Famous evolutionary biologist forced to confirm that 'humans are not worms'

[ArabellaScott]

https://twitter.com/RichardDawkins/status/1753045097959100600

Thank you, Prof.

This is such a clear explanation. It’s beautiful. Perhaps if you’d taught me some science at school I’d have stuck with it. I’m fascinated now but feel a bit old to learn new tricks!

Emeritus Professor of Fertility Studies is forced to say 'you cannot change your sex'.

'I was rather hoping that you'd be interested in my opinion as a biologist which just seems rather more important, because, well, I'm just saying - I will say this categorically - that you cannot change your sex.

Your sex actually is there in every single cell in the body; you have a chromosomal sex, you have genetic sex, you have hormonal sex, you have all sorts of different kinds of psychological brain sex - they're all different and we are very confused about this, unfortunately, and regrettably it's got into this argument that people are now, would, will now accuse me of being transphobic. '

Thank you, Professor Winston.

Are we Fishes
Or are we fungus?
My scales are flaking
My spores are floating
And I'm in the woodland
Looking for the answer
Are we fishes
Or are we fungus?

https://academic.oup.com/edrv/article/42/3/219/6159361

'Sex is an important biological variable that must be considered in the design and analysis of human and animal research. The terms sex and gender should not be used interchangeably. Sex is dichotomous, with sex determination in the fertilized zygote stemming from unequal expression of sex chromosomal genes. By contrast, gender includes perception of the individual as male, female, or other, both by the individual and by society; both humans and animals have sex, but only humans have gender. Both sexes produce estrogens, androgens, and progestins; there are no male- or female-specific sex hormones, per se, although these steroids are present in substantially different levels in males and females. Sex differences are caused by 3 major factors—sex hormones, genes, and environment.'

Thank you, The Endocrine Society.

And this one thread is why I bloody love Mumsnet. Thank you!!!!

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/bies.202200173

'Biological sex is defined as a binary variable in every sexually reproducing plant and animal species. With a few exceptions, all sexually reproducing organisms generate exactly two types of gametes that are distinguished by their difference in size: females, by definition, produce large gametes (eggs) and males, by definition, produce small and usually motile gametes (sperm).[9-12] This distinct dichotomy in the size of female and male gametes is termed “anisogamy” and refers to a fundamental principle in biology

I am Spartacus Asparagus.

I often wonder how people can believe things that are demonstrably wrong, incorrect, not true, etc etc., even though the greatest minds in evolutionary biology, genetics, and Mumsnet🙂can prove beyond doubt that they are wrong, incorrect, not true, etc etc.
The only reasons I can think of are that we are going through a 'Postfactual' era, where the concept of a provable fact has gone all wobbly, but I've no idea why. Secondly - people choose to believe things that make them feel superior, special, different, and if any facts get in the way, they just ignore them. I'm sure we could come up with a long list of non-factual things that people claim to be so they can be special, and have a flag or a privilege or encroach on someone else's space... You could call it factphobia..

To be fair, when 'Nature' and 'Scientific American' publish articles claiming sex is a spectrum you can forgive people for believing them.

maybe there's also something about people with no/little scientific education not trusting their common sense and bein easily hoodwinked by fancy stories about clownfish.

marvellously intricate astrolabes

Crikey! I've looked at those things, wondered what they actually calculated, and it never seemed to make sense ... because no bugger told me the astronomy they were based on was duff! You've managed to explain it, with bonus humour, in a single forum post. Thank you!

Could you come & sit on my sofa for a few days to Explain Stuff, please?

Dunno but I think that we are all Copernicans.

How very dare you.

Perhaps you've got confused with the astrology thread, Jane?

It is just all so stupid it becomes impossible. Because how are you supposed to think down that far?

Probably. Trying to cope with more surreality than is good for me.

Could you come & sit on my sofa for a few days to Explain Stuff, please?

I would love to. Explaining Stuff is one of my favourite things. Caveat: I'm easily distracted, so the Stuff tends to be a mishmash of very random information.

To be fair, I don't believe any trans think they have changed their biological sex - just gender. I'm happy to pointed to any sources that show different though.

@Arbor

Just one example of a TW who loudly, aggressively and publicly demands agreement that TW are “biological females”…

https://twitter.com/IndiaWilloughby/status/1559530487680569344?lang=en

If nothing else, it muddies the waters and makes it look as if it's a scientific controversy.

@Arbor, here's Scientific American confidently asserting "The truth is, your biological sex isn’t carved in stone, but a living system with the potential for change."

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/voices/stop-using-phony-science-to-justify-transphobia/

The rest of the article goes on to present a bunch of obfuscatory nonsense, using densely-packed science soundbites to make illogical links and reach baffling conclusions. It's a good example of how genderism has persuaded so many people to forget that sex is fundamentally about gametes.

If they inconveniently remember eggs & sperm, this mashup of science with mythology permits them to believe human sex organs can probably be made to produce the other kind of gametes. I've been told many times by otherwise intelligent, educated people, as well as by brainwashed idiots. Most of them think hormone treatment can achieve this miracle!

This is a wonderful thread!

Sighs happily and plonks down with a cuppa to read it again

Evolution, astronomy, hormonal (chemical) and genetic biology. All 3 sciences covered.

A little vid for Arbor.

Many trans activists claim they have changed sex - see India thingummy claiming to be a 'biological female', Shon Faye claiming to have changed 'hormonal sex' by taking oestrogen etc. Robin White saying he is 'semantically female' iirc.

But here the issue is not just changing sex but the idea that there are more than two sexes or that human sexual dimorphism is 'complicated'.

Somatically, not semantically! Fab. Thanks, Rain, I hadn't seen your post!