6 ms·
Those are discrete, sex-related developmental conditions, e.g. males with Klinefelter syndrome, females with trisomy X, etc. People with these conditions aren'
by ppopp 4y ago
Those are discrete, sex-related developmental conditions, e.g. males with Klinefelter syndrome, females with trisomy X, etc.
People with these conditions aren't middling points on some sort of male-female 'sex spectrum', as there's no continuous variable of sex from which one could obtain a value.
This idea that sex is a spectrum really is nonsensical.
- Gabriel_Martin 4y agoIsn't sex a bimodal distribution, and therefor objectively a spectrum?
- ppopp 4y agoA bimodal distribution of what?
- Gabriel_Martin 4y agoOf sex characteristics, I mean if I was attempting to be accurate as possible to what sex is, it'd be some composite of morphology, chromosomes and gamete structures, which would place most humans in two main tranches, but some individuals would fall in between or outside of those two, which sounds a lot like a spectrum to me.
- ppopp 4y agoA composite how exactly? What are you measuring, how are you translating it to a continuous variable, and why are you calling this variable "sex"?
- Gabriel_Martin 4y agoNot that we're debating, but your reply seems a little gish-gallopy. What type of information are you seeking by asking "A composite how exactly"? Are you asking how what I described is a composite? How I'd create a composite? If I were trying to define sex, I'd try to find the most relevant attributes to human sexual dimorphism, and if and when I encountered exceptions, to me that would imply a spectrum exists and sex is non-binary. What am I measuring? I'd be trying to find the biological measures relating to sexual dimorphism, and how they consistently they correlated to the other biological measures I listed. I'd also be looking for exceptions, which do certainly exist. How are you translating it into a continuous variable? I wouldn't be, I imagine that upon seeing that there are exceptions to the attributes I included in my composite, where people in one or more ways fall outside of the two typical morphological/gamete/chromosomal norms, that would be what implies a continuum/spectrum. I'm not translating it, I'd just be seeing nonbinary data, I didn't translate the data to fall outside of a binary pattern or force it into a continuum, it just exists that way. Correct me if you think I'm wrong. Why are you calling this variable sex? As I said, in my best attempt to create a composite of all traits that could be contained within a definition of sex, that's what it'd be.
- tosc 4y agoThe point is that the existence of exceptions doesn’t make something a spectrum. It just adds a few additional categories.