GC: Is sexual attraction only based on genitals, or is there more to sexual attraction (e.g. attraction to secondary sexual characteristics, "femininity", "masculinity", etc)?

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[–]Not_a_celebrity[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Can you tell me what you think of this comment?: https://saidit.net/s/GCdebatesQT/comments/7do7/gc_is_sexual_attraction_only_based_on_genitals_or/rtr2

Screenshot for if it gets deleted: https://imgur.com/uFWmBrw

It says that sexual attraction can't be purely based on "birth sex" (perhaps they mean "sex assigned at birth") as it would be reductive, and that it should also be based on "apparent gender" (which I think they mean what someone "passes as"). They give an example of a homophobic family. If a girl introduces her "bf", a "trans woman" who "passes as" a woman, to the family without mentioning "bf", and "trans woman", the family would become hostile, as they'd think she's with a woman.

If a gay man meets a "trans man" that "passes as" a man, and becomes attracted to him, without the "trans man" telling him she's a woman and not a man, he'd think he's attracted to a man. Would this mean sexual attraction is more than sex, or genitals, and has to do with secondary sexual characteristics and what sex someone "passes as" on the outside even if they are not that sex?

There is more to the comment than what I summarized, so please tell me what you think of those parts as well.

[–]MarkTwainiac 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Sorry, not gonna try to make sense of that coz it comes off as gibberish to me. But with the exception of pedophiles, sexual attraction is not based on "birth sex" coz most people are not sexually attracted to newborns or young children. Most people are sexually attracted to persons who have reached or been through the puberty of adolescence.

Also, there is no such thing as "birth sex." There is only sex. The sex of humans is determined at the moment of conception. Scientists have found observable, clear-cut distinct sex differences in the cells of human zygotes at 6/7 days post conception. Scientists have also found that there are distinct sex differences between male and female embryos even before the development of the gonads at circa 7 weeks (in gestational time, which is approx 5 weeks post-conception) and the effects of the sex hormones that follow once the male or female gonads form.

The sex of human fetuses can be determined by sonogram with 100% accuracy at 70 days post conception (circa 12 weeks in gestational time). Sex can also be determined at 8-9 weeks gestational age (6-7 weeks post conception) via genetic testing of placental tissue obtained via CVS and of blood taken from a pregnant woman in a standard blood draw via the NIPT.

The ability to determine fetal sex is not new. Amniocentesis was developed in the 1950s and 60s, and has been widely used when indicated since the early 70s. Fetal sonograms have been in use since 1972. I had CVS at 8 weeks 30 years ago.

In my view, people who use term "birth sex" are basically waving a big red flag that shows they have never carried a pregnancy or been closely involved with a pregnancy. It's a term that totally overlooks the "lived experience" of hundreds of millions (perhaps billions) of women, and their partners, who have been pregnant since the era of in utero genetic testing and customary fetal scanning began in the 1970s.

IMO, using the term "birth sex" is also actually very cruel, and potentially re-traumatizing, to many of the millions of women who've miscarried fetuses whose sex was already known due to in-utero testing or coz genetic testing of the fetal remains was carried out after the miscarriage.