Sex and Diversity
| sex_article_harvard.docx |
Before we talk about diversity, let's take a look at the human body organs that are standard for people assigned female and male at birth!
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DELIVERABLE ITEM - Due April 20th!
Based on these, can you locate and tell me the function of the organs and structures numbered below? Print the worksheet below!
| male_and_female_parts_and_function.pdf |
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Correlations
As you can probably tell (NOT), the structures in the male body have correspondents in the female body. For instance, the testes on the male correspond to the ovaries on the female; the clitoris corresponds to the male penis, and it is much bigger than most older books! This expands our understanding of the female body and how it can achieve pleasure.
Diversity in the Human Body
Now that we saw all the organs that are usually associated with one sex or another, let's take a dive into the space in between.
First, let's get things out of the way: there is really no standard for a human body. Some things are easier to see; there are people with big penises and small penises, big breasts and small breasts, tall people and short people, and so on and so forth.
Let's take penises, for instance. The worldwide average for a flaccid (soft) penis is just over 9 centimetres. Penises may look different, but they all feel the same way, and are usually equally as functional. Also, the size of the penises do not correlate to the size of the testicles, so it's a complex combo of possibilities!
First, let's get things out of the way: there is really no standard for a human body. Some things are easier to see; there are people with big penises and small penises, big breasts and small breasts, tall people and short people, and so on and so forth.
Let's take penises, for instance. The worldwide average for a flaccid (soft) penis is just over 9 centimetres. Penises may look different, but they all feel the same way, and are usually equally as functional. Also, the size of the penises do not correlate to the size of the testicles, so it's a complex combo of possibilities!
The same goes for the vulva, with its varying outer shape, labia sizes and colour, including the clitoris variations, which extends to over 10 centimetres in average.
All these differences show the possible array of physical characteristics a human can have. And as you have read on the article mentioning intersex and variety, "male" and "female" can sometimes be difficult to distinguish.
But a human is more than just body parts. We have people who are calm, and people who are nervous; angry people and happy people; people who are super strict and people who don't believe in rules, and all the spectrum of personalities in between. These come from genes as well as the environment.
We accept sex and sexuality variation on other animals, but not on our own species. For some reason, sex and gender are the only place that still demand a binary outlook when building a human profile (F or M?).
Let's look at intersex, for instance, like the article says.
Intersex is an umbrella term for natural variations in sex characteristics, such as chromosomes, gonads, hormones, or genitals, that do not fit typical binary definitions of male or female bodies. Intersex traits may be apparent at birth or discovered later, such as at puberty, or even later in life like this dude.
It may seem like such a tiny minority -- only 1.7% or so in the world are intersex.
But that's the percentage of redhaired people in the world.
If you look at identical twins, the percentage is 0.5%.
People with green eyes? 2%.
As you walk through our school, statistically speaking, 45 of our students should be intersex, that is, have clear characteristics of male and female of our species. And you would never know. Just humans walking around doing their human thing.
Some scientists believe that every aspect of sexuality, sex, attraction and gender can be explained by science, and that there are as many variations as there are types of body, personalities and so on. These variations can be caused by the environment, by hormone fluctuations in the mother, and most importantly, by the incredible array of genes that are responsible for sex identity and sexuality.
Although everyone focuses on the XX and XY, the reality is much more complex. More than 50 genes, in various different chromosomes, contribute to making your sexuality. The SRY gene on the Y chromosome is only the switch to start testis development; the rest of the sexual traits are a surprise, and so the variation we see is perfectly normal.
Looking at people who have sexual variations and dismissing them as errors makes no scientific sense. Rather, let's look at all of us as awesome variations of the human genome, with sex itself sitting on a spectrum, just like any other characteristic we share as species.
But a human is more than just body parts. We have people who are calm, and people who are nervous; angry people and happy people; people who are super strict and people who don't believe in rules, and all the spectrum of personalities in between. These come from genes as well as the environment.
We accept sex and sexuality variation on other animals, but not on our own species. For some reason, sex and gender are the only place that still demand a binary outlook when building a human profile (F or M?).
Let's look at intersex, for instance, like the article says.
Intersex is an umbrella term for natural variations in sex characteristics, such as chromosomes, gonads, hormones, or genitals, that do not fit typical binary definitions of male or female bodies. Intersex traits may be apparent at birth or discovered later, such as at puberty, or even later in life like this dude.
It may seem like such a tiny minority -- only 1.7% or so in the world are intersex.
But that's the percentage of redhaired people in the world.
If you look at identical twins, the percentage is 0.5%.
People with green eyes? 2%.
As you walk through our school, statistically speaking, 45 of our students should be intersex, that is, have clear characteristics of male and female of our species. And you would never know. Just humans walking around doing their human thing.
Some scientists believe that every aspect of sexuality, sex, attraction and gender can be explained by science, and that there are as many variations as there are types of body, personalities and so on. These variations can be caused by the environment, by hormone fluctuations in the mother, and most importantly, by the incredible array of genes that are responsible for sex identity and sexuality.
Although everyone focuses on the XX and XY, the reality is much more complex. More than 50 genes, in various different chromosomes, contribute to making your sexuality. The SRY gene on the Y chromosome is only the switch to start testis development; the rest of the sexual traits are a surprise, and so the variation we see is perfectly normal.
Looking at people who have sexual variations and dismissing them as errors makes no scientific sense. Rather, let's look at all of us as awesome variations of the human genome, with sex itself sitting on a spectrum, just like any other characteristic we share as species.
