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There are 2 sexes: males and female. Biological sex is not a spectrum. Expand
There are 2 sexes: male and female. Biological sex is not a spectrum.
According to an Endocrine Society Scientific Statement [1],
Sex is dichotomous, with sex determination in the fertilized zygote stemming from unequal expression of sex chromosomal genes.
Sex differences in baseline physiology and associated mechanisms form the foundation for understanding sex differences in diseases pathology, treatments, and outcomes.
The erroneous claim that biological sex is a spectrum, or non-dichotomous, is often used to justify the ideological assertion that all humans are ‘assigned sex at birth’. In fact, biological sex is encoded in every cell of the body [2].
REFERENCES
[1] Bhargava, A., Arnold, A.P., Bangasser, D.A., Denton, K.M., Gupta, A., Hilliard Krause, L.M., Mayer, E.A., McCarthy, M., Miller, W.L., Raznahan, A. & Verma, R. (2021). Considering Sex as a Biological Variable in Basic and Clinical Studies: An Endocrine Society Scientific Statement. Endocrine Reviews 42 (3): 219-258. [Link]
[2] Shah, K. McCormack, C. & Bradbury, N. (2014). Do you know the sex of your cells?’ American Journal of Physiology – Cell Physiology, C3-C18, 306, 1. [Link]
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It is not true that 1.7% of the population is ‘born between the sexes’. The proportion of people with DSDs (‘intersex’ conditions) is 0.018%. Expand
It is not true that 1.7% of the population is ‘born between the sexes’. The proportion of people with DSDs (‘intersex’ conditions) is 0.018%.
Conditions in which chromosomal sex is inconsistent with phenotypic sex, or in which the phenotype is not classifiable as either male or female, occur in 0.018% of the population [1].
The claim that 1.7% of the population is ‘intersex’ [2] includes conditions which most clinicians do not recognize as intersex [1], and is often wrongly used to back up the ideological assertion that ‘sex is a spectrum’, or that biological sex is not dimorphic.
The philosopher Kathleen Stock points out that she would be considered as “intersex” under Fausto-Sterling’s “preposterously over-demanding conditions on sex category membership”, as she lost an ovary in early adulthood [3], which would count as “intersex” according to Fausto-Sterling.
REFERENCES
[1] Sax, L. (2002). How common is intersex? a response to Anne Fausto-Sterling. J Sex Res. 39 (3): 174-8. [Link]
[2] Fausto-Sterling, A. (2000). Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality. New York: Basic Books. [Link]
[3] Stock, K. (2021). Material Girls. Little, Brown Book Group: p.56 [Link]
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The term ‘Two-Spirit’ was invented in 1990. Expand
The term ‘Two-Spirit’ was invented in 1990.
The term ‘Two-Spirit’ – often abbreviated to ‘2S’, and particularly common in Canada – is a modern invention. It was first coined at the Indigenous Lesbian and Gay International Gathering in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1990 [1].
REFERENCES
[1] de Vries, K. M. (2009). Berdache (Two-Spirit). In O’Brien, J. (ed.): Encyclopedia of gender and society. Los Angeles: SAGE. [Link]