My latest with @sciam.bsky.social "Politics, Not Biology, Is Driving Legal Efforts to Classify Sex". Please do read the linked Executive Orders and HS statements that this piece is in response to. I am hoping of a better dialogue on this... www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-... - ThreadSky

anthrofuentes.bsky.social • 89 days ago

My latest with @sciam.bsky.social "Politics, Not Biology, Is Driving Legal Efforts to Classify Sex". Please do read the linked Executive Orders and HS statements that this piece is in response to. I am hoping of a better dialogue on this... https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-trump-administrations-legal-argument-to-classify-sex-is-bad-biology/

Comments

tuomaspernu.bsky.social•87 days ago

I'm a bit uneasy with this. 1st, I think there's an assumption of "biology" standing for some one thing. But there are discontinuities, even contradictions within biology. 2nd, there is *a well-defined binary notion of sex in biology: anisogamy. But this does not need to have political implications.

js2755.bsky.social•87 days ago

Yes legislation on this is absurd (plenty of other thigs to worry about). Better to be sorted out by social conventions/contracts. Your point 2 points out the major sticking point. When talking about sex, taken into it's entirety, there are aspects that are binary. ....

js2755.bsky.social•87 days ago

Other aspects, as you say, are discontinuous or contradictory, or as some like to say a spectrum. Insisting on strictly binary thinking across all aspects ignorant of the diversity seen in biology. Insisting on everything is a spectrum and nothing binary is ignorant of some basic truths.

js2755.bsky.social•87 days ago

These two divergent views, each being driven by an ideological perspective, need to be resolved in a more comprehensive fashion.

anthrofuentes.bsky.social•87 days ago

that is exactly what my book tries to do: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691249414/sex-is-a-spectrum?srsltid=AfmBOoomlFy0-5WLSKgUsdX47Aw048EFyLfB8gc4qO1gAPB1W1KbgUOR

anthrofuentes.bsky.social•87 days ago

I don't do that (the latter). Of course most animal systems have anisogamy and thus binary gametes, but almost all other facets of the physiological and developmental processes and systems associated with reproduction and other sex-related biology (including gamete production) are not binary.

anthrofuentes.bsky.social•87 days ago

The Executive order and court case this OpEd is in response to is linked in essay (pls read). In the EO anisogamy is stated to reflect a suite of "immutable" parameters that define humans and constitute a legal definition (of exclusion). So, yes, the EO makes anisogamy a political & legal statement.

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply