Princeton anthropologist Agustin Fuentes, in a recent Scientific American article, discussed several animals whose reproductive biology differs significantly from that of mammals. The existence of such animals, he claimed, challenges standard notions of binary sex. These animals included sex-changing fish, hermaphroditic worms and a species of unisex lizard.
Fuentes then went on to say that although mammals are less “freewheeling” because they exhibit physiological processes such as pregnancy that are limited to “egg producers”, human sex is not binary because many A person’s biological and social characteristics, ranging from housekeeping ability to athletic prowess, are not fully correlated with egg or sperm production.
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Scientifically, this makes as much sense as saying that humans aren’t hot-blooded because some humans have red hair. However, the logic does not matter as the basic concepts of binary gender are incompatible with the fashionable gender ideology and policies supported by LGBT activists. Consequently, the basic idea of biological sex is increasingly being attacked as anachronistic, bigoted, and unscientific for good measure.
Outdated junk science is being weaponized against the trans community, Johns Hopkins University science historian Jules Gill-Peterson argued in a 2022 interview with Scientific American.
In an opinion piece published the same year in the prestigious journal Science, a group of academics warned scientists studying sex to beware of lawmakers and policymakers who might misunderstand or abuse their work and the consequences that this entails. might have for members of the LGBT community.
“Using biological definitions in law may seem like responsible governance, but it can lead to harmful or illogical results,” they explained. “This can happen through a variety of means, including… the uncritical use of binary sex categories in science; and ignoring bioscientific evidence on the complexity, mutability, context specificity, and plurality of sex and gender.
These authors were not alone.
“As scientists, we need to fight the misuse of biological terms by promoting accurate language… (e.g., “menstruating people”) and recognizing that people express these variables in ways that may not conform to a sex or gender binary system,” exclaimed the authors of another Science opinion piece, this one published in 2021.
Yet nowhere in these or similar calls to arms against biological sex, often supposedly made in the name of accurate and precise discussions of biology, does anyone adequately explain how there is a significant biological difference between a menstruating person and a woman or does offer a biological description of “non-binary” for something other than maybe a fungus or algae.
Instead, like Fuentes, authors of such plays typically present a small arch of animals and other organisms with aspects of their reproductive biology that may seem odd to most people and act as if were newly discovered exceptions that completely abolish antiquated rules that still shape our understanding of biological sex.
However, those who have studied organisms other than mammals are well aware of these supposed exceptions. They have been for some time.
But most biologists have never felt the need to completely deny the notion of binary sex simply because a biologically more accurate version of Finding Nemo would result in a completely different kind of movie, though probably more in line with current programming. from Disney.
Even fewer would have suggested that the existence of hermaphrodite worms warrants an overhaul of the seventh grade health class.
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Yet, with increasing frequency, many scientists and educators have done just that through arguments that are often logically and scientifically incoherent. They use these arguments to silence critics of favored narratives and appear to discredit those who might assert the authority of science when defending their opposition to policies favored by LGBT activists.
Daniel Nuccio holds a doctorate. Biology student and regular contributor to College Fix and the Brownstone Institute.
