Filthy Queer Polak-Viking: "biological sex" is socially constructed
Ok, it’s time for an education. It’s not entirely your fault you’re utterly ignorant since the medical industrial complex AND the hatefilled society in which we all live both actively seek to reinforce the binary at any and all costs and purposefully keep people ill-informed and misinformed about the realities of biology. But after I take valuable time out of my evening to educate you on how utterly biased and flawed the modern concept of “biological sex” is you no longer have an excuse and choosing to continue to cleave to your bullshit will officially become proof that you are nothing more than a bigotted asshole.
So let’s take a look at some true facts courtesy of Dr. Anne Fausto-Sterling who is a biologist and geneticist with a PhD, you know, a doctorate, in science, that thing you seem to be so obsessed with, that thing you seem to think is absolutely “objective” and always right all the time. There are 5 specific measures of biological sex according to modern medical science.
- Chromosomes (men = XY, women = XX)
- Genitalia (men = penis, women = vulva and vagina)
- Gonads (men = testes, women = ovaries)
- Hormones (men = high testosterone, low estrogen, low progesterone; women = high estrogen, high progesterone, low testosterone)
- Secondary Sex Characteristics (men = large amounts of dark, thick, coarse body hair, noticeable facial hair, low waist:hip ratio, no noticeable breast development, rough skin; women = fine, light colored body hair, no noticeable facial hair, high waist:hip ratio, noticeable breast development, smooth skin)
The thing is, in real life, very few people actually match up with all five categories. There are, of course, genetic differences that account for a decent percentage of human births like XXY, XXX, XO, and XYY (apx 1:500 births though it could easily be more than that since we don’t do genetic testing for all people and even at that ratio if there are over 6 billion people in the world 1:500 means there are a whole lot of genetically intersex people out there) but it goes far beyond that. There are people out there who have XX chromosomes, a vulva and vagina, ovaries, male secondary sex characteristics and male hormones patterns. There are people out there who have XY chromosomes, a penis, testes, female secondary sex characteristics and female hormone patterns. There are even people out there with XY chromosomes, testes, a vulva, a vagina, female secondary sex characteristics, and male hormone patterns and there are even people with BOTH male and female secondary sex characteristics at the same time and people with BOTH male and female hormone patterns at the same time regardless of their genes, gonads, and genitalia
And the thing is those people, the people with the “opposite” and/or “blended” secondary sex characteristics and “opposite” and/or “blended” hormone patterns are technically intersex assuming that the two sex system is absolutely true all the time. If there are only two sexes and there can only ever be two sexes and that’s it then all those hairy women and all those men with breasts and all those men with no noticeable body or facial hair and all those women with massive muscles and all that testosterone don’t actually count as “real” women/men and they are treated by the medical industrial complex and society alike as freaks, as anomalies, or as though they don’t actually exist because their existence breaks up the binary. In order for the binary to exist, to be real, all people everywhere must necessarily match up on all 5 markers of sex all the time. That’s not what happens in real life. In real life literally millions of people have bodies that are in some way contrary to the biological concept of the two sex system. Millions.
Millions.
And since there are millions of people out there who’s very existence defies the biological concept of a two sex system we have legitimate proof that the concept of biological sex is a social construct. Biological sex is a social construct. BIOLOGICAL SEX IS A SOCIAL CONSTRUCT. Seriously, biological sex is a social construct. It’s not real. It’s NOT something that is objective or unbiased or “natural.” The concept of biological sex is just as biased, subjective, and utterly flawed as the concept of gender is. Humans created biological sex just like they invented everything else. It’s a category that humans created and as such cannot be objective, can only be biased. It’s a category that humans created so they could categorize and control the world around them and when they started to discover people that didn’t fit into their idea of the way the category should function, when they started to discover trans* and intersex people they decided to hide those people, to erase those people, to ignore those people, to murder, destroy, pathologize, lock up, mutilate, and deny the very existence of those people. Rather than simply admit that the categories are wrong, are flawed, aren’t even real they chose instead to rigidly reinforce those categories at all costs even when the cost is the lives and well-beings of people.
So the next time you sit there and claim that biological sex is a real thing, is an objective thing, is an unbiased, immutable, unchanging, innate, natural thing remember that you are actively contributing to the persecution of every single person on this planet who doesn’t “fit” the way they’re “supposed” to. Remember that and think about what you’re doing. Remember that and think about the fact that trans* people and intersex people are PEOPLE, people who deserve the same rights and respect that all people deserve. Remember that biologcal sex isn’t even real, that the only reason you’re a woman and he’s a man is because some person somewhere arbitrarily decided to create the two sex system, a system that’s not real, has no basis in reality, a system that was socially constructed to help control people and their lives. Every time you hate on trans* people and try to claim that trans* women aren’t really women or that trans* men aren’t really men you are doing the same thing all those other people have done to you. You are arbitrarily creating socially constructed concepts and then using them to control people and their lives. You are being oppressive, you are instituting, perpetuating, and exploiting a power inequity. You are just as bad as all the patriarchal assholes you bitch about every single day of your life and, in fact, you are using their system - the system they created to oppress you - to oppress people in ways similar to the ways they’ve been oppressing you. You are not better than them and it could be said that you’re actually worse since you know first hand how shitty it feels to be oppressed like that and you’re so unsympathetic and blind that you’re actually willing to do it to others.
[i snipped a lot of the argument that preceeded this because the point is lovely on its own -Jaz]
(via thatfeministdyke)
