/sci/ - Science & Math

[Anonymous No.15028950]

Is sex binary, bimodal, or a spectrum?

[Anonymous No.15028954]

it's a big spectrum

[Anonymous No.15028955]

>>15028950
What does it mean to have 0.5 biological sex?

[Anonymous No.15028957]

>>15028950
Binary.
That graph is retarded.
You only have a few of X and Y combinations, and those that are not XX or XY are fuck ups.

[Anonymous No.15029109]

>>15028950
Bimodal
>>15028957
So those that aren't either if the two are not human? Why or why not? If not what is to be done about them?

[Anonymous No.15029134]

>>15029109
>So those that aren't either of the two are not human?
huh... you seem to associate genetic fuck-ups with not being human, curious

[Anonymous No.15029147]

>>15028950
what's on the x axis?

[Anonymous No.15029156]

>>15029134
if they are human then they definitely are a category so the binary doesn't stand as an absolute statement

[Anonymous No.15029555]

>>15028950
KYS

[Anonymous No.15029561]

>>15028950
Sex is a pair of correlation clusters consisting of bimodal traits (which are physical). Those that do differ from the cluster on key physical traits are intersex.

Gender is also a pair of correlation clusters consisting of bimodal traits (which are social). Those that differ form the clusters on key traits are non-binary. Unfortunately, the latter term has become heavily politicised and has become a matter of purely self-identification, which is an unfortunate misuse of the term.

[Anonymous No.15029568]

>>15029109
So is a footless baby not human? Blind man not human? They are fucked up humans. Yes I understand, you're so stupid that basic things confuse you.

[Anonymous No.15029584]

>>15028957
I generally agree that people make too much of genetic disorders in trying to define sex/and gender, but sex is clearly not binary.

Is an individual skin cell male or female? Can DNA be male or female? If intervene in the development of an embryo such that it develops genitals that are in no way functional for reproduction and do not resemble male or female genitalia, does the organism have a sex despite the genes for its sex having been effectively suppressed?

There is also the issue of species that can reproduce asexually or sexually or switch sexes. Sex is an emergent characteristic of life, not something that can be reduced to a simple binary.

Sexual characteristics in humans (including behavioral ones) exist on a bimodal distribution. Speaking of how X or Y trait is "biologically caused versus socially caused," is nonsense. There is no such thing as a human free of culture. If you deny a human child access to society they end up profoundly retarded. Talking about strictly biological sex differences that exist somehow without reference to society is making the same sort of mistake as trying to use genetic disorders to define sex. A human raised without society isn't a healthy specimen, it's an example of pathology.

Sex in humans is an emergent phenomena. There is bidirectional influence between human biology and culture. The two aren't wholly different spheres, both can be examined using information theoretic tools and natural selection is a useful model for both.

Sex is bimodal in specific settings. It is not a spectrum because you need multiple dimensions to describe it.

[Anonymous No.15029602]

Life is a set of complex dynamical systems. Sex isn't a spectrum or a distribution that can be represented on a Cartesian graph, much less two points. It's going to involve fractional dimensions. Sex is an n-dimensional field that can be pragmatically approximated as a bimodal distribution, but only if you're willing to use a high level of abstraction and lose fine grained detail, and only if you hold a large number of variables constant. But of course, the variables you hold constant to make your model manageable will invariably actually be shifting and involved in feedback loops with sexual characteristics.

I don't even see how this is debatable. People somehow mistake dichotomies born of short cut high LoAs for reality, the map for the territory, but it's inexcusable for something as complex as the emergent phenomena of sexual reproduction in biology.

Now if you want to talk about human conceptions of sex/gender, maybe there you can talk about spectra and dichotomies within given cultural contexts.

[Autolycus No.15029648]

>>15029602
I used to simply say that there are n-sexes, but the only feedback I ever got is that I'm an idiot schizophrenic that will never be a woman. So I don't say it anymore, because it just leaves me feeling stupid. I'm pleasantly shocked to see someone post the answer I would consider 'correct'. Uh, thank you.

[Anonymous No.15029772]

>>15029584
>If you deny a human child access to society they end up profoundly retarded
If you grant a human child too much access to society it ends up even worse.

[Anonymous No.15029774]

>>15028950
you either produce sperm or eggs, there has been no known case of a human producing both, though there have been a handful of known humans who had both testes and ovaries but those were either competely sterile or only produced one type of gamete, usually weak sperm
when it comes to other charecteristics yes they aren't exactly bianry but most people will fall into regular man and regular woman,
arm count is technically a spectrum aswell but nearly all humans are born with two arms
so reproduction is binary, there can't really be a third type of gamete with a special function for humans
but sex is more or less bimodal i guess with nearly no one falling into the actual middle and there being extremely high peaks with very little outside of that
gender is just people belieiving their personality makes them uber duper special and transsexuality is a mental illness where the brain is more alike to the opposite sex resulting in extreme body dismorphia