“Biology is bigger than your bigotry”
Today’s post is another one on human biology and its misuse to support an ideology. If you’d rather look at my photographs of Puffins, please click here:
A post which is doing the rounds on Facebook is this one from Daniel Lismore. He describes himself as “Living Sculpture, Artist, Designer, Perfumer”. We shouldn’t hold that against him, however, as whether you’re an authority on something isn’t necessarily related to whether what you say is true or not.
Here’s what he wrote, assuming that he’s the originator of it, taking us on a tour of human developmental biology. Let’s read it first and then I’ll analyse it and respond:
You Can Grow a Penis. Biology Is Bigger Than Your Bigotry.
Despite what TERFs JK Rowling Tate bros and some of your high school biology teachers tried to teach you
Sex is not fixed at birth. It is not binary. It is not simple. Biology never agreed to your rules
Let’s start in Las Salinas in the Dominican Republic. In this village there are children who grow up looking female because their genitals don’t form in the typical male way before birth. Then around puberty everything changes. Their voices drop their muscles develop their testicles descend and they grow penises. This is a real medical condition called 5-alpha-reductase deficiency. It means their bodies cannot convert testosterone into dihydrotestosterone or DHT which is essential for male genital development in the womb. These children are often raised as girls but they are genetically male and their bodies begin to masculinise when testosterone floods the system during puberty
In the Dominican Republic they’re called “guevedoces” which means “penis at twelve.” Whole communities know about it. They don’t freak out. They just see it as part of human variation. This isn’t some fringe anomaly. It happens in other parts of the world too like Papua New Guinea the Middle East and parts of the Caribbean. It’s documented in medical journals and studied by scientists. This is not a theory. It’s biology
5-alpha-reductase deficiency is just one intersex condition. There are dozens more. Some people have XX chromosomes but develop testicles. Some have XY chromosomes but their bodies don’t respond to testosterone at all so they grow up looking female. This is called androgen insensitivity syndrome. Many people only discover it when they hit puberty or try to have children. Others are born with ambiguous genitalia or combinations of ovarian and testicular tissue. Some never find out until they get a DNA test
This is what intersex means. Not nonbinary identity or personal expression but literal biological diversity in sex characteristics chromosomes and hormones. Intersex people exist in every culture. They are not rare. They are not a mistake. They are not a metaphor. They are living proof that the binary model of sex is outdated and false
Estimates show around 2% of the population is intersex. In the UK that means about 1.3 million people. That’s more than the number of twins. That’s more than the estimated 500,000 trans people in the country. Yet most people were never taught any of this. They were told “boys have penises girls have vaginas” and that was the end of it. That’s not education. That’s propaganda
So when you hear politicians or pundits say “you can’t change sex” or “biology is binary” what they really mean is “I don’t understand biology and I don’t want to.” They’re not quoting science. They’re quoting ignorance. The same people who yell “follow the science” ignore actual human biology when it doesn’t fit their politics. They cling to outdated textbooks and use them like weapons while pretending to care about truth
Let’s be honest. They don’t want the truth. They want control. They want a world where everything fits into neat boxes where difference is punished where curiosity is shameful and where anyone who doesn’t comply can be erased
But science doesn’t work that way. Nature doesn’t work that way. Biology doesn’t work that way
Some people grow penises at puberty. Some people never develop typical genitalia at all. Some people with XY chromosomes live their whole lives as women without ever knowing. Some people have three sex chromosomes or none. This is fact. It’s not political. It’s not controversial. It’s just true
The purple circle and yellow stripe on the Pride flag exist for a reason. They represent intersex people. People who were ignored erased and hidden for generations. People whose bodies defy the lie that sex is a switch you flip at birth. People who are still fighting for recognition safety and truth
I hope you learned something today
Sex is not binary no matter how loudly hateful fantasists try to pretend otherwise. Sadly many of them don’t know biology neither could they probably understand it and most just deny it because they can’t hack it
But biology is real
And it doesn’t care what JK Rowling says
I thought it would be useful to analyse some of Daniel’s claims to see whether they hold up.
You Can Grow a Penis. Biology Is Bigger Than Your Bigotry.
Well, you can’t grow a penis if you don’t already have one, except in the uterus in very early development. Some boys with a serious genetic disorder are born with a micropenis which develops during puberty. Only boy embryos in the womb grow a penis. Everyone else has to somehow make do without one. How do they cope? Just fine.
Biology doesn’t care about your feelings on the subject. And an understanding of basic developmental biology is not bigotry.
Despite what TERFs JK Rowling Tate bros and some of your high school biology teachers tried to teach you
Most of the people who think biological sex is real are not TERFs, which stands for Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists. They are everyone who is not a member of the recently developed Gender Identity religion. Focussing on the feminists who don’t believe in this religion is because they are women, because many men hate women.
Personally I’d trust my biology text books rather than a Living Sculpture, Artist, Designer, Perfumer. And I think the acronym TERF would be better if it meant Tired of Explaining Reality to Fools.
Sex is not fixed at birth. It is not binary. It is not simple. Biology never agreed to your rules
Daniel is correct that sex isn’t fixed at birth; it’s fixed earlier, at conception. The definition of sex is that it is binary. There is one human body type which evolved to produce sperm and one human body type which evolved to produce eggs. There are no other human body types.
Sex is the most binary of systems. It’s defined that way.
The development of bodies, however, is complicated.
Let’s start in Las Salinas in the Dominican Republic. In this village there are children who grow up looking female because their genitals don’t form in the typical male way before birth. Then around puberty everything changes. Their voices drop their muscles develop their testicles descend and they grow penises. This is a real medical condition called 5-alpha-reductase deficiency. It means their bodies cannot convert testosterone into dihydrotestosterone or DHT which is essential for male genital development in the womb. These children are often raised as girls but they are genetically male and their bodies begin to masculinise when testosterone floods the system during puberty
5ARD is a well-known genetic disorder which results in baby boys being wrongly classified as girls at birth in some developing countries. People with 5ARD are male and go through male puberty, have testes, have a micropenis which develops somewhat at puberty, and can father children, sometimes needing a little help.
It’s been extensively studied and the genetics of it are well understood.
The three athletes who won the Rio Olympic 800 metres race for women were all men with the 5ARD genetic disorder. Yes, you read that right, three men got Olympic medals in the women’s race.
You might wonder how the women felt about having their medals for their incredible performances given to men. Here’s Lynsey Sharp, the rightful winner of the bronze Olympic medal, being interviewed after the 2016 Rio Olympics Women’s 800m final.
Caster Semenya is perhaps the most famous example of a man who has won Olympic medals in the women’s events. He is referred to as ‘she’ and ‘her’ and ‘woman’ throughout the disgraceful coverage by the BBC. You would never know he was actually a man from their coverage. He’s a married man with his own kids, yet I’ve been called ‘racist’ for correctly referring to him as a man.
In the Dominican Republic they’re called “guevedoces” which means “penis at twelve.” Whole communities know about it. They don’t freak out. They just see it as part of human variation. This isn’t some fringe anomaly. It happens in other parts of the world too like Papua New Guinea the Middle East and parts of the Caribbean. It’s documented in medical journals and studied by scientists. This is not a theory. It’s biology
It is biology. Well-known biology. It has nothing to do with identity.
There are plenty of genetic disorders in humans across the world:
Sickle cell disease: More common in people with African or Mediterranean ancestry.
Tay-Sachs disease: More frequent among Ashkenazi Jewish and French Canadian populations.
Thalassemia: Found in Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and Southeast Asian populations.
Haemochromatosis: More common in people of Northern European descent.
All have been extensively studied.
As Daniel says, “Whole communities know about it. They don’t freak out. They just see it as part of human variation. This isn’t some fringe anomaly… It’s documented in medical journals and studied by scientists. This is not a theory. It’s biology”
5-alpha-reductase deficiency is just one intersex condition. There are dozens more. Some people have XX chromosomes but develop testicles. Some have XY chromosomes but their bodies don’t respond to testosterone at all so they grow up looking female. This is called androgen insensitivity syndrome. Many people only discover it when they hit puberty or try to have children. Others are born with ambiguous genitalia or combinations of ovarian and testicular tissue. Some never find out until they get a DNA test
There are many ways in which your sexed body can develop differently from the standard pattern. 5ARD and CAIS (Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome) are two of them. Neither of them stop sex being binary or produce bodies which are anything other than male or female.
This is what intersex means. Not nonbinary identity or personal expression but literal biological diversity in sex characteristics chromosomes and hormones. Intersex people exist in every culture. They are not rare. They are not a mistake. They are not a metaphor. They are living proof that the binary model of sex is outdated and false
Intersex is an old-fashioned word which people with differences in sexual development find insulting. Nobody ever born has been “between the sexes”. People with 5ARD are males and people with CAIS are females.
Estimates show around 2% of the population is intersex. In the UK that means about 1.3 million people. That’s more than the number of twins. That’s more than the estimated 500,000 trans people in the country. Yet most people were never taught any of this. They were told “boys have penises girls have vaginas” and that was the end of it. That’s not education. That’s propaganda
That’s not true. Ann Fausto-Sterling estimated 1.7% (which is where this 2% figure comes from) but she included people with Klinefelter syndrome, Turner syndrome, and late-onset adrenal hyperplasia. The actual percentage is 0.018%. That means 18 people in every 100,000 people.
Fausto-Sterling, A. (2000). Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality. New York: Basic Books. [Link]
Sax, L. (2002). How common is intersex? a response to Anne Fausto-Sterling. J Sex Res. 39 (3): 174-8. [Link]
The correct figure is one hundred times less than the 2%. It’s 18 in 100,000 people, not 2,000 in 100,000 people.
So when you hear politicians or pundits say “you can’t change sex” or “biology is binary” what they really mean is “I don’t understand biology and I don’t want to.” They’re not quoting science. They’re quoting ignorance. The same people who yell “follow the science” ignore actual human biology when it doesn’t fit their politics. They cling to outdated textbooks and use them like weapons while pretending to care about truth
You can’t change sex. Sex is binary. It is science. It isn’t ignorance. Politics has nothing to do with it.
The use of “They’re not quoting science. They’re quoting ignorance. The same people who yell “follow the science” ignore actual human biology when it doesn’t fit their politics” shows just how strong the psychological projection is with Daniel, as that’s exactly what he’s doing.
People are male or female and there is no ‘other’ category. Once you are conceived as male you stay as male and once you are conceived as female you stay as female. There is no possibility of anyone changing sex. It’s an indelible part of your development as a human.
Let’s be honest. They don’t want the truth. They want control. They want a world where everything fits into neat boxes where difference is punished where curiosity is shameful and where anyone who doesn’t comply can be erased
There appears to be a large amount of psychological projection here, too. What Daniel Lismore wants is control, where difference is punished and where anyone who doesn’t comply can be erased.
But science doesn’t work that way. Nature doesn’t work that way. Biology doesn’t work that way
Science is the accumulation of repeatable observations. So far there has never been anyone born who was not either a man or a woman and no-one in the history of humanity has ever changed sex.
Some people grow penises at puberty. Some people never develop typical genitalia at all. Some people with XY chromosomes live their whole lives as women without ever knowing. Some people have three sex chromosomes or none. This is fact. It’s not political. It’s not controversial. It’s just true
“Some people grow penises at puberty” is a nonsense statement. The truth is that some boys with a genetic condition are born with a micropenis which grows during puberty.
“Some people never develop typical genitalia at all”. Yes, and some people are born with one leg shorter than the other. Development is humans is incredibly tricky and there are many things which can go wrong with it.
“Some people with XY chromosomes live their whole lives as women without ever knowing”. Parents of girls with XY chromosomes know as soon as they have medical investigations, either genetic testing shortly after birth, or they find out when a teenage girl doesn’t start their periods.
“Some people have three sex chromosomes or none”. Yes, some people have an extra X or Y chromosome, however it’s not possible to have no sex chromosomes. Without an X chromosome it’s not possible for a human being to develop.
Humans vary in their biology. Some people have genetic differences. That’s not a choice and it has nothing to do with any ‘identity’ a person might have.
The purple circle and yellow stripe on the Pride flag exist for a reason. They represent intersex people. People who were ignored erased and hidden for generations. People whose bodies defy the lie that sex is a switch you flip at birth. People who are still fighting for recognition safety and truth
There is no purple circle and yellow background on the Pride flag. The purple circle and yellow background is on the ugly Progress Pride flag and is an insult to people with genetic disorders. Most of these people want nothing to do with identity politics or fetishists and having a genetic developmental difference has nothing to do with sexual orientation.
“People who are still fighting for recognition safety and truth”? People with differences in sexual development are fighting for proper health services, early testing and recognition in developing countries, and to stop their medical conditions being co-opted by TQ+ lobby groups as proof that somehow identities are not a choice.
Some people have differences in their development of sexual characteristics. All are either male or female. Their differences are fascinating and part of standard developmental biology. They have nothing to do with men who have a profound and debilitating sexual fetish, or self-harming teenage girls, or fashionable identities.
I hope you learned something today
I learned how desperate Daniel is to conflate genetic conditions with identity to make people think that because genetic conditions exist, so do identities.
People with genetic conditions have nothing whatsoever in common with people choosing an identity. Should I be able to identify as ‘intellectually impaired’, claim disability benefits and have surgical alterations to my eyes and the bridge of my nose because a genetic condition like Down Syndrome exists? Clearly not. That would be ridiculous.
The same is true of the ridiculous and insulting conflation of genetic differences and gender identities.
Sex is not binary no matter how loudly hateful fantasists try to pretend otherwise. Sadly many of them don’t know biology neither could they probably understand it and most just deny it because they can’t hack it
There are two sexes. There are two body types. There are either eggs or sperm. If sex isn’t binary, please do tell me what the other gametes are, apart from eggs and sperm.
If Daniel isn’t sure about that, I suggest he ask his mum and dad.
“Most just deny it because they can’t hack it” is a perfect description of Daniel’s own position.
But biology is real
It is. And identities are not.
And it doesn’t care what JK Rowling says
Biology is real. And it doesn’t care what Daniel Lismore says.
The visceral hatred of JK Rowling simply emphasises how misogynistic this whole belief system is.
So tell me, had you heard of 5ARD before? Are you surprised at how many different genetic conditions affect people’s sex characteristics? Do you believe that there are more than two sexes? Do let me know in the comments.
And just in case you need a palate-cleanser after all that, here’s a Puffin.
