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@NHM_London @soulfoodie @hstanley_ You are catastrophically failing. The vast majority of species on the planet, from humans to asparagus, reproduce sexually via differential gametes, giving rise to two and only two sexes. 1/
@NHM_London @soulfoodie @hstanley_ In these organisms, there is no third gamete, no third sex, no third reproductive role - there is only ‘male’ (small gamete) and ‘female’ (large gamete). 2/
@NHM_London @soulfoodie @hstanley_ You are conflating sex characteristics with sex. Do you know that female spotted hyenas have pseudo-penises - they copulate by retracting this pseudo-penis and subsequently birthing through it. We are still able to confidently name females in this species. 3/
@NHM_London @soulfoodie @hstanley_ Furthermore, the suggestion - one you have peppered all over the place as a C&P response - that sex chromosome anomalies challenge the sex binary is, again, conflation, this time of sex determination mechanisms with sex. 4/
@NHM_London @soulfoodie @hstanley_ Conflating sex characteristics and/or sex determination mechanisms with sex presents the risk, as you have discovered, of rather annoying people with reproductive pathologies and/or genetic anomalies. 5/
@NHM_London @soulfoodie @hstanley_ You sound like you’re tossing their sexed reality around a really offensive dinner party table. There is a place for discussion of DSDs, and it requires sensitivity and academic rigour, not ‘Woah cool, you’re, like, not a man but not a woman’ (which is not true, BTW) 6/
@NHM_London @soulfoodie @hstanley_ Another conflation: ‘not easy’ does not mean ‘impossible’ or, by extension, ‘undermines the framework in which we are trying to understand it’. It will take more than an observation of an unusual chromosome anomaly to undermine bazillions of years of evolution. 7/
@NHM_London @soulfoodie @hstanley_ Plus, you’re scientists, no? ‘Easy’ is boring. But as scientists, I might have also expected you to refrain from calling gorillas and giraffes ‘queer’. End/
@NHM_London @soulfoodie @hstanley_ A note: I ‘get’ what you’re trying to do, and supporting diversity is both important and admirable. But you are a reputable scientific/education institute and you have a responsibility under that remit to disseminate and promote good science.
