Where Is Sex?
 

No, this isnt about how I'm not getting any...

Where does one's gender reside? Is it mental? Is it about what you're packing in your denims, or whats in your genes? If someone has XY but is testosterone-resistant, and therefore physically female, which are they? What if they identify as male, what then? If they identify female? What if they just don't care or dont know, and just go with what theyve got to work with? What about transgender people? Pre-op? Post-op? What about really, really butch lesbians, or really really effeminate gays? What about closet transgenders?

What do these people mark on forms? What scholarships should they get? What bathrooms do they use?


Why do we even diffrentiate so much based on gender, when it's got just as much gray area as any other distinction?

Ibram, you should read the novel "Middlesex." It's a great book, and I think you would like it.

You say that like there's only one definition of gender. Genetic, percived, neurological, hormonal...make a list. What about genetically mosaic people?
What about ${putYourOwnEdgeCaseHere}.

The bathroom thing I can tell you about, though...:-)

But your question was "Where is *sex*?". Apparently it's near Paradise.

Unfortunately, Blue Ball is in the vicinity.

in my best Beavis and Butthead voice:

near Lampeter...hehehehehe...peter...hehehehehe

A persons gender is either male or female as determined by their chromosome structure. There are disorders which can cause one or more of the pathways to physical appearence to not reflect that gender (usually men who end up looking like women) such as dysgenic pseudo-hermaphroditism. In the end though, you must have either XX or XY chromosomes, no wiggle room there. As for people who identify as the opposite gender, that's a psychological issue with sociological factors than biological one.
Within society and the issues you mentioned Ibram, those decisions should fall back on genetics. If someone thinks they're a woman but is a man, then they should mark 'male' on forms and such. The only exception to this rule I would think of would be the bathroom issue, WAY easier to just use whichever one people identify you as at a glance than to try to explain things to everyone and deal with the trouble everyday.
(Plus if we indoctrinated people in the other opinion I know plenty of guys who would just take that as open season on women's restrooms:neutral:)

Um, except for the disorders resulting in XYY, a single X, XXY, or XXX...

Are XXX girls more likely to star in certain types of films?

I think it is in your brain.

What does testosterone resistant mean? We all have testosteone and progesterone and estrogen.

It's happened before (not that its particularly common) that a person gets XY chromasomes but don't develop into a male as a fetus, due to testosterone problems.

Testosterone is a myth as far as sex is concerned... I have almost none and I want sex all the time.

Not true. There are several other combinations, and some folks have different genotypes in different cells.

You're all wet about transsexuality not having a biological basis, too.

Got any figures for that?

Ug, ok, I forgot about aneuploidy (and it was on our exam today:smack:) since most of those conditions with the sex chromosomes are not what generally inspires this question. However our genes nonetheless still control our sex, that's only proven even more by examples of chormosomal disorders.

Do you mean numbers or names and discriptions of the conditions?