With this comment, Peter demonstrates the disconnect of understanding between what sex is and how sex is expressed.

Here follows some cutlery.
This is a knife. It’s function is to Cut Stuff.

This knife is relatively blunt and tame-looking. I wouldn’t recommend peeling an apple with it.
Here is another knife, which Cuts Stuff.

This is a beast of a knife. You could peel an apple with this. And your fingers, if you’re not careful.
This is a fork. Its function is to Spear Stuff.

This is a pretty fork.
This is another fork, and it Spears Stuff.

It has a different number of Spearing Things to the fork before. No worries, it still works just as well. I wouldn’t use it to Spear Peas en route to mouth though, unless you want disapproving looks and immediate danger to eyes.
This is a broken knife. By altering your technique, you could still Cut Stuff with it, but it’s suboptimal function.

This is not a fork. It is not More Fork than an intact knife.
This is a broken fork that likes heavy metal.

It still works to Spear Stuff.

It doesn’t Cut Stuff. It is not a knife.
This is a knork, combining both the functions of Cutting Stuff and Spearing Stuff in one implement.

Easier to make knorks rather than separate knives and forks, but total functionality of knorks is more limited than having two separate implements.

If it works for you, great.
One could cut channels into a blunt knife and turn it into a fork. Maybe one could also sharpen a single-tined fork to render it a knife.

Switching from Cutting Stuff to Spearing Stuff (or vice versa) is a functional switch.

No pictures of this process were available.
Cutting Stuff and Spearing Stuff are two sub-functions that form the wider function of Eating Stuff.
The purpose of this analogy is to demonstrate that one can elucidate two different and complementary functions, *regardless* of how those functions are split (or not) across implements. One can elucidate function even in broken implements.
There is a spectrum of implements. There is no spectrum of function.

There is no implement that Scoops Stuff in the system of sex.
This is a pair of chopsticks. They have no discernible differential function.

Left hand, right hand, whichever you use for whatever piece of food, it makes no difference.

They get the job done, but imagine if you made one a little pointier and one with a flatter edge…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Emma Hilton

Emma Hilton Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @FondOfBeetles

29 Sep
Dear @DavidLammy

The cervix is a region of the uterus. It has a unique cellular and tissue composition, mirroring its unique functions within the female sexual and reproductive cycle.

Here is a helpful diagram. Image
I have written about its development, structure and function here.
The cervix is not merely ‘a place at the end of a vagina’.
Read 5 tweets
31 Aug
I honestly have no idea why scientists aren’t all developmental biologists.

This is what happens when a fly has a mutation that causes legs to grow where its antenna should be.
This is what happens when you cut pigmented and albino frog embryos in half across the midsection, then swap the head/tail ends.
This is what happens when you take the ‘make head/backbone’ cells from one frog embryo and stick them in another.
Read 8 tweets
25 Aug
I don’t understand why face-swapping people is some kind of ‘transphobe gotcha’?

Anyway, here’s Matt Berry.
It apparently doesn’t work in reverse.
Read 4 tweets
24 Aug
In 2015, the British Psychology Society submitted evidence to Maria Miller’s Transgender Equality Enquiry that male sex offenders have been known to falsely claim trans status as ‘female’.
Reasons for exploitation of GRA laws by predatory males included:
1. demonstrating reduced risk > parole
2. explaining their sex offending
3. separating from their sex offending self
4. better access to females and young children through presenting in an apparently female way.
For years, many of us have foreseen how males who are not trans but who are violent, cynical predators will use the legal loophole created by selfID.
Read 7 tweets
22 Aug
‘There are many factors that may contribute to competition success in tennis – height, weight, reach, power, speed, nutrition, good coaching, other environmental factors, etc. – but they cannot be balanced against the categorial factor of sex.’

tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…
‘Here, sex […] provides the foundation and context within which competition advantages may be expressed.’
This paper is very nicely written. The authors dissect terms like:

‘discrimination’ - logically, to distinguish; socially, to dis/favour.

‘arbitrary’ - the existence of a rule may not be arbitrary (weight cats), while the threshold may be so (60 v 65kg cat).
Read 6 tweets
14 Aug
In 1977, we sent two records into interstellar space. The records contain the story of humans, such that any intercepting alien race can begin to understand us.

voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/galleries/imag…
The records will tell the aliens how we count, how we describe the physical world, how we see both inside an atom and across a solar system.
The records will show aliens how we live and how we reproduce.
Read 7 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(