this post was submitted on 21 May 2026
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[–] PapaStevesy@lemmy.world 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Sure it does, it's the sex you have biologically. The second thing you're talking about is called gender-affirming care and is distinct from biological sex. Both "sex" and "gender" are societal concepts, but sex is descriptive whereas gender is prescriptive. You can read that to mean sex is scientifically determinable, whereas gender is meaninglessly abstract. Sex says, "assuming all your bits work, here's how you would contribute to the reproductive process." Gender says, "regardless of what bits you were born with but dependent on what bits people think you were born with, here's how society will treat you and expect you to behave." "Biological gender" doesn't exist, just like "sociological sex" doesn't exist. So I guess in that sense, "biological sex" doesn't make sense, because there's no other kind.

[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 1 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Biology is a term used to describe how your body functions. Hormones changing your body is biology, whether they're natural or otherwise. "Biological sex" is a dog whistle. It is not a term used by people who are being honest. It's just sex, or sex assigned at birth. "Biological sex" is a term for bigots to sound like they have science on their side.

[–] PapaStevesy@lemmy.world 0 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Exactly what I said, there's no other kind

[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 1 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

Sure it does, it's the sex you have biologically.

Exactly what I said, there's no other kind

Biology is how the body is functioning and growing. This is defined by what hormones are in the body, as hormones tell cells how to function. In this way, biological sex is the sex defined by what hormones are in your body. Sex assigned at birth does not necessarily match this.

Biological sex is not a term that has any meaning. It is a term invented to lend the air of scientific authority to a certain group of people making a bad faith argument. Sex is the term that is more commonly used, or sex assigned at birth to be more specific (which implies it changes and is not just gender).

Iff (if and only if) we're using the words as their definitions imply, biological sex = what hormones are in your body. Hormones define how your body functions, meaning their biological activity. Then it follows that hormone replacement therapy changes biological sex. It isn't the bullshit static thing the people typically using the word to mean, as a replacement for "sex assigned at birth". That term they won't use because it lends credence to the idea it can change, rather than something that makes them sound as if their opinion is based in science.

[–] PapaStevesy@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

To be clear though, hormones don't define how your body functions, that'd be DNA. You wouldn't have hormones or the ability to process them into meaningful signals without DNA. Ultimately, "biological sex" is determined by the sex chromosomes, which never change. I'm not arguing whether or not right-wing chuds co-opted the term (I've no clue, I don't listen to right wing chuds), but it does have an objective, scientific, apolitical, societally functional meaning.

[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 1 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

To be clear though, hormones don't define how your body functions, that'd be DNA.

Chicken or egg. Hormones don't work without DNA, but also your cells don't function without hormones. The DNA has the instructions, but the hormones tell it what instruction to follow. Your cells don't know to create a leg where your leg is until hormones tell them that they're supposed to be leg cells. The DNA is the same, but the hormones tell them what to do.

You wouldn't have hormones or the ability to process them into meaningful signals without DNA.

Sort of true, but we can now add/change hormones that aren't created in our bodies by design. We also get hormones through our diet too. DNA does have instructions that allow it to produce hormones when the right conditions are met, but that's not the only way to get them, nor does that define sex as we all produce both sex hormones in different quantities.

but it does have an objective, scientific, apolitical, societally functional meaning.

That's the funny thing; does it? We all think it does, until you try to define it. Give it a shot. If it's XX/XY, intersex people break it. If it's reproduction, sterile people break it. If it's what gonads you posses, people who have had hysterectomies break it.

I've never actually heard a definition that doesn't break down somewhere. It can still be useful, but it's a spectrum. If you define it as a spectrum then it's actually pretty simple, and it's based on how their body is currently functioning.

[–] PapaStevesy@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

Intersex people have sex chromosomes, idk what you mean that they "break" anything. We even already have a term for them, it's "intersex". If we need to add terms when distinctt genetic morphologies are established, we can! That's the beauty of science, we're always learning more.

Everything in your body comes from DNA first. The first bits of you that ever existed were chromosomes, everything else comes as a result of how your dad's DNA combined with your mom's DNA to make your DNA. You can add all the outside hormones to your body that you want, without DNA telling your body how to respond to them, all you'd have is dead meat filled with chemicals.

[–] PapaStevesy@lemmy.world -1 points 14 hours ago

Thanks for continuously restating what I originally said!