Two University of Leicester students speak out over ‘absurd’ and ‘Orwellian’ decision by the BBC and ITV Studios to edit out pride pins worn on University Challenge
Two University of Leicester students speak out over ‘absurd’ and ‘Orwellian’ decision by the BBC and ITV Studios to edit out pride pins worn on University Challenge
You’ve probably heard “gender is a social construct” before, so surely you could argue about that, too.
Not really. Genders do exist in biology. They may not always be clear cut (and one animal might have also both genders at the same time) but they most certainly do exist and are the foundation for sexual reproduction which is very much a thing, next to asexual reproduction. Human races are not.
I have a psychology degree, and I’m back in school pursuing a nursing degree, so I’m currently retaking human development. Both when I originally studied it about 12 years ago and today, we distinguished biological sex from gender and its social and psychological components.
Biological sex is absolutely real, but it isn’t synonymous with gender. Biological sex concerns reproductive anatomy, chromosomes, hormones, and other biological characteristics. Gender also involves identity, social roles, and cultural expectations.
Children begin learning gender roles and stereotypes through socialization in infancy. According to gender schema theory, by around age three, most children can label their own gender. Around four, they develop gender stability, understanding that boys generally grow into men and girls into women. By around six, they develop gender constancy, understanding that changing clothing, hairstyles, or activities doesn’t necessarily change someone’s gender.
Interestingly, children tend to enforce gender stereotypes most rigidly around ages five to six. By seven or eight, they generally become more flexible and accepting of peers who don’t conform to traditional gender expectations.
So yes, biological sex exists and is relevant to sexual reproduction. But that doesn’t mean the social roles, expectations, and identities associated with sex are themselves biological facts.
no, those are sexes. different thing altogether!
although, tbf, not all languages distinguish between the two…
Fair enough. Then genders are a social construct based on biological features that do exist. While “human races” are a social construct absolutely not based on the biological concept of races.
Even that is too simplistic, intersex people do exist, where there’s biological traits assigned with both genders in one person, from birth
Yes, so what?
And why do you think they don’t matter?
No they literally don’t.
You’re thinking of Sexes.
Biological sex is a large cluster of traits with bimodal distributions where typically the traits are somewhat close to each other on their curves.
You still manage to get situations like my ex’s mom getting karotyped as XY despite having given birth multiple times
Yeah good point, I was oversimplifying
this claim is only in any way excusable if youre not a native english speaker
you are describing “sexes”
sadly some languages (such as Polish) do not distinguish
on the other hand, if you are aware of this distinction and are making this claim despite that, this is a horrifying take