sex is a cluster of traits (genitals, chromosomes, hormones, body
proportions, facial hair, etc) and someone who has traits of more than
one sex is somewhere in-between.
sex is exactly one trait, and it’s binary whether you have it or
don’t.
I have trouble believing (2), because people who believe it can’t
agree on what that trait is. I’ve heard “having a y-chromosome,”
“producing sperm/egg,” “looking like what I imagine a man/woman to look
like,” “identifying as a man/woman,” “having a penis,” “having
ever had a penis,” “having a uterus,” “having a vagina,” and
“having a vulva” (I’ve only ever heard French people say that last one,
so we also know it’s culturally determined).
Biology has always been in conflict with essentialism, this tendency we have to assume that things in the real world must be as clear-cut as the definitions and categories we assign to them, because nature existed before humans started having ideas and it has never shown any interest in playing along with them. But it seems like essentialism is getting a lot more popular recently among people who consider themselves to be the rational ones while empirical realists are clearly the subjective touchy-feely types. Maybe it's because those essentialists spend so much time in the rationally designed world, where everything is built of modular parts planned from the top down with clear functions in mind.
There are lots of ways to be intersex but my favorite is [androgen insensitivity syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Androgen_insensitivity_syndrome), which in some cases can be so complete that the subjects grow up as perfectly normal and healthy girls and women with no visible signs of problems, until they go to the doctor to find out why they're infertile and discover it's because they've actually possessed a male ~~essence~~ chromosome all along as well as testicles where ovaries would normally be.
> "having a vagina," and "having a vulva" (I've only ever heard French people say that last one, so we also know it's culturally determined)
FWIW most English speakers don't know the difference and say "vagina" when they mean the part that experts call a vulva. And that's the level of sophistication these arguments start from.
There was even a case of an XY chromosome woman who was [able to have children with a man](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2190741/), I wonder what the essentialists would make of that one.
While some intersex individuals may not be readily
classifiable as either male or female, this doesn’t mean that sex is not
categorical. It just means some people may not fit either category, and
that’s totally OK!
You know that system I reify for categorizing humans, and which I
think should be a determinant of most social and political discussions?
It blatantly doesn’t work, and that’s totally OK!
It's a browser addon that flags sites as either trans-friendly (a relaxing leaf green) or anti-trans (a less pleasant crimson).
Amusing trivia: the [Wikipedia page for the Catholic Church](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church) is flagged anti-trans. It's not *wrong*, but it's still... quite something.
There are two possibilities:
sex is a cluster of traits (genitals, chromosomes, hormones, body proportions, facial hair, etc) and someone who has traits of more than one sex is somewhere in-between.
sex is exactly one trait, and it’s binary whether you have it or don’t.
I have trouble believing (2), because people who believe it can’t agree on what that trait is. I’ve heard “having a y-chromosome,” “producing sperm/egg,” “looking like what I imagine a man/woman to look like,” “identifying as a man/woman,” “having a penis,” “having ever had a penis,” “having a uterus,” “having a vagina,” and “having a vulva” (I’ve only ever heard French people say that last one, so we also know it’s culturally determined).
You know that system I reify for categorizing humans, and which I think should be a determinant of most social and political discussions? It blatantly doesn’t work, and that’s totally OK!
Shinigami Eyes flags that twitter a truly vibrant crimson, so I know exactly what sort of horseshit I’m getting into before having to read it!
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