Why do I care about sex and gender?
I have asked myself this more than a few times, when my brain is tired and I’m wasting my precious time scrolling social media getting irritated at the stupid and even dangerous content that arises in the general area of the ‘sex & gender’ culture wars.
Who cares if people don’t understand the difference between ‘sex’ and ‘gender’?
Sex = biologically-based and binary category of ‘male’ or ‘female’ denoting which type of gametes (male = sperm; female = egg) your body has developed to produce.
Gender = personal, societal, cultural factors shaping how you feel about your sex, your body, and the roles you are expected to take on and perform as a consequence of your sex
Who cares if people don’t know how sex chromosomes work?
Sex chromosomes do not equal sex, they are a mechanism that initiates a developmental cascade so that the body develops into one sex or the other.
Sex chromosomes are increasingly being understood as housing genes that regulate and control the expression of other genes. In a sense (see Dr. David Page’s work), sex chromosomes provide ‘an ‘instruction manual’ for other genes, telling them what and how much of what to express.
Every. Single. Cell. contains sex chromosomes.
The idea that sex chromosomes —> gonads —> hormones = sex differentiation is simplistic and outdated.
Your sex isn’t just pasted on top of the rest of your sex-less body. The entire body develops in response to your sex chromosomes.
Who cares if people use an incorrect statistic for how common intersex conditions are to justify the position that sex is a spectrum?
Stay tuned for an upcoming podcast where I talk about this. I’m not an expert on intersex by any means, but the stat of 1.7% from Anne Faust-Sterling’s work is misleading.
For >99% of people, sex can be accurately observed (NOT ASSIGNED) at birth.
For thoughts concerning the ethical treatment of babies and individuals belonging to the intersex spectrum, consider checking out Anick Intersex’s twitter account.
Who cares if people don’t understand what the second wave of feminism brought forth, in terms of women’s spaces and rights?
This one really bothers me. People recently educated in secondary institutions are completely immersed in third-wave feminism, at the apparent cost of learning what came before. We need to REMEMBER our history, as women.
Second wave feminism brought legal changes in marital rape and divorce laws, as well as female-only spaces such as domestic violence and crisis shelters. Women were still being STRAPPED DOWN to tables during birth. WTF.
It was previously not illegal for husbands to rape their wives as it was seen as impossible to rape a wife, because a wife belongs to a husband. In the past, women did not have the capital or organizational power to create and run shelters for themselves. The outcomes of these forms of activism were and continue to be HUGE and are unfortunately, under threat.
The key point that I accept from radical feminism is that women are vulnerable to violence because of our reproductive capacity. As a student of human evolutionary science, it is very clear to me how powerful our role as mothers are.
Being pregnant, birthing, and breastfeeding, and caring for young in a species that is highly social and interdependent makes us very vulnerable to isolation and abuse.
Sexual dialectics permeate all spheres of life, and males and females are not equal in what kinds of costs, responsibilities, and benefits we receive and offer.
Who cares if we call mothers or women by other words or names?
See this great article, shared with me today from my friend Varya.
Perhaps I should just let people live with their opinions that differ from mine. Perhaps I should let people live in their ignorance.
But it keeps bugging me.
And a little quotation from the back of Chris Hedge’s excellent book about spectacle and loss of literacy in USA recently clarified WHY.
"A culture that cannot distinguish between reality and illusion dies."
That quote is piercing.
My studies of psychology, evolutionary biology, female sexuality as well as my life experiences as a girl, sister, friend, woman, lover, wife, and mother have taught me things about sex and gender.
I have access to facts in this domain of knowledge.
As a government-funded student, scholar, and lecturer, I believe I have a responsibility to share what I know. And yes, the government funded me for three years to study female orgasm (among other topics).
Perhaps things are changing, for the better.
So I will take it upon myself to share facts and reality. Not to exert authority or judgement over others, but to help people distinguish reality from illusion.
Teaching people that sex is fluid, that you can change your sex, that you can delay puberty without consequence, that ‘woman’ is an identity and not a lived reality is not ok. These are illusions that will only bring suffering to individuals and to our culture. The short term feeling of compassion for another person’s suffering, which i do think motivates a lot of dialogue concerning sex and gender, will not last when that person must face the [harsh] reality of nature.
Ultimately, my alliance lies with the wisdom of Earth and the cycles of time. May the truth continually be revealed, and may we have the courage to accept it.