Thread by @FondOfBeetles

Across the natural world, male and female are defined by reproductive function, describing the contribution of small gametes (like sperm) or large gametes (like ova), respectively, to the next generation.

https://twitter.com/rogerpielkejr/status/1485976699250483200

In healthy humans, there are two anatomical body types, each corresponding to one of the two reproductive functions. That is, in humans, there are two sexes.

In utero, males and females develop sex-specific primary characteristics pertinent to function during reproduction.

Healthy male anatomy comprises testicles, internal genital structures like the vas deferens and an external penis and scrotum.

Healthy female anatomy comprises internal ovaries, internal genital structures like a uterus and vagina, and an external vulva incorporating the clitoris.

The sex of a baby develops in a coordinated set of processes and is routinely and reliably observed at birth by visual and palpable (“touch, feeling”) assessment of external genitalia.

Such definitions and descriptions of sex are uncontroversial, appearing in dictionaries, key biology and medical textbooks, academic publications and medical consensus statements like that issued by the Endocrine Society in 2021.

In fact, academic publications defining sex, actively researching sex or incidentally dependent on these understandings of sex are too numerous to consider.

For example, a search on PubMed for only “male [AND] sperm” (that is, nowhere near an exhaustive search) retrieves over 100,000 results, including multiple publications from Nobel Laureates in Physiology or Medicine, and from a huge array of biology and medical disciplines.

By the above standard definitions and descriptions of sex, transwomen are biologically male.

It is scientifically accurate to describe them as such, and necessary in some discussions to discriminate people by their sex.

It shouldn’t take courage to say so. @SexMattersOrg