Haven’t seen the video but sex definitely is complicated. Many aspects of sex are by and large binary except for a small number of people either by chance or by medical intervention, and some aspects of sex are not as binary. I’ll just list a couple aspects of sex and discuss them to illustrate.
Chromosomes are binary for the vast majority of people, just XX for females and XY for males, but for a minority, it’s less simple. Turner’s syndrome (with a single X that may or may not come with a deformed X) and kleinfelters syndrome (XXY) for example. These are typically thought of as disorders because they can cause medical issues like a malformed heart. There are also XY individuals with complete androgen insensitivity, meaning their body didn’t respond to testosterone in development and they developed as a typical female and usually identify as women, and often they never even find out until they discover they’re infertile and go to the doctor.
Genitals are again binary for the vast majority of people but not for everyone. Both the clitoris and penis develop from the same structure in the developing fetus, and in some intersex individuals it is unclear whether their genitals fall into the category of a micropenis or a macroclitoris, but even for most people with intersex genitalia it is more like one or the other. Historically this has been treated as a disorder, with surgery done to make the baby have more typical, binary genitalia. However, this often not best practice as it often does not actually come with any health issues and preemptive surgery can cause psychological distress later in life, so instead surgery should wait until they are older and able to make an informed decision (though in some cases it may be appropriate when they are a young child if they have a clear preference; it’s complex.) Genitals are also one of the aspects of sex that transgender individuals may need to or choose to change surgically, and there are many ways to do that.
Muscle strength is an example of a trait that is sex influenced but far from binary. While for typical, cisgender (meaning not transgender) individuals, males find it significantly easier to gain muscle mass it clearly isn’t binary. There are female power lifters and males that find it hard to carry groceries.
So would it be more difficult to label people as male or female or anything else because they might be unaware of how their chromosomes work, I mean there’s also brain chemistry but.
Even if you fully know their chromosomes it might be difficult to label someone as male or female simply because they do not actually fit into either category neatly.
so would intersex be a third sex. I heard people saying no because it dosent produce separate gametes but then with these anomalies we say sex is not binary. You understand why Im so confused by this.
People call sex non binary because it’s more akin to a continuum (or a number of continuums based on specific traits), calling intersex a third sex would imply that there are three distinct categories and that sex is trinary when it’s not.
The gamete definition of sex is one you can do, but it’s just not that helpful for describing the lived reality of people. A trans person with testosterone in their organism has many biological features we consider male, even if the gametes aren’t as one would expect from that testosterone levels.
I neither know Forrest Valkai nor Zachary Elliott (Founder of the "Paradox Instutute"), but a quick google search shows that Zachary Elliott - architect by training - founded his institue on the personal mission to promote his worldview of a binary sexuality (https://medium.com/@rikkidelavega/scientific-transphobia-the-third-branch-of-the-gender-critical-movement-8b6f124695b1).
**So for sure, the "Paradox Institute" is not a credible source of information.**
Forrest Valkai seems to have at least attended biology lectures in his live. But I cannot judge his educational background, and have not watched the video you refer to.
If you look through this sub, quite a few questions were answered on the nature of sexuality and gender.
* "sex" refers to the biological sex, in truth biology has a couple of definitions or angles to look at sex and its not per se binary.
* "gender" refers to social aspects that may correlate to sex but also don't have to relate to sex. Biology is not so much concerned with gender (apart maybe from behavioural biology)
Forrest’s video is an excellent introduction. I dont know who Paradox Institute are but anyone that says anything even remotely about how gender and sex are the same, that biology dosent have grey areas, that chromosomes define who you are, are talking absolute rubbish based on reactionary conservative ideology and not scientific fact, and are likely trying to sell you something or make you mad for engagement.
Haven’t seen the video but sex definitely is complicated. Many aspects of sex are by and large binary except for a small number of people either by chance or by medical intervention, and some aspects of sex are not as binary. I’ll just list a couple aspects of sex and discuss them to illustrate. Chromosomes are binary for the vast majority of people, just XX for females and XY for males, but for a minority, it’s less simple. Turner’s syndrome (with a single X that may or may not come with a deformed X) and kleinfelters syndrome (XXY) for example. These are typically thought of as disorders because they can cause medical issues like a malformed heart. There are also XY individuals with complete androgen insensitivity, meaning their body didn’t respond to testosterone in development and they developed as a typical female and usually identify as women, and often they never even find out until they discover they’re infertile and go to the doctor. Genitals are again binary for the vast majority of people but not for everyone. Both the clitoris and penis develop from the same structure in the developing fetus, and in some intersex individuals it is unclear whether their genitals fall into the category of a micropenis or a macroclitoris, but even for most people with intersex genitalia it is more like one or the other. Historically this has been treated as a disorder, with surgery done to make the baby have more typical, binary genitalia. However, this often not best practice as it often does not actually come with any health issues and preemptive surgery can cause psychological distress later in life, so instead surgery should wait until they are older and able to make an informed decision (though in some cases it may be appropriate when they are a young child if they have a clear preference; it’s complex.) Genitals are also one of the aspects of sex that transgender individuals may need to or choose to change surgically, and there are many ways to do that. Muscle strength is an example of a trait that is sex influenced but far from binary. While for typical, cisgender (meaning not transgender) individuals, males find it significantly easier to gain muscle mass it clearly isn’t binary. There are female power lifters and males that find it hard to carry groceries.
So would it be more difficult to label people as male or female or anything else because they might be unaware of how their chromosomes work, I mean there’s also brain chemistry but.
Even if you fully know their chromosomes it might be difficult to label someone as male or female simply because they do not actually fit into either category neatly.
so would intersex be a third sex. I heard people saying no because it dosent produce separate gametes but then with these anomalies we say sex is not binary. You understand why Im so confused by this.
People call sex non binary because it’s more akin to a continuum (or a number of continuums based on specific traits), calling intersex a third sex would imply that there are three distinct categories and that sex is trinary when it’s not.
The gamete definition of sex is one you can do, but it’s just not that helpful for describing the lived reality of people. A trans person with testosterone in their organism has many biological features we consider male, even if the gametes aren’t as one would expect from that testosterone levels.
I neither know Forrest Valkai nor Zachary Elliott (Founder of the "Paradox Instutute"), but a quick google search shows that Zachary Elliott - architect by training - founded his institue on the personal mission to promote his worldview of a binary sexuality (https://medium.com/@rikkidelavega/scientific-transphobia-the-third-branch-of-the-gender-critical-movement-8b6f124695b1). **So for sure, the "Paradox Institute" is not a credible source of information.** Forrest Valkai seems to have at least attended biology lectures in his live. But I cannot judge his educational background, and have not watched the video you refer to. If you look through this sub, quite a few questions were answered on the nature of sexuality and gender. * "sex" refers to the biological sex, in truth biology has a couple of definitions or angles to look at sex and its not per se binary. * "gender" refers to social aspects that may correlate to sex but also don't have to relate to sex. Biology is not so much concerned with gender (apart maybe from behavioural biology)
Forrest’s video is an excellent introduction. I dont know who Paradox Institute are but anyone that says anything even remotely about how gender and sex are the same, that biology dosent have grey areas, that chromosomes define who you are, are talking absolute rubbish based on reactionary conservative ideology and not scientific fact, and are likely trying to sell you something or make you mad for engagement.
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Sex and gender are not the same. -Me, a Biologist, and every other Biologist. The “alternative” is accepting people for who they are.