Content area
Full text
How scientists define sex has evolved over the centuries, and the concept is still incredibly difficult to pin down.
In the sciences, we talk about sex. The question is, what are we actually talking about when we use that word?
Last fall, the American Anthropological Association made headlines after removing a session on sex and gender from its November 2023 annual conference. The session's panelists had made some attention-grabbing assertions about what they called "biological sex"-claiming that sex is binary, that male and female represent an inflexible and infallible pair of categories describing all humans, and that this biological truth was being ignored.
If all that were true, it sure would make studying the science of sex easier. But this characterization is not consistent with current scientific understandings. That is why we were glad to see the American Anthropological Association course-correct given the inaccuracy of the panelists' arguments. Those arguments were not only scientifically unsound, but part of an intentional gender-critical agenda.
Sex as a biological phenomenon has never been binary, meaning that there are not just two distinct forms in nature called male and female. Although sex and gender can be, and often are, intimately and developmentally entangled, the relationship between them is in no way direct, simple, or predictable. Nature and culture are too richly and complexly generative for easy definitions. That's what makes the scientific study of sex so rewarding, and so challenging.
Sex Is Culturally Constructed
The fact that definitions and signifiers of gender differ across cultures has been well established, but sex is often viewed as a static, universal truth. However, the history of Western biomedical definitions of sex is marked by revision, as attempts to neatly corral humans into sex categories failed in the face of technological advances and increased evidence. Those who claim that sex is a clear binary, including the panelists of the canceled conference session, might be surprised to learn that the theory of two sexes is relatively recent.
The prevailing theory from classical times into the 19th century was that there is only one sex. According to this model, the only true sex is male, and females are inverted, imperfect distortions of males. This hierarchical idea of sex reinforced women's subjugation to men.
By...