
Gender is not a spectrum - kafkaesq
https://aeon.co/essays/the-idea-that-gender-is-a-spectrum-is-a-new-gender-prison
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webmaven
Bah. There are a few good points made regarding the logical contradictions
between non-binary and a spectrum, but the conclusion is entirely ignorant,
erasing the lived experiences of people who are intersexed: hermaphroditic,
chimeras, have extra chromosomes, etc.

Even if you concede every point the author makes (which I don't, but I am not
up to writing a rebuttal), you can't get away from the fact that a substantial
number of people actually do not, biologically, fall neatly into a 'male' or
'female' box.

This TED talk by Alice Dreger 'Is Anatomy Destiny?' gives a decent overview of
a few of the biological sex variants that humans exhibit:
[http://go.ted.com/4qqoBg](http://go.ted.com/4qqoBg)

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angersock
> _you can 't get away from the fact that a substantial number of people
> actually do not, biologically, fall neatly into a 'male' or 'female' box._

It would probably be helpful to cite some studies here, because there's at
least one gross physical characteristic the existence of which suggests just
such a neat boxing.

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webmaven
That 'gross physical characteristic' as you call it is actually present in
both 'male' and 'female' humans, and can present in an ambiguous form:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quigley_scale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quigley_scale)

~~~
angersock
There are also human beings that are, due to genetic defect, blue-skinned--
that said, hereditary methemoglobinemia is pretty rare (maybe 50 cases on
record). Because of such low incidence rate, it would be silly to claim that
it was worth considering when describing the human skin color spectrum.

Also, the Quigley scale is useful for describing intersex people--it is
designed specifically to model characteristics of a subpopulation whose size
might be be negligible. Without numbers or studies, I can claim with the same
accuracy that the majority of people have either a functioning penis or vagina
(though, in the interest of the anatomically minded, a many of the structures
are of course related).

I'm merely suggesting that it'd be helpful in these discussions to have some
studies backing up our assertions.

