But I’m not doing that. Those are the things that are bad, not accepting the fairly obvious truth that humans are basically supposed to be male or female (again, from a sex perspective) just as they are supposed to have two arms. There’s no “spectrum” there is a small number of people with birth defects who should be treated with dignity and respect by just DOING THAT instead of trying to warp physical reality to conform to your (positive, good) political objectives.
Who is warping reality? The reality is there are millions of people who are intersex. That’s the reality. The biological reality. You are adding a layer of “correctness” to it that is 100% social and not biological. There is a very long list of things we once called “defects” but now understand are obviously not.
So you don’t think being born with both a penis and a vagina, or neither, is a birth defect?
Among some indigenous communities you would be considered two-spirit and blessed with a heightened view into the spiritual realm. Having such a child would be a great honor and by no means would anyone view it as a defect.
That is to say, the biological reality is one thing. The rest is just cultural baggage we add. For some it’s a defect. For others it’s a divine blessing.
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For fucks sake. Call it a birth anomaly or something if the extremely standard English phrase “birth defect” bothers you. Having four arms like a Machamp might be fucking awesome for all I know but I would be comfortable calling it a birth defect because I am not trying to define reality to fit my goals.
Your problem is you think there is some objective reality with respect to the value claim. There isn’t. There is nothing objectively better or “more normal” about being male, female or intersex.
There is a world of difference between “defect” and “variation” for example. Even anomaly is misleading as it contains value determination as well.
There’s a clear functional purpose to this shit that is compromised by it not being formed correctly. It’s not like a fucking hair color. The fact that someone somewhere may consider it a blessing or whatever is not fucking relevant dude.
Humans are male or female (sex) with an extremely small minority of… variations. That’s not a “spectrum” in any meaningful way or anything like race/gender.
I mean as mentioned earlier, it depends on whether you’re just talking about visible genitalia (seems like you’re zeroing in on this definition) or including chromosomal or other variations.
I do think it’s more like the dumbbell-shaped plot as others were mentioning, which sure, is more like “largely binary with a bunch of interesting variations in between” than an actual spectrum. Gender fits the spectrum definition way better imo.
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Being gay or lesbian is a variation of a very small percentage of the population that is not the “functional purpose” of sex too.
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Do… you… think those things are analogous?
I don’t think they are. I know they are.
Both are genetic variations that are common among a small part of the population. If anything being gay or lesbian is more anomalous by your definition in that it guarantees no offspring (prior to modern medicine) whereas many intersex people still have children.
Ok have fun.
Hey.
Can I ask you to take a step back here a second.
This is a topic
- that has developed in recent years
- where modern science is typically telling us very different things to the conventional understanding
- where a number of people whose general opinions (I assume) you value, have a very different perspective to you.
What would really approaching the subject with a spirit of openness and willingness to learn look like?
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@moderators can I suggest that some of this discussion gets split into a different thread?
This one has tended to me more supportive with a focus on trans kids.
If there is a place for discussions about the definition of sex, maybe it’s best not held here?
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I mean unfortunately this is just human nature. Even taking gender identity out of the equation, any person who’s a solid 3 is gonna be treated as a less worthy person by like 80% of the population, consciously or subconsciously.
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yeah I was trying to come up with something artful to say, but essentially fuckability is kind of the cheat code for almost everything, sadly.
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I guess that explains why JK hasn’t posted since Aug 7.
Hopefully she gets a lot of that Harry Potter money.
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