of the law'.But if someone wanted to be called a boy's name etc, but was too young to have the op, they would not be asked to leave. On the same note, she wouldn't accept transgirls. (If they were old enough to have had the op, they would only be able to join for a few months, so she doesn't think it would be worth allowing transgirls to join. So I think she's alright.

Oh, and I forgot to say, but yes, it is an all-girls' school.

Hi,
Sorry for the gap, I haven't got a reply yet, (the teachers are busy dealing with going back), but we've received some more strange stuff for LGBT History Month. An older girl who runs the gay society sent an email about butch and femme lesbians, and I thought that was a good sign that maybe the teachers will focus on the gay element, and not get preoccupied with gender issues. But she included this in her email-
'' Butch women present themselves masculinely, often wearing clothes and taking on roles within relationships typically associated with men. Often butches aren’t just gender non-conforming in appearance, but further find themselves estranged from being a woman in terms of gender identity. As a result, some butch lesbians choose to use different pronouns to refer to themselves or pursue some form of medical transition, for instance by taking testosterone. This was sometimes done out of safety, to make it easier for them to fit into a society where gender non-conformity is often punished, but equally is often done out of desire to create a body which they feel more comfortable in. ''
I don't want to offend people if this is accurate, and I've no objection to people doing that if it's truly right for them, but I thought, from reading on here and my own experiences, that butch lesbians don't want to be men, but want to dress and behave in a more stereotypically masculine way. I didn't realize that for some they actually want to take testosterone. Sorry to resurrect the thread, but I wanted to see what you guys thought.If the email's not right, it feels like conflating lesbians with transmen. Thanks!