"Biologically male/female" - an outdated (and harmful) notion

[hotX]

Hermaphrodite = member of a species that is capable of both being impregnated by and impregnating another member of its species and producing fertile offspring.

Many intersex people don't have fully functional sexual organs.

While many are of the opinion that sex dictates gender, I see it as the other way round - your gender dictates your sex.

This implies that if some one becomes transgender, they're sex organs and/or chromosomes magically change.

 

[JDub]

Just because someone is born with fucked up genes or genitalia doesn't mean the rules should be changed, it just means they're an exception. You might as well try to argue that humans aren't bipeds because people can be born missing a leg.

So....being LGBT means you have a birth defect?
I heard an anthropologist pose his theory on "teh gay gene". He proposed that it's an evolutionary trait with social benefits. He noticed that gays are born at the same frequency of color-blind and left-handed people (about 1 in 9 to 1 in 12). He said that when we were hunter-gatherers our hunting parties typically consisted of 9 to 12 people too. Assuring that one person in the party would be either color-blind or left-handed. The benefit of a color-blind person in a hunting party was that camouflage doesn't work so well on the color-blind. So, it increased the chance of that party's success. A left-handed person was a benefit because he would be more accurate with a bow and arrow or spear against an animal who happens to run to the left. Apparently, animals tend to zig right. Continuing his line of reasoning he proposed that LGBT's were beneficial to tribes as well due to being able to go between gender roles in a tribe and help the males or the females depending on the task. Especially, while the hunters are away. Prolly a bunch of malarky. But, I thought it was interesting.

 

[MntT77]

Male = member of a species that is capable of impregnating a female member of the same species and producing fertile offspring.
Female = member of a species that is capable of being impregnated by a male member of the same species and bearing fertile offspring.
Hermaphrodite = member of a species that is capable of both being impregnated by and impregnating another member of its species and producing fertile offspring.

And what about people who, for whatever reason, are infertile?

This implies that if some one becomes transgender, they're sex organs and/or chromosomes magically change.

It was a bit ambiguous, sorry.

What I mean is that I don't see body parts as being 'male' or 'female', so to speak. And it's not just genitals and chromosomes. In fact, in day to day life we judge people's sex on various other characteristics - facial hair (or lack thereof), skeletal structure, muscle, voice etc.

 

[JDub]

To be honest I've never used any of these things to tell guys and girls apart. And I bet I'm not the only one.

Where I live, there are certain areas of town where you would be well advised to do so.

 

[Slade]

So....being LGBT means you have a birth defect?

I'm not sure where you're getting that from. I'm gay but I'm pretty sure if I were to cum inside a woman I could get her pregnant. I just have no inclination to do so because vaginas are gross.

As for infertile people, they're usually born one gender and later become infertile due to external causes. If someone fails to develop functioning genitals for whatever reason, that falls under defect.

The point I'm trying to make is that gender isn't a triangle or some other polygon between male/female/intersex/whatever. It's just a line between male and female, and a normally developed human falls on either end of that line. Some of the unlucky ones get plopped somewhere in the middle, but it doesn't mean they're some magical third gender.