what defines male/female?

[Guest guest]

On 19 Apr 1999, Madhusudani Radha wrote:

> Sorry, not even chromosomes come in neat bimodal distributions.

 

While certainly true, this mainly applies to rare deformities,

and the bimodal distribution is indeed accurate for 99.xxx% of the

human population. (Incidentally, such chromosome defects are also

seen in other species but have different effects; for example,

humans with even one Y in there are typically male, whereas insects

with two or more X's are typically female.)

 

> 1) There are also people with XX who are anatomically male (there is a

> smidgen of the Y chromosome - a gene called SRY present on the XX)

> 2) There are also people with XY who are anatomically female (same SRY is

> missing from their Y)

> 3) There are also people born with XXY or XXXY (about 1/500 live male

births)

> 4) There are also men with XYY (tall, dull, less fertile...)

> 5) There are anatomical females born with XO (Turner's syndrome, ovaries

> don't develop properly, no mestruation, no puberty etc.)

> 6) There are women with XXX (often retarded or mentally disturbed)

> 7) There are people with both XX and XY cells, e.g. Stella Walsh who won an

> Olympic gold medal in the 100 meter dash in 1932 (found after her death

> upon autopsy)

> etc etc.

 

> All in all there are over 70 known irregularities involving the sex

> chromosomes.

 

I will graciously accept your point by agreeing that individuals

with such irregularities cannot be classified easily according

to their chromosomes. However, that only affects a _tiny_ portion

of the total human population; the above observations are irrelevant

to the situation of most transgendered individuals.

 

Yours,

 

Vijay