this post was submitted on 27 Dec 2023
461 points (93.6% liked)
Facepalm
2639 readers
1 users here now
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
The question kind of becomes what counts as leaning towards female. Some folk have multiple chromasomal makeups happening at once or develop things independant of their chromasomes for their general presenting phenotype. You can have two fully functional sets of reproductive organs. There are 11 recorded instances of intersex people being the only parent of their children (interestingly all recorded children who came from this circumstance were born phenotypicly male) The actual span of variation is pretty wild and at some point the distinction between a male and female binary phenotypes in regards to intersex people seems like a disservice.
In my mind it has to do with gametes. If an intersex person has functional ovaries that produce eggs that are fertilized with sperm, can carry the fetus to term and give birth- then they're closer to female
If they can do that, but also have functional testes that produce viable sperm, can get an errection and impregnate a partner then I'd still even count them closer to biologically female if they produce eggs- but accept that they're biologically perfectly intersex (and be highly impressed)
Though as far as I remember reading the production of one hormone can interfere with the others, and so chances of pregnancy are slim. I don't remember ever hearing of someone in the scenario above, tho .
Yes I do know about XXY (present as taller than average women), or XYY (men) and the XY males who present as female until they grow a penis at puberty (low testosterone that kicks in only as a teen). All of that is fascinating, and I don't dislike the variation in human beings! It's nature trying new things and that's neccessary for species to survive
(And I truly don't give a rats-ass how people identify. I'll call people whatever name they want, and refer to them in whichever way they want even in private conversations that don't include them. This is just how I'm currently categorizing biological sex in my own mind. There's plenty of room for re-interpretation and if new terms are decided upon I'm fine with aquiring and using them )
I wasn't referring to XXY or XYY so much as that some folk actually have different parts of their bodies which have entirely different genotypes so you can have parts which genetically are different inside a single individual as in Chimerism. I personally just find it fascinating.