I find it far easier to think in terms of the fuller expression: sexual reproduction. Humans reproduce sexually, and not, for example, asexually. This means we require a male and female gamete to create offspring. So sex is which gamete your body was designed to produce. I then round this out with a second element which is to recognize that humans are bipedal, but not everyone can walk. The point being the design laid down in uterine development to produce a specific gamete defines sex not the ability. Lastly this is biology, not sociology, when we talk sex. If we want to talk gender we bring in the latter.
I find these core concepts have helped me and I hope they are helpful to others and would welcome other thoughts and ideas.
From the perspective of biology, sex is a bit more complicated in humans than with a lot of other animals. In primates sex is epigenetic in nature, meaning that the DNA that contributed to our sex is expressed as we develop. It’s not set in stone, and when we are developing into male or female that expression can vary.
Sex is not as important of a distinction in human biology, it’s epigenetic nature means that the difference between a female human and a male human is incomparable to the difference of animals who present with sexual dimorphism.
Epigenetics are also influenced by our environment, what we eat, and what we do, meaning that a lot of the characteristics we associate with sex can change or be developed over time based on the environment.
We have observed young female gorillas who behave more like male gorillas, and as they develop they are observed to not only be treated more like male gorillas, but start physically developing more like male gorillas.
In short, its really complicated. Namely because outside of a specific scenario, there is no real biological reason to define sex in such a dichotomy. And even in those scenarios which require more myopic detail, the difference between individuals of the same sex are great enough to need more information than just male or female.
Everybody who want’s to tell you there are only 2 biological sexes has a reductionist view of a very complex subject and likely doesn’t know how much about that subject they don’t know.
How is sex defined? Physical attributes? Chromosomes? Both?
I find it far easier to think in terms of the fuller expression: sexual reproduction. Humans reproduce sexually, and not, for example, asexually. This means we require a male and female gamete to create offspring. So sex is which gamete your body was designed to produce. I then round this out with a second element which is to recognize that humans are bipedal, but not everyone can walk. The point being the design laid down in uterine development to produce a specific gamete defines sex not the ability. Lastly this is biology, not sociology, when we talk sex. If we want to talk gender we bring in the latter. I find these core concepts have helped me and I hope they are helpful to others and would welcome other thoughts and ideas.
From the perspective of biology, sex is a bit more complicated in humans than with a lot of other animals. In primates sex is epigenetic in nature, meaning that the DNA that contributed to our sex is expressed as we develop. It’s not set in stone, and when we are developing into male or female that expression can vary.
Sex is not as important of a distinction in human biology, it’s epigenetic nature means that the difference between a female human and a male human is incomparable to the difference of animals who present with sexual dimorphism.
Epigenetics are also influenced by our environment, what we eat, and what we do, meaning that a lot of the characteristics we associate with sex can change or be developed over time based on the environment.
We have observed young female gorillas who behave more like male gorillas, and as they develop they are observed to not only be treated more like male gorillas, but start physically developing more like male gorillas.
In short, its really complicated. Namely because outside of a specific scenario, there is no real biological reason to define sex in such a dichotomy. And even in those scenarios which require more myopic detail, the difference between individuals of the same sex are great enough to need more information than just male or female.
Let’s throw “Neuroanatomy?” in there too, just for fun!
In short and what @miss_brainfart@lemmy.ml is alluding to:
Everybody who want’s to tell you there are only 2 biological sexes has a reductionist view of a very complex subject and likely doesn’t know how much about that subject they don’t know.
Excuse me, I have since transitioned to blahaj lemmy^^
Oh, my bad, sorry for dead-instancing you, good to see you’re better about your phobia now.
Haha, thank you^^