5 ms·
Throughout the history of biology, psychology, cognitive science, and neurosciences, there has been a constant back and forth between those who would exaggerate
by SubiculumCode 3y ago
Throughout the history of biology, psychology, cognitive science, and neurosciences, there has been a constant back and forth between those who would exaggerate sex differences, and those who would understate sex-differences as purely social constructs with no affect on biology other than what is caused via experienced socializations. The truth is more complicated than any of those extremes.
Important differences in biology exist at every level of description, from molecular pathways to large scale brain morphology, and yet! The differences by sex are often subtle, and heterogenous, and not consistent across species. Nevertheless, while the sex chromosomes have far-reaching effects on development, starting at the very beginning of the neurodevelopmental timeline of cell proliferation and migration, the formation and structure of synapses, and so on, its not the whole story.
A too common way people differentiate sex from gender is to say that there is, on the one hand, biological sex, which they’ll add is both real, binary, and unchangeable, and then there is gender, the infinitely mind-bending social construct. This framework is often draped with an aura of scientific impartiality. I want to stress to you that this framework is not scientifically justified. Not at all. Further it is patently harmful and trivialized the very real phenomenon of gender diversity.
First, biological sex is not the same thing as chromosomal sex. The sex chromosomes only partially, and only indirectly influence physiological and brain development. Development is fundamentally a multilevel process integrating genetic, epigenetic, environmental, and experiential factors, all of which can lead to qualitative and quantitative differences in the expression of the sex phenotype. Differences in the timing and dosage of steroid exposures within an individual, can lead to any particular feature being more stereotypically masculine, feminine, androgenous, or other phenotype altogether. The result is a mosaic of features with high degree of overlap in those with XX and XY chromosomes.
Sometimes this kind of effect pushes someone's actual attributes to be not as typical of their chromosomal sex. These traits in turn will influence the gender identity they feel most in tune with, and how they incorporate and react to the socialization of gender norms.
- SubiculumCode 3y agoFYI, I am a scientist that studies sex and gender in autism.
- LoganDark 3y ago> sex and gender in autism How does it differ from people who aren't autistic? Honest question, I'm autistic and happen to be transgender internally (but not externally) ...
- lordloki 3y agoYou're a quack who's using very rare anomalies in sex to falsely conflate sex and gender. You are doing harm.
- jonnycomputer 3y agoLooking over the comments associated with your account, I'd say you're just a troll.
- SubiculumCode 3y agoyou sweep 'anomolies' under the rug then act as biological reality of sex and gender is black and white.
- flippinburgers 3y agoYou say all that but nonetheless most people fall into two categories.
- SubiculumCode 3y agoLet us not confuse bimodal distribution with binary distribution. stats 101. There is considerable overlap in biological features that are regulated by sex chromosomes and sex hormones, such that there is considerable heterogeneity within each sex. Also these dismissals using 'but most people' are ironic; the exceptions disprove the rule of a binary, an imaginary binary that is then used to dismiss the rights and reality of sex and gender diversity. Its cake and eat it too thinking.
- SubiculumCode 3y agoI also find it interesting that the generally smart and data driven crowd at HN is so ideological driven when it comes to the reality of diversity in sex phenotypes, which are about 1% of the general population, and about 15% of those with autism.
- Guid_NewGuid 3y agoYeah the culture war seems to be seeping in everywhere and particularly badly on these topics as the bulk of comments on this article seem to show. At the boundaries even in humans this stuff gets really fuzzy and has real world implications for people who get barred from their careers or forced to undergo medical procedures to be more easily categorised[0][1]. While it might be a rare scenario (between 0.08% and 1% seems to be Wikipedia's intersex estimates depending on definition) a system is only as good as its protection for the minority case. And from an intellectual curiosity standpoint this is kinda cool and interesting right? Like this breaks our lazy categorization and shows that the world is so much more intriguing than our dumb models. And instead of 'intellectual' and 'curious' discussion we get the equivalent of a Tennessee GOP rally about school bathrooms... [0]: https://apnews.com/article/europe-cape-town-africa-south-africa-2020-tokyo-olympics-c87dd02056cb8b893941cbbfaf31e752 https://apnews.com/article/europe-cape-town-africa-south-afr... [1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testosterone_regulations_in_women%27s_athletics https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testosterone_regulations_in_...
- SubiculumCode 3y agoTHANK YOU!!!
- LoganDark 3y ago> about 1% of the general population, and about 15% of those with autism Huh?