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[–]emptiedriver 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (14 children)

Bioessentialism, a shorthand for biological essentialism, is the idea that we are born with specific, immutable traits by virtue of our sex.

Can you define what "sex" is? We do not have to have specific traits by virtue of our sex in order to have a sex. Things like having XX chromosomes and a female reproductive system are not by virtue of being female. They are the reason someone is defined as female. They are the same as being female. It is an a=a situation.

You can say it is essentialist to suggest that just because someone is female, they will naturally want to wear dresses. But it does not make sense to claim it's essentialist to say that just because someone is female, they will be female. Wearing dresses is a flexible social role. Having a vagina is a material reality that defines the category. Not all cats are necessarily sweet and cuddly, but all cats are felines - which means they're 4-legged mammals of a certain type, etc. Certain characteristics are just part of the definition. It will usually be physical facts.

This also means not all women have female sex organs and release eggs. Not all men have male sex organs and release sperm

All humans have either male or female sexual reproductive systems (unless perhaps they have some kind of very rare disorder, but as I understand it even most "intersex" individuals have the basis of a male or female system, just with dysfunction).

Why aren't children sexless eventhough they can not release eggs or sperms?

It's perfectly reasonable to consider children essentially sexless. Girls and boys are not yet women and men. They're distinct but until puberty the distinction is minimal.

Sure someone who removes all their sex organs in a surgery once had sex organs, but now they don't, and they don't meet the definition of sex, which requires one to have certain organs and release gametes. So why aren't they considered sexless or less of a sex?

Even in cases where everything has been removed, the other system hasn't been implanted so the most you can claim is that they've been desexed (as people used to say about eunuchs). No one changes sex. Also, it's very difficult to remove everything and not healthy if it's not a last resort. Beyond that, sex is embedded even more deeply than that - the shape of the skeleton, the size of other organs, the space left behind if things are removed, would all give away which sex the body was altered from.

traditional patriarchal structures: “Men are stronger, less emotional and better suited to lead.” It persists today in the form of gender roles, gender-based exclusion, and transphobia... TERFs generalize the “universal experiences” of women, e.g. having a uterus or menstruating.

Do you see the difference? Once you start getting into adjectives and personality traits, likes and dislikes, capacities and preferences, those are things that can change with individuals and which tend to be grouped under stereotypes. But physical facts are easy to distinguish. Having a uterus is just fact. And it's part of the definition of female for mammals. If we want to change the definition of woman from its simple cow/bull, rooster/hen, man/woman version, then we need a new categorization that has some kind of meaning. What does woman mean if it doesn't mean "adult human female"?

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 6 fun1 insightful - 5 fun2 insightful - 6 fun -  (13 children)

It's perfectly reasonable to consider children essentially sexless.

Lmfao what. So there is no such a thing as a girl or a boy, because the difference is minimal and they're essentially sexless? Who on earth upvoted you?? You sound uneducated.

the other system hasn't been implanted so the most you can claim is that they've been desexed (as people used to say about eunuchs). No one changes sex. Also, it's very difficult to remove everything and not healthy if it's not a last resort. Beyond that, sex is embedded even more deeply than that - the shape of the skeleton, the size of other organs, the space left behind if things are removed, would all give away which sex the body was altered from.

Then children are not sexless and it would be unreasonable to say children are sexless because sex is not just about gametes.

Just because morons in the past who thought earth is flat thought enuchs are sexless doesn't make it true.

If you think children are sexless, then women who are past their menopause are not women and are desexed and sexless too, which I call bullshit. Who are you and why are you in my thread?

Wait your username is familiar. You must be the same TRA from the GCdebatesQT on reddit who said kids and people who remove their sex organs are desexed or sexless. You are as annoying as ever.

[–]emptiedriver 8 insightful - 6 fun8 insightful - 5 fun9 insightful - 6 fun -  (12 children)

Would you have sex with a child? A child has an immature reproductive system. They have the potential to become sexual creatures, but pre-puberty, their sex is not yet developed. Does that mean they are sexless? I don't really know, and the point is that it doesn't really matter. You can say they have a sex but it's nascent or you can say they don't have one yet, as clearly it's distinct from once it becomes an active system. I don't think it's terribly controversial to speak that way. But what you can't say is that they'll start as a boy and turn into a woman.

Of course there is such a thing as a girl or a boy - a girl will become a woman and a boy will become a man. What sex you have at some point in your life is inherent from conception. The haggling over exactly when lines are crossed to achieve sexed vs non-sexed seems like a red herring. The fundamental point is still, there is no shift from one sex to the other. The most you can claim, and I'm only offering it to make the point, is that some people could be defined as non-sexed if you like. Sure, call children pre-sexed, even say someone who has extreme surgery is neutered if you like, but you can never get to cross-sexed.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 6 fun2 insightful - 5 fun3 insightful - 6 fun -  (11 children)

Whot. You said it's reasonable that children have no sex. Girl means a female child. Boy means a male child. If children are essentially sexless, then there is no such a thing as a girl or a boy, because there is no such a thing as a male or female child.

It's not about an adult having sex with a child. Children have sex with each other all the time. They have crushes. And even masturbate. You're here telling me when a girl crushes on a girl (and both haven't reached puberty yet), it's actually a sexless creature crushing on another sexless creature.

And when a girl is molested, since there is no such a thing as a girl, because "it's reasonable that children have no sex, and are not male or female", or so you believe, police would have to record the incident as "sexless creature got molested".

You make GCs look bad. Or maybe GCs are this bad.

[–]Penultimate_Penance 12 insightful - 1 fun12 insightful - 0 fun13 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

"Why aren't children sexless even though they can not release eggs or sperms?

Sure someone who removes all their sex organs in a surgery once had sex organs, but now they don't, and they don't meet the definition of sex, which requires one to have certain organs and release gametes. So why aren't they considered sexless or less of a sex?"

FairyPrincess you're the one who brought up this ridiculous idea in the first place, then freak out when someone is being somewhat charitable to this nonsense saying they could see it that way in very specific circumstances figuratively but not literally. You're the one making sex out to be much more complicated than it actually is. Even asking these questions in the first place proves you don't know what you are talking about. Sex isn't some abstract philosophical quandary than can be postulated, redefined and undefined to death. It's an easily verifiable objective fact that we have understood for 1,000s of years. We just a have a deeper understanding of it through modern science now.

If you cut off a cat's tale it is still a cat. If you surgically install a dog tail on the cat it is still a freaking cat! Same thing applies to human sex. All the surgeries, hormones and roleplay in the world cannot turn a man into a woman. If you cut a man's dick off he is still a man. If you surgically install a poor imitation of a vagina on him he is still a man. He still has a male body. It is physically impossible to turn a male body into a female body. The most we can do with our current technology is make a poor imitation. Ted talk about how fundamental and all encompassing in every cell of your body sex differences are Binary sex denialism/obtuseness just makes the Query Theorists look foolish and ignorant.

You're taking things way too literally and being deliberately obtuse. If your only method of engaging with GC is deliberately misunderstanding and misrepresenting what we are actually saying there is no point in discussing anything with you.

[–]MarkTwainiac 11 insightful - 1 fun11 insightful - 0 fun12 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

The issue here is your tendency to take things people say on the internet at face value and in this case as the authoritative representation of what all "GC" believe. For example, when emptiedriver said

It's perfectly reasonable to consider children essentially sexless. Girls and boys are not yet women and men. They're distinct but until puberty the distinction is minimal.

You read every word in that post the most literal way possible & took it as the gospel truth. When, in fact, what emptie said is not actually, precisely true - something I suspect most readers understood, but which you chose not to.

Worse, you then rephrased what emptie said in a more extreme way, pretending what he or she really meant was

that children have no sex until puberty, there is no such a thing as a female or male child until puberty

And

there is no such a thing as a girl or a boy, because the difference is minimal and they're essentially sexless

Which I don't think is what emptie really meant after all.

For the record, as emptie has now clarified, human beings have a sex from the moment of conception. Moreover, there are many on the GC side like me who would respectfully disagree with emptie's initial contention that prior to the puberty of adolescence, the distinction between the two sexes in humans "is minimal."

Sex differences have been observed & recorded in human placental cells five days post fertilization, and in the metabolism of human zygotes fertilized in labs via IVF earlier than that. Human sex differences precede the development of gonads in utero.

Those of us who have had prenatal testing when pregnant know full well that many of the fetal abnormalities tested for are sex-linked. Same goes for a number of the conditions that babies in the US, most of Europe & many other places are routinely screened for through mandatory blood draws & genetic testing shortly after birth.

Once children are born, there are myriad physical differences in male & female human beings that are relevant medically and in terms of hygiene & safety from the get-go. The growth & development of infants is closely monitored & charted, but the charts are different because the normal ranges for boys' and girls' weight, length & head circumference are different. Moreover, the rate at which boys & girls grow and gain weight are different too.

More care needs to be taken when diapering female babies after bowel movements because the location of the female urethra unfortunately close to the anus makes girls highly susceptible to UTIs from fecal contamination. This is not an issue when diapering boys because the male urethra is inside the penis - and the little penises of boy babies are far from the anus. However, getting sprayed on definitely is an issue when diapering baby boys, but not girls.

Toilet training boys & girls is different. Teaching boys & girls how to cleanse & care for their "privates"is different too.

Many of the same genetic and childhood diseases manifest very differently in the two sexes, and have different trajectories, treatments & treatment protocols depending on whether a child is male or female. Many diseases that occur or become apparent in childhood are sex-specific. And diseases that occur at the same rates in both sexes still affect boys & girls very differently because of the many differences in male & female physiology. An excellent example is cystic fibrosis.

Female babies & children mount stronger immune responses to vaccines, and thus have more "side effects" than males.

Kids get tummy aches all the time. But when there's serious abdominal pain such that acute appendicitis is suspected, the assessment procedures & criteria are entirely different because the two sexes have different internal organs. For girls, even very little girls, the possibility of ovarian cysts, uterine problems as well as sex abuse, rape, pregnancy, ectopic pregnancy & STDs have to be taken into account.

Because boys' gonads are external, very exposed & easy to injure, boys have to be taught to protect themselves in play & sports - and they need to be equipped with cups when they do contact sports. At the same time, girls of all ages are more susceptible to concussion than boys are, and need to be trained and equipped accordingly.

If a boy of any age tells his parents or teachers that there's blood in his underwear, the appropriate response is alarm & efforts to get him to a doctor pronto. If a girl of age 8 or above does the same, the appropriate response is further inquiry with a cool head and - most likely - showing her how to use sanpro.

Youth athletic records show that boys outperform girls in most sports long before the puberty of adolescence begins.

Read up on the physical development of males and females in utero, in infancy and in childhood, and you'll find that there are many, many important biological differences between boys & girls long before the puberty of adolescence kicks in. After all, the puberty of adolescence is actually the second puberty children go through. The first one, aka "the puberty of infancy," occurs from the end of the first month after birth into or through the six month.

The youngest girl on record to have given birth was 5 years old, 7 months at the time. It's a travesty to suggest that she was sexless.

Also, the puberty of adolescence typically occurs years before girls become women and boys become men. In girls, puberty is only considered precocious if it starts before age 8, in boys before age 9. Boys & girls don't become men & women until age 18.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 6 fun2 insightful - 5 fun3 insightful - 6 fun -  (0 children)

When, in fact, what emptie said is not actually, precisely true - something I suspect most readers understood, but which you chose not to.

But as you can see, that's exactly what empt meant: https://imgur.com/a/Xe87zYj

They think children have no sex, they are not male or female, because they do not have developed sex organs. And even if they have a sex, it's better to ignore it because there isn't any difference between male and female children ...

[–]emptiedriver 10 insightful - 3 fun10 insightful - 2 fun11 insightful - 3 fun -  (6 children)

If children are essentially sexless, then there is no such a thing as a girl or a boy, because there is no such a thing as a male or female child.

I'm sorry I made this so ridiculously confusing for you. You asked why children aren't sexless and I said, sure, maybe they are since they haven't sexually developed yet. I shouldn't have indulged you. I think that in its strictest, most complete, fully functioning form, sex is evident in healthy adults. In children, unhealthy or other cases of abnormal, altered or degraded physical bodies, sex can be non-functioning or somehow incomplete. It is usually still recognizable. Fundamentally, it does not change to a different sex. Even if you argue that some people do not have a sex if they lose some parts or haven't developed them yet, so what? What difference does that make for trans people?

It's the difference between adult men and women that has caused women's oppression. That is why it does not matter to me whether girls and boys are sexed - they are physically comparable in size and strength, and do not deal with pregnancy and the division of labor issue, so it's largely bc girls will become women that they deal with expectations and different treatment. If we could ignore their sex as children, I can imagine it being a positive. The same cannot be said for adult women, because the physical realities need to be taken up communally.

or so you believe, police would have to record the incident as "sexless creature got molested".

What are you talking about? Do you think if people are not categorized by their sex they are no longer people? How do you even deal with non-binary or asexual people in the trans movement... Maybe the police could record it as "child got molested"? or "young human being"?

[–]MarkTwainiac 10 insightful - 1 fun10 insightful - 0 fun11 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

It's the difference between adult men and women that has caused women's oppression. That is why it does not matter to me whether girls and boys are sexed - they are physically comparable in size and strength, and do not deal with pregnancy and the division of labor issue, so it's largely bc girls will become women that they deal with expectations and different treatment. If we could ignore their sex as children, I can imagine it being a positive. The same cannot be said for adult women, because the physical realities need to be taken up communally.

I'm not sure this is the case. The division of labor occurs long before puberty. From a very early age in most cultures, little girls are expected to care for younger siblings & elderly relatives, and to take on various tasks in the household & on the farm - such as fetching water, gathering firewood, milling grain, preparing food - for the benefit of the family as a whole. Moreover, from an early age girls are taught to budge up & step aside to put male interests first. In many cultures, girls & women are only allowed to eat once all the males in the household have been fed.

Child marriage is a real issue for girls, one that affects female children much more than male children. In Iran, for example, the legal age of majority at which girls can be married off by their fathers is 8. By contrast, the age of majority for males is nearly 16.

Also, in many countries large numbers of female children under the age of 5 are killed through infanticide and abandonment. Not to mention through sex-selective abortion. Male children and fetuses do not suffer the same fate. At all.

it does not matter to me whether girls and boys are sexed - they are physically comparable in size and strength

I think if you knew more about the development of male & female children & the sports performance of boys & girls, you'd have a different view.

[–]emptiedriver 8 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 0 fun9 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

don't you think that's due to what is known to be in their future? I have always understood the treatment of girls to be due to the predestination of womanhood rather than the capacity of girls, and my understanding was that girls were fairly equal in sports until close to puberty when the differences became marked. Of course, I may be mistaken and I am not sure there are statistics. It's true that boys tend to be more active on the playground. Perhaps that is just more libfem hearsay I have picked up over the years...

[–]MarkTwainiac 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I have always understood the treatment of girls to be due to the predestination of womanhood rather than the capacity of girls

I don't understand your reasoning. Pregnancy & childbirth complications are the major cause of death for girls in the "third world." Nearly 800,000 girls under 15 give birth each year.

Sex differences in physical ability that matter in (most) sports are apparent well before the puberty of adolescence. These differences become enormous and unmistakable during/after the puberty of adolescence, but they are there beforehand.

http://legacy.usatf.org/statistics/Event-Records/JuniorOlympicTF.aspx

During the puberty of adolescence, males obtain enormous advantages. For example, the average male heart becomes 25-38% larger & more powerful than the average female heart. But prior to the puberty of adolescence, male children have a left ventricle that is 8% larger & stronger than in female children. In sports, an area where performance is measured in hundredths, thousandths, and millionths of a second, an 8% advantage is major.

[–]emptiedriver 9 insightful - 3 fun9 insightful - 2 fun10 insightful - 3 fun -  (1 child)

I thought it was obvious I was talking about pre-pubescent children if I was suggesting we could speak about sexlessness. This is all so ridiculous, I should clearly never have entered this topic. It was just an abstract possibility.