The Feminist Hub: The Sexual Binary, part 2 →
I wanted to add some additional commentary to the sexual binary discussion from the last couple of posts. After reading Renee’s post on the matter, it occurred to me that honestlyisay might be referring to the sex binary (male/female) as opposed to the sexual orientation binary (homosexual/heterosexual). So, just in case that’s what was meant, I’m going to respond here!
I recently reblogged a quote over on my own blog. Here it is, for context and so no one has to follow the link:
Sex is no more an immutable binary than is gender. There are intersex people who are born with non-binary genitalia, as I have already mentioned. There are people with hormonal anomalies. In fact, hormone levels vary wildly within the categories of cis male and cis female. Chromosomes, too, vary. If you thought “XX” and “XY” were the only two possible combinations, you have some serious googling to do. In addition to variations like XXY, XXYY, or X, sometimes cis people find out that they are genetically the “opposite” of what they though they were– that is, a ‘typical’ cis man can be XX, a ‘normal’ cis woman can be XY.
The fact is that the concept of binary sex is based on the fallacious idea that multiple sex characteristics are immutable and must always go together, when in fact many of them can be changed, many erased, and many appear independently in different combinations. “Female” in sex binary terms means having breasts, having a vagina, having a womb, not having a lot of body hair, having a high-pitched voice, having lots of estrogen, having a period, having XX chromosomes. “Male” means having a penis, not having breasts, producing sperm, having body hair, having a deep voice, having lots of testosterone, having XY chromosomes. Yet it is possible to isolate, alter, and remove many of these traits. Many of these traits do not always appear together, and before puberty and after menopause, many of them do not apply.
- Asher Bauer, via inherhipstheresrevolutions
This quote is the most succinct description I’ve found to describe what is wrong with the male/female dichotomy.
Kinsey Hope has also written an article that might be of interest for further reading. I have dug it out of her archives for reference: Male/Female: Broken Language. She has a background in biology, if I recall correctly, so her insights into so-called “biologically obvious” terms is interesting.
For more commentary on gender in general, her post on The Reality of Gender is also a very worthwhile read.
And for anyone who still reads those old-style books that are made from trees, I’ve heard good things about Cordelia Fine’s Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference (amazon link here). I haven’t read it yet, though, so that’s a tentative recommendation.
Again, it wasn’t clear to me whether honestlyisay was referring to the sexual orientation binary or the “biological sex” binary. Either way, I hope these resources are useful for some readers out there!
- Anna
