“Don’t use science to justify your bigotry” 

Another viral post is still doing the rounds attempting to mislead people who have a poor understanding of biology into believing that men can be women if they feel like it.

This is the original post from 2017 by someone who calls themselves Grace Ann. Her name is Grace Pokela and she teaches or taught science. It’s had 37,000 shares.

It’s now been copied so much from screens to post again as an image that, just like the horrible humorous photocopies on staff noticeboards from the 1990s, it has started to degrade. Just look at the state of it eight years later:

Let’s analyse it properly:

I just saw a transphobic post that was like, “In a sexual species, females have two X chromosomes and males have an X and a Y, I’m not a bigot it’s just science.” I’m a science teacher, so I commented this.

The original post to which Grace Ann is objecting is wrong in introducing a meme by saying “In a sexual species, females have two X chromosomes and males have an X and a Y”.

Sex determination mechanisms vary across species. Females usually have two X chromosomes and males usually have an X and a Y chromosome in humans and most other mammals, but not always. Here’s the original meme:

First of all, in a sexual species, you can have females be XX and males be X (insects)

Humans aren’t insects.

you can have females be ZW and males be ZZ (birds)

Humans aren’t birds.

you can have females be females because they developed in a warm environment and males be males because they developed in a cool environment (reptiles)

Humans aren’t crocodiles.

you can have females be females because they lost a penis sword fighting contest (some flatworms),

Humans aren’t flatworms.

you can have males be males because they were born female, but changed sexes because the only male in their group died (parrotfish and clownfish)

Humans aren’t parrotfish and humans aren’t clownfish.

you can have males look and act like females because they are trying to get close enough to actual females to mate with them (cuttlefish, bluegills, others)

Humans aren’t cuttlefish. Humans aren’t bluegills.

or you can be one of thousands of sexes (slime mold, some mushrooms.)

Humans aren’t slime moulds. Humans aren’t mushrooms, although with some people I have my doubts. They don’t have thousands of sexes, they have thousands of mating types, to avoid mating with themselves.

Oh, did you mean humans?

Yes, let’s look at what development means for human males and females, since humans aren’t insects, birds, crocodiles, flatworms, parrotfish, clownfish, cuttlefish, bluegills, slime moulds or fungi.

Oh ok then. You can be male because you were born female, but you have 5-alphareductase deficiency and so you grew a penis at age 12.

5-alphareductase deficiency is a difference in sexual development (often referred to as ‘intersex’ in the past) which only boys and men have. Females can’t have 5-ARD. It means boys are born with a micropenis and can get mistaken for girls in countries with less developed healthcare systems. When their male puberty kicks in age 12 their micropenis grows.

You can be female because you have an X and a Y chromosome but you are insensitive to androgens, and so you have a female body.

You are female because you are a female body, not that you have a female body. Chronic Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome is something only girls and women can have.

You can be female because you have an X and a Y chromosome but your Y is missing the SRY gene, and so you have a female body.

You are female because you are a female body. The SRY gene is needed for male development and without it the embryo develops as female. All females have female bodies, that’s what a female is – the body type which has evolved to produce large gametes (eggs)

You can be male because you have two X chromosomes, but one of your X’s HAS an SRY gene, and so you have a male body.

You are male because you are a male body. That’s the definition of sex. The determinants of sex include having a working SRY gene. There are only two sexes because there are only two body types which have evolved. Ones which produce sperm and ones which produce eggs.

Birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it.

You can be male because you have two X chromosomes-but also a Y.

You are male because you are a male body. Having the SRY gene is what determines development as a male. It’s usually on the Y chromosome, which is usually found in males. Having an extra X chromosome is a genetic disorder like Down Syndrome, where people have an extra chromosome 21. It’s called Klinefelter Syndrome and comes with developmental differences and significant health issues for boys and men who have it.

You can be female because you have only one X chromosome at all.

You are female because you are a female body. Having only one sex chromosome is called Turner Syndrome and only females can have it. Again, it comes with an array of health issues.

And you can be male because you have two X chromosomes, but your heart and brain are male. And vice – effing – versa.

You are male because you are a male body. You are female because you are a female body. Women can’t have a male heart or brain. What the poster is talking about is the concept of the soul. The idea that you are something other than your body, that there is some spirit which animates your body, that your spirit can be trapped in the wrong body. That’s a purely religious idea and not a scientific one.

The use of the word ‘effing’ is there to show anger. It’s used to bully and force this person’s unscientific nonsense, parasitically included in a list of real developmental conditions, upon us. Don’t fall for it. 5ARD, CAIS, Kleinfelter and Turner are physical genetic issues. Having a belief that you have an opposite sexed soul is a metaphysical belief.

There’s no evidence of people having ‘wrong sex brains’. There’s no evidence for the existence of the soul. There’s no evidence that there’s anything which gets born apart from your body. When you were born, what got born as well as your body? It’s not possible to believe that you have been born in the wrong body unless you believe in the existence of the soul. If you believe you were born in the wrong body you are suffering from a religious delusion. If you want to force people like me to believe this religious nonsense then you are an authoritarian.

You can wish you were female if you’re a gay man suffering from internalised homophobia, or a straight man who has autogynephilia, which means being sexually excited at the thought of yourself as a woman. Autogynephilia usually starts in adolescence by boys stealing bras and knickers and ends with a middle aged man wanting to have breasts himself so that he can fondle his own breasts while he pleasures himself. It’s a profound and disabling sexual paraphilia and about as far away from the concept of a soul as possible.

Don’t use science to justify your bigotry. The world is way too weird for that shit.

The psychological concept of projection comes in useful here. Using science to justify bigotry is exactly what Grace Ann is doing.

In my experience, the first person to shout ‘bigot’ is one.