Usually, “sex” refers to biology (“what’s in your pants”) whereas “gender” refers to the social construct (are people expect you to wear pants?).
“Asexual” then usually refers to someone’s preferences about getting what’s in their pants and what’s in someone else’s pants together; asexual typically means “they’re not interested in that”.(“heterosexual” meaning they want what’s in the other person’s pants to be different than what’s in theirs)
There’s a lot of namespace collisions in all this.
> Usually, “sex” refers to biology (“what’s in your pants”)
"Sex" refers more specifically to hormonal expression than anything else.
What's in your pants, what chromosomes you have, etc aren't really great indicators for that. What hormones you have in your body in practice is really the only surefire thing.
This applies especially in the historical context since after social clues, the main thing you have left is osteology/bone analysis and that's driven predominantly by hormones more than anything else.
And even if you subtract the people on hormone replacement therapy, intersex people (people who naturally express "nonstandard" sex characteristics) make up upwards of 2% of the population.
So in the end sex really only refers to what your hormones are and nowadays you can change that with medication.
Sorry for being pedantic but this is one of the things that irks me with sex/gender discourse
To give you an example of what sex means: The level of testosterone in my body may be influenced by society, but if you measure it, you will have no doubt telling my sex. Like for most adults, it sets me apart by an order of magnitude from the other sex. And I make this prediction without ever having measured. Any biologist would validate it just from looking at me.
It is very likely that my level of testosterone will never be in the range of the other sex. Since puberty, until death. Society cannot change that. The diurnal cycle? You jest.
RangerScience|2 years ago
“Asexual” then usually refers to someone’s preferences about getting what’s in their pants and what’s in someone else’s pants together; asexual typically means “they’re not interested in that”.(“heterosexual” meaning they want what’s in the other person’s pants to be different than what’s in theirs)
There’s a lot of namespace collisions in all this.
jacoblambda|2 years ago
"Sex" refers more specifically to hormonal expression than anything else.
What's in your pants, what chromosomes you have, etc aren't really great indicators for that. What hormones you have in your body in practice is really the only surefire thing.
This applies especially in the historical context since after social clues, the main thing you have left is osteology/bone analysis and that's driven predominantly by hormones more than anything else.
And even if you subtract the people on hormone replacement therapy, intersex people (people who naturally express "nonstandard" sex characteristics) make up upwards of 2% of the population.
So in the end sex really only refers to what your hormones are and nowadays you can change that with medication.
Sorry for being pedantic but this is one of the things that irks me with sex/gender discourse
quickthrower2|2 years ago
lolc|2 years ago
To give you an example of what sex means: The level of testosterone in my body may be influenced by society, but if you measure it, you will have no doubt telling my sex. Like for most adults, it sets me apart by an order of magnitude from the other sex. And I make this prediction without ever having measured. Any biologist would validate it just from looking at me.
It is very likely that my level of testosterone will never be in the range of the other sex. Since puberty, until death. Society cannot change that. The diurnal cycle? You jest.
iAMkenough|2 years ago
immibis|2 years ago
ackbar03|2 years ago
[deleted]
bigbillheck|2 years ago