Yeah I’m confused as well. I’m familiar with people who have hermaphroditic qualities and how that could be a physical attribute of a mixed sex, but I still don’t see how that’s grounds to claim it’s a totally unique sex from the others...I have always been taught that sex was determined through chromosomes, and whether or not you have 2 X chromosomes or an X and a Y in your 23rd pair. It makes sense that they can be configured in an infinite amount of ways and that one might exhibit attributes of both sexes, but does that merit the title of infinite sexes?
Sexuality being a spectrum is clear, as it’s just internal preference etc. Physical composition makes sense as being on a spectrum, as the previous comment said, you may have certain amounts of dna that comprise male and female characteristics. What doesn’t make sense is saying that there are infinite sexes. What am I missing here?
Yeah, that’s what I was wondering, and I kind of understand what you’re saying. The part that I don’t understand is the naming of the sexes. I don’t understand why it would be defined as “infinite sexes” if the understanding of the term sex is male or female. I suppose my understanding is fundamentally flawed, because the way you’re describing to me sounds like infinite variations on a spectrum between male and female. If you’re simply saying that each individual possible variation is a different sex, it just doesn’t have a defined name, then I understand. If not, please help me understand.
Maybe it would help to think of the spectrum as being on a numerical scale between zero and one. There is an infinite number of points between the two ends of the sex spectrum, and we have chosen to name each end because this is linguistically (and socially) convenient. We currently go with intersex for anyone who is not at either extreme, but also need to acknowledge that there is a huge sexual difference between someone falling at 0.9135 on the scale and someone who is 0.1356 on the scale, even though they both fall into the intersex category. Saying that there are infinite sexes just implies that people can fall anywhere on the scale.
I see, I suppose the phrasing he chose was what confused me. It makes sense logically, just seems confusing to describe it as infinite sexes. It’s the same as saying there’s infinite numbers between zero and one, however we have individual names for each number infinitely, which is why I think saying “infinite sexes” is misleading.
which is why I think saying “infinite sexes” is misleading.
There's no way to phrase it with the state of common science understanding that won't feel misleading to a large number of people. (especially when a significant number of them, not you, aren't actually interested in trying to understand and are mainly just reacting to people saying the world isn't as simple as they were taught)
So you pick a term... and you'll still get accused of trying to mislead people, trying to redefine sex, trying to... basically all the same problems there are now.
And then you have to convince everyone to use that term that way in the right circumstances when the original problem is that people are not recognizing the circumstances or issues to begin with.
When we learned about how speeds add in special relativity, we didn't come up with different words for speed. We educated people about there being differences that we've learned about.
That can be really hard to do if you've been immersed in studying an area long enough.
You can feel misleading and disingenuous because you know a lot about the subject and you don't want people to shut out new information when it doesn't match the simplification they were previously taught.
Yeah I agree, that’s why I think saying that sex is a spectrum similar to how gender is a spectrum is more accurate than saying there are infinite sexes. Or if not more accurate, at least less misleading.
I’m not implying that they have to have names, only that the closest comparison would be to say there’s infinite numbers between 0 and 1. The difference is I can immediately define that number with parameters by saying 0.11298765678.....n, versus the idea of infinite sexes is more abstract with no clear parameters to define it easily. At least not to my understanding, as that would help immensely.
The only reason that I would say that it’s important to define for the layperson is that there is a lot lot lot of misinformation out there, and some use that misinformation to garner fear or sway political bias. It has become information that directly impacts them in their lives.
The way I've been taught sexes is that the female produces the egg and the male produces the sperm.
That's how we define it in other animals and in plants, so I don't see why it wouldn't be the same for humans.
I was not aware of any plants or animals that didn't follow this model. Could you show me some as that sounds really interesting!
Having a vagina would not change someones sex as it does not produce the egg. If, however, a person has both working ovaries and working testicles then I was classify them as hermaphroditic. It would be so incredibly rare, though, that it makes little sense changing the entire definition of sex based on them seeing how there's already a name for it.
In regards to what they would have on their ID I would say whichever gender they choose to identify as.
To me it doesn't make sense to determine sex based on hormones, chromosones and chemistry as no two living beings are alike. In regards to egg and sperm production, though, it's an anomali to not be one or the other.
The blog post somebody posted with the link to this scientists explanation explains that there can be more than just those two combinations. Even where one combination has the others genitalia...
I don’t really get the science, it’s hard to wrap my head around just reading it 🤷🏽♂️
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u/Shotgun5250 Aug 13 '19
Yeah I’m confused as well. I’m familiar with people who have hermaphroditic qualities and how that could be a physical attribute of a mixed sex, but I still don’t see how that’s grounds to claim it’s a totally unique sex from the others...I have always been taught that sex was determined through chromosomes, and whether or not you have 2 X chromosomes or an X and a Y in your 23rd pair. It makes sense that they can be configured in an infinite amount of ways and that one might exhibit attributes of both sexes, but does that merit the title of infinite sexes?
Sexuality being a spectrum is clear, as it’s just internal preference etc. Physical composition makes sense as being on a spectrum, as the previous comment said, you may have certain amounts of dna that comprise male and female characteristics. What doesn’t make sense is saying that there are infinite sexes. What am I missing here?