Ein interessanter Artikel von Georgi Marinov stellt die wissenschaftlichen Argumente dafür zusammen, dass das Geschlecht binär und unveränderlich („In Humans, Sex is Binary and Immutable“) ist.
Er bietet sich aus meiner Sicht für eine Besprechung in mehreren Teilen an:
This article says nothing novel. It discusses a fact as well-established as the billions of years of evolution that shaped our species. We live in a world,however, that increasingly ignores such truths, and in which the combinationof awareness and courage to set the record straight appears rare.
Das ist in der Tat einer der traurigen Punkte: Wissenschaftlich ist es eigentlich recht klar, dass es bei Menschen genau zwei Geschlechter gibt. Zwar natürlich in gewissen Ausprägungen, aber aufgrund der Anzahl der Geschlechtszellen (Eizellen, Sammenzellen) dennoch binär.
A disclaimer: I am not a tenured faculty member and have no job security; Iam well aware that my career prospects could be jeopardized by this essay. I also write from a perspective—not widely shared—that anyone who pledges allegiance to any political party or ideology cannot rightly call himself a scientist. Political and ideological loyalties, in my view, violate the epistemic practices scientists are supposed to follow.
Die Cancel Culture lässt Grüßen. Es ist immer schade, dass solch eine simple Sache tatsächlich solche Folgen haben kann.
Denying the Sex Binary
In late 2018, the current U.S. presidential administration circulated a memo directing government agencies to adopt a definition of gender “determined by the genitals that a person is born with.” Much outrage followed, even including protest rallies at prestigious medical schools. More than 2,600 scientists signed astatement claiming that “[t]here are no genetic tests that can unambiguouslydetermine gender, or even sex.” Nature, the world’s premier science journal,ran an editorial stating that “the research and medical community now sees sex as more complex than male and female”‘ and “the idea that science can make definitive conclusions about a person’s sex or gender is fundamentally flawed.” 3
Bei dem Statement der Wissenschaftler scheint es sich um dieses zu handeln. Häufig geht es eben um Transsexuelle oder Intersexuelle oder sehr seltene Sonderfälle, die aber eben alle keine anderen Geschlechter darstellen.
These are remarkable statements as they are equivalent to outright denial of humans’ biological nature. Numerous publications promoted such positions. Nature had previously published an editorial titled “Sex Redefined,” boldly stating that “[t]he idea of two sexes is simplistic. Biologists now think there is a wider spectrum than that.” 4 Popular science magazines such as Scientific American and National Geographic told readers that “the science is clear and conclusive: sex is not binary,” 5 a view even more aggressively pushed in mainstream media, where we regularly read that “biologists now think the idea of two sexes is inaccurate.” 6
„Sex redefined“ habe ich hier besprochen.
Much has been written by feminist authors about the non-binary nature of “gender,” where “gender” is defined as something “socially constructed,” distinct from sex. But biological sex itself is also under attack. Feminist philosophers such as Judith Butler and Anne Fausto-Sterling initially advanced the view that both gender and sex are “socially constructed,” denying the objective reality of binary biological sex, and academic writings promoting this view continue to be produced.7
Zu Judith Butler. Zu Fausto Sterling habe ich nur vereinzelte kurze Sachen, etwa
Usually this is done by taking a list of criteria for dividing humans into two sexes – anatomical / gonadal / hormonal / chromosomal / genetic / genomic / brain/ neural sex—and matching that list to examples of “intersex” conditions not fitting neatly on either side, supposedly discrediting the binary. But the topics that truly matter for understanding sex—gametes, reproduction, and evolutionary selection pressures—are missing from such treatments.
In der Tat ist das ganz beliebt: Es gibt sehr seltene Mischgruppen, wo eine klare Zuordnung nicht funktioniert. Ich verweise dazu auch auf „Fuzzy Sets“ oder unscharfe Gruppen
Yet this has become mainstream, and an unquestionable dogma too, even within the hard sciences. This is disastrous, as the objective truth is that sex in humans is strictly binary and immutable, for fundamental reasons that are common knowledge to all biologists taking the findings of their discipline seriously. Denying that sex in humans is binary attacks the very foundations of the biological sciences. This needs to be properly summarized and openly articulated.
Ein guter Einstieg, ich mache demnächst weiter
- Marinov „Beim Menschen ist das Geschlecht binär und unveränderlich“: Einleitung und gegenteilige Ansichten (Teil 1)
- Marinov „Beim Menschen ist das Geschlecht binär und unveränderlich“: Die Natur von Selbstreplikatoren und Organismen (Teil 2)
- Marinov „Beim Menschen ist das Geschlecht binär und unveränderlich“: Warum es Sex gibt (Teil 3)
- Marinov „Beim Menschen ist das Geschlecht binär und unveränderlich“: Warum „intersexuelle“ Zustände die Geschlechterordnung nicht außer Kraft setzen (Teil 4)
- Marinov „Beim Menschen ist das Geschlecht binär und unveränderlich“: Der bevorstehende Kampf (Teil 5)
Alles Evolution 