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powerstruggle

@ powerstruggle @sh.itjust.works

Posts
680
Comments
327
Joined
6 mo. ago

Why?

  • That's a whole lotta hydrogen!

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  • Yes.

  • That's a whole lotta hydrogen!

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  • This is a bad analogy because there's 100+ types of atoms. In anisogamous species (like humans), there's exactly 2 gamete types, sperm and ova. Which of those two gamete types one's body is organized around producing is how sex is defined.

    See here for charts showing the spectrum of sex determination and how that relates to sex definition. Each chart can be labeled as male or female based on this definition of sex, which is the one that is used across the field of biology.

    https://theparadoxinstitute.org/articles/sex-development-charts

    The information on the flow charts is directly from peer-reviewed developmental biology papers and textbooks on human sex differentiation.

    But humans are a gonochoric species: individuals are either male or female throughout their entire life cycle. People with DSDs are not new sexes (this would require a third gamete type), and they are not both sexes (this would require the full development of both male and female gonads and genitalia in a single individual. A hermaphrodite has never existed in humans).

    There's no third sex, and there's nobody born with a body that isn't trying to produce gametes (and potentially failing).

  • Why are so many self-described leftists convinced that a socialist society would permit them to be useless leeches?

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  • White House Claims Wages Up, Rent Down After Deportations

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  • Is there more context to this, link or source or anything? Preferably not from somewhere the administration can bully into faking numbers.

    EDIT: Source here: https://web.archive.org/web/20260115002055/https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2026/01/mass-deportations-are-improving-americans-quality-of-life/

    It's just another politician claiming credit for social/economic trends that happen while they're in office. The article says "The nation experienced the largest single-year drop in murders on record last year" and the article it links to says "The big picture: The decline in killings is part of a broader decrease in violent crime following the COVID-era spike". That could easily be spun as "Trump fucked it up in his first term and Biden fixed it" if you wanted to play that game.

  • Being Trans Isn't Normal or Part of Nature...or is it...?

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  • A better analogy for the author's clarification would be "Red and blue, each with a continuum of variation in hue". There's still no purple, just different shades of red and different shades of blue. I don't really have more to add beyond pointing out that this is the author of the paper directly clarifying that point.

    You're free to invent whatever categories you find useful of course. But biologists will continue to recognize human sex as binary, because that is a useful description of the reality they encounter.

  • Being Trans Isn't Normal or Part of Nature...or is it...?

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  • People's bodies are still organized around the production of either sperm or ova, even if they're unable to reproduce due to a developmental issue. You can call that a third category if it's useful to you, but that doesn't form a third sex as understood by biologists.

    Intersex is a confusing term, and doesn't dispute the binary. People are still male or female, with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disorders_of_sex_development

  • Being Trans Isn't Normal or Part of Nature...or is it...?

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  • The New York Times finally expresses outrage after the Trump Administration’s illegal and unconstitutional attack on Iran

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  • It appears that "Pathways", the video game produced by the UK to "combat extremism" has been shut down after only several days

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  • How AI Destroys Institutions

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  • Great comment, I've nothing to add

  • Being Trans Isn't Normal or Part of Nature...or is it...?

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  • Do you have a particular edge case in mind? One that's commonly brought up is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovotesticular_syndrome, but that doesn't fall outside the sex binary. Having a bit of nonfunctional tissue doesn't affect one's sex.

    Colors aren't a great analogy either, because in anisogamous species, gametes are strictly binary. There's sperm and ova, with 0 overlap and 0 other options. "Purple gametes" just don't exist.

    This also isn't my opinion, this is the accepted definition in the field of biology.

  • Being Trans Isn't Normal or Part of Nature...or is it...?

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  • This is often a point of confusion, but human sex is binary. There's edge cases that require clarification as to how they fit into the binary, but don't disprove it.

    Human sexuality overall is complex and that's why we differentiate gender from sex. The sex binary and gender spectrum complement each other though, and don't clash.

    If you're interested in learning more, here's some background reading:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonochorism

    We fall into that category, where we have two body plans, each organized around producing either sperm or ova. Other species have more body plans, such as recognizably distinct males, females, and hermaphrodites:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trioecy

    Those species are a good contrast. Humans don't have that variation, and so sex is binary in humans.

    There's literature that explains this specifically in detail, though most of it doesn't really explicitly talk about it, much like math papers don't generally explain that integers can be added together.

  • Being Trans Isn't Normal or Part of Nature...or is it...?

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  • I think we agree. Maybe I was misreading the above comment, but I was just clarifying that "transform" in that sense for chickens is not actually changing sex, and so is a different situation than clownfish.

  • Being Trans Isn't Normal or Part of Nature...or is it...?

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  • I'm not aware of that being an actual change in sex. The hen can develop male characteristics, but won't produce functional sperm.

  • Being Trans Isn't Normal or Part of Nature...or is it...?

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  • Male seahorse get pregnant, but that doesn't make them trans, they're unambiguously male. This is a great example of why sex is defined by gamete size. If it weren't, we couldn't talk about males and females in any useful way across the animal kingdom.

    Clownfish would be a better example as they're sequential hermaphrodites, but that doesn't have any bearing on the human sex binary.

  • Personal Details of Thousands of Border Patrol and ICE Goons Allegedly Leaked in Huge Data Breach

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  • Metal Exclusionary Radical Astronomy

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  • People can't live their lives because a meme is wrong?

  • Metal Exclusionary Radical Astronomy

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  • Do you understand that those charts don’t each represent a different sex?

  • Metal Exclusionary Radical Astronomy

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  • Do you understand that those charts don’t each represent a different sex?