@FondOfBeetles @happlebio @FireBob12 @EricROlson @SilvieKilgallon @Woodywing @MartianOrthodox @metaburbia @ShadowC5 @macohibs @RebeccaRHelm @Lizzy_Lang7 The boundaries between species are almost always fuzzy. The moment of change, when one species becomes two, is rarely known. It is this fuzziness, in part, that explains why we have so many species concepts.
So many species concepts, but only two types of gametes. 1/11
So many species concepts, but only two types of gametes. 1/11
@FondOfBeetles @happlebio @FireBob12 @EricROlson @SilvieKilgallon @Woodywing @MartianOrthodox @metaburbia @ShadowC5 @macohibs @RebeccaRHelm @Lizzy_Lang7 In animals, the borders between gamete types aren’t fuzzy. Gametes are always male or female. There is no in between. 2/
@FondOfBeetles @happlebio @FireBob12 @EricROlson @SilvieKilgallon @Woodywing @MartianOrthodox @metaburbia @ShadowC5 @macohibs @RebeccaRHelm @Lizzy_Lang7 Gender in humans is “sex role” in non-humans. Sex role is the behavioral repertoire that tends to accompany being a particular sex (as defined by what type of gamete you do or might or will or did produce). 3/
@FondOfBeetles @happlebio @FireBob12 @EricROlson @SilvieKilgallon @Woodywing @MartianOrthodox @metaburbia @ShadowC5 @macohibs @RebeccaRHelm @Lizzy_Lang7 Most duck species, for instance, have flashy, aggressive, polygynous, territorial males, and drab-colored, less aggressive, choosy females. The differences in aggression level and choosiness is part of their sex role (“gender”). 4/
@FondOfBeetles @happlebio @FireBob12 @EricROlson @SilvieKilgallon @Woodywing @MartianOrthodox @metaburbia @ShadowC5 @macohibs @RebeccaRHelm @Lizzy_Lang7 Jacanas, by contrast—another clade of birds—have aggressive, territorial, polyandrous (!) females, and more acquiescent, choosy males. Biologists call jacanas “sex-role reversed” to account for the usual script being flipped. 5/
@FondOfBeetles @happlebio @FireBob12 @EricROlson @SilvieKilgallon @Woodywing @MartianOrthodox @metaburbia @ShadowC5 @macohibs @RebeccaRHelm @Lizzy_Lang7 There are many examples and degrees of sex-role reversal in animals. Seahorse fathers who carry their young is another. The fact that “sex roles” (aka gender) evolve differently in different environments shouldn’t be surprising anyone 160 yrs after Darwin. 6/
@FondOfBeetles @happlebio @FireBob12 @EricROlson @SilvieKilgallon @Woodywing @MartianOrthodox @metaburbia @ShadowC5 @macohibs @RebeccaRHelm @Lizzy_Lang7 Now, sex role—gender, if you will—in humans is even more flexible, and highly responsive to cultural norms. Modernity has freed us from many of the most restrictive of the traditional norms. 7/
@FondOfBeetles @happlebio @FireBob12 @EricROlson @SilvieKilgallon @Woodywing @MartianOrthodox @metaburbia @ShadowC5 @macohibs @RebeccaRHelm @Lizzy_Lang7 But women—as defined as adult females who have, had or will have eggs—have the entire burden of pregnancy and lactation. Therefore, some gender norms which follow from that investment in the young are not easily changed. (Some would argue that they should not be.) 8/
@FondOfBeetles @happlebio @FireBob12 @EricROlson @SilvieKilgallon @Woodywing @MartianOrthodox @metaburbia @ShadowC5 @macohibs @RebeccaRHelm @Lizzy_Lang7 Compare that to the cultural norms of women wearing heels and makeup, or shopping as a hobby. Many women are thrilled to be freed from those expectations. That doesn’t make us men. It doesn’t make us less female. It reflects our freedom from restrictive visions of womanhood. 9/
@FondOfBeetles @happlebio @FireBob12 @EricROlson @SilvieKilgallon @Woodywing @MartianOrthodox @metaburbia @ShadowC5 @macohibs @RebeccaRHelm @Lizzy_Lang7 Furthermore, suggesting that boys or men who do enjoy engaging in traditional female-typical gender norms are actually girls or women is regressive, misogynistic, reality-denying garbage. 10/
@FondOfBeetles @happlebio @FireBob12 @EricROlson @SilvieKilgallon @Woodywing @MartianOrthodox @metaburbia @ShadowC5 @macohibs @RebeccaRHelm @Lizzy_Lang7 Sorry, but being an ace with an eyeliner doesn’t make you a woman, any more than me putting on a squirrel suit makes me a flying squirrel. /end
