Biological sex

About

"Biological sex" is an ambiguous term that is often used to conflate multiple concepts relating to gender. In the majority of cases these concepts do align in polarity (i.e. if one indicates femaleness or maleness, the others will indicate the same), but in a number of cases they do not.

Attributes

It can refer to the following, where "(F)" and "(M)" refer to the typical gender-alignment in each case:

• reproductive role:
  • whether one plays the role of penetrated (F) or penetrator (M)
  • whether one provides the ovum (F) or sperm (M)
  • whether one gestates (F) or not (M)
• assigned sex: the gender-label one is assigned at birth, almost always based on genital configuration
• genetics: the sex indicated by one's chromosomes, with most humans having either an XX (F) or XY (M) sex-chromosome

The term could also be reasonably construed to mean any of the following attributes, which tend to be overlooked in public discussion:

• overall hormonal balance (estrogen-dominated or androgen-dominated)
• brain configuration (typical brains tend to have certain specific differences by gender)
• skeletal structure

In most humans and animals, these attributes are both unambiguously binary and unchangeable – but there are numerous exceptions, both in humans and even more so in nonhuman animals.

Myth

Due to the conflation of these various attributes, and also the relative rarity of exceptions, it is often assumed that they are universal and that "biological sex" is some innate or immutable property of an organism. This logic is then often used to deny the existence of exceptions, especially among humans, especially transgender and intersex people – a form of hypernormalization.

Similar arguments were once used against homosexuality and feminism.

Links

Reference

• Wikipedia redirects to "Sex"
• Conservapedia
• RationalWiki has no equivalent page, but in the "Sex" page under Sex vs. Gender, it notes that "Usually, a creature's biological sex is congruent with its gender (e.g., none, male, female, intersex, or hermaphroditic)."
• Planned Parenthood (Sex and Gender Identity) "Your biological or assigned sex does not always tell your complete story."