Re: gender

On Sat, 18 Mar 2000, Richard N Hutchinson wrote:

(Logically there are but 2 sexes....

I don't know about logically (why should it be logical to have but two
sexes), but empirically it isn't all that clear. What do we go by,
genotype or phenotype? There are genotypes XX with male phenotypes. There
are genotypes XY with female phenotypes. Sometimes the sex is ambiguous
(cultures that recognize more than two sexes have social roles for what we
consider the sexually ambiguous). Depends on the hormone bath. If
chromosomes are your gold standard, then how do you deal with XXXs and
XYYs. Up until genetic testing Western society just had to wing it (most
people still do). Like anything else, there is a range of variation in sex
chromosomes and phenotypic forms. The idea of opposite sexes as a
biological duality is ultimately a scientific construction, and it rests
on a problematic typological basis.

Andrew