Earlier quoted context omitted.
Birds are not mammals. Fish are not mammals. Mammals on the other hand have males that impregnate the females.
Someone forgot that the platypus exists.
The exception is not the rule.
Animal Sex Determination Is Weirder Than You Think
91–100 of 182 posts
Re: Animal Sex Determination Is Weirder Than You Think
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
Birds are not mammals. Fish are not mammals. Mammals on the other hand have males that impregnate the females.
Producing a more complicated definition with a special case for mammals vs. not mammals doesn't really add anything, even if it weren't for the platypus or the echidna being further examples of things not working like that. Biology is messy, the boundaries are messy, the words we use are merely for our own benefit to simplify a messy and complex reality.
Messy edge cases doesn't mean let's just throw everything away.
Re: Animal Sex Determination Is Weirder Than You Think
#93Throughout the history of biology, psychology, cognitive science, and neurosciences, there has been a constant back and forth between those who would exaggerate sex differences, and those who would understate sex-differences as purely social constructs with no affect on biology other than what is caused via experienced socializations. The truth is more complicated than any of those extremes. Important differences in…
You say all that but nonetheless most people fall into two categories.
Re: Animal Sex Determination Is Weirder Than You Think
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's usually worth reminding ourselves of. I'm not sure what you're getting at here though.
They are getting at the point that as animals we can intellectualize all we want and will still have biological characteristics that fundamentally influence our behavior and culture.
Research findings are not "intellectualization." Intellectualization is what those who don't actually research a subject do. However, I don't think anyone claims that there is are no innate biological effects on behaviour. It's just that its scope is hard to determine, and extrapolation one species to another has proven to be an unreliable means of making such determinations.
Re: Animal Sex Determination Is Weirder Than You Think
#95Re: Animal Sex Determination Is Weirder Than You Think
#96"(a system that’s distinct from our diverse gender identities)" Please don't take this the wrong way, this is a genuine question. Is there an explaination somewhere of what purpose gender identities serve and what benefits that provides (ie why don't animals need them)? Aside from reproduction, I don't see how gender would really influence anything.
I'll probably get flagged - I see it more like being a goth or a skater or whatever. Identity is something people like to have generally, it's normal, but somehow it gets politicised in certain cases. I don't think a relationship to sex has to enter into it, it's more like a justification maybe?
It gets politicized because there is real-world discrimination if one's not under the normative curve, which is a political issue.
Re: Animal Sex Determination Is Weirder Than You Think
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
Someone forgot that the platypus exists.
The exception is not the rule.
Abstractions are useful, this is true, but the exceptions are a reminder that they are not reality, they are just a categorization we overlay on top of reality to help us understand it. Their utility is contextual.
Your abstraction ignores all the sterile men and women too, by the way. That's because it is a particularly bad one.
Re: Animal Sex Determination Is Weirder Than You Think
#98Throughout the history of biology, psychology, cognitive science, and neurosciences, there has been a constant back and forth between those who would exaggerate sex differences, and those who would understate sex-differences as purely social constructs with no affect on biology other than what is caused via experienced socializations. The truth is more complicated than any of those extremes. Important differences in…
You say all that but nonetheless most people fall into two categories.
Let us not confuse bimodal distribution with binary distribution. stats 101. There is considerable overlap in biological features that are regulated by sex chromosomes and sex hormones, such that there is considerable heterogeneity within each sex.
Also these dismissals using 'but most people' are ironic; the exceptions disprove the rule of a binary, an imaginary binary that is then used to dismiss the rights and reality of sex and gender diversity. Its cake and eat it too thinking.
Re: Animal Sex Determination Is Weirder Than You Think
#99Throughout the history of biology, psychology, cognitive science, and neurosciences, there has been a constant back and forth between those who would exaggerate sex differences, and those who would understate sex-differences as purely social constructs with no affect on biology other than what is caused via experienced socializations. The truth is more complicated than any of those extremes. Important differences in…
I also find it interesting that the generally smart and data driven crowd at HN is so ideological driven when it comes to the reality of diversity in sex phenotypes, which are about 1% of the general population, and about 15% of those with autism.
Re: Animal Sex Determination Is Weirder Than You Think
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
FYI, I am a scientist that studies sex and gender in autism.
You're a quack who's using very rare anomalies in sex to falsely conflate sex and gender. You are doing harm.
you sweep 'anomolies' under the rug then act as biological reality of sex and gender is black and white.