Thread by @GappyTales

Of all the turning points in my life, I never expected one to come in the form of a meme. I notice this is doing the rounds again. I don’t think I will ever stop being dumbfounded at how many people see fit to share it.

A thread.

2. Before Clownfish, I had always believed that people ‘on the left’ were apt to think more critically and less likely to swallow propaganda or dogma than those ‘on the right’. I secretly thought that not only were we more compassionate, but more intellectually curious too.

3. This meme took that idea and smashed it. It made me see clearly that humans are humans, and though our ideologies may differ, our ways of thinking actually don’t much. I am as human and therefore as likely to cling to something that affirms my point of view as anyone else.

4. I know this, and watch for it, yet this meme is *so* nonsensical, so breathtakingly wrong, I can’t keep from getting on my high horse.

Let’s talk about human sexual dimorphism as something we have been aware of since we first appeared on earth 200,000 years ago.

5. For all this time, in order for us to reproduce, it has been necessary to be able to tell who is male and who is female. We were able to tell with an almost certain degree of accuracy in pre-historic times - before such things as dresses and makeup - and we’re able to tell

6. with a similar degree of accuracy now, despite these modern inventions.
So what do examples of sex variation in a few non-mammalian species, including flatworms and mushrooms (mushrooms??!!) have to do with human dimorphism? Apparently slime mould can be one of thousands of

7. sexes. Brilliant. But so what? Chameleons can change colour to fit in with their surroundings and fish can breathe underwater. Humans, on the other hand... can’t.

Next, a long list of intersex conditions intended to somehow disprove dimorphism. But given that we are dimorphic

8. for the purposes of reproduction, and these intersex variations are very rare disorders of sexual development that cause infertility in the vast majority of cases, we can see that they are anomalies: exceptions that *prove* the rule.

9. Finally we have the kicker: you can be male because you have two XX chromosomes but your heart and brain are male. This is demonstrably false. Male and female hearts are different, both in size and physiology, but trans men have female hearts because they are physiologically

10. female people and (to steal an expression) vice – effing – versa. I suspect the author meant souls, but there is no evidence souls exist.

Next, attempts to prove sexed brains have been ongoing for centuries.

11. There have been literally thousands of studies. It is in patriarchys interests to naturalise gendered roles and expectations after all. Despite all this effort, no proof of sexed brains exists. Think - if it did, it would be the most significant scientific breakthrough of our

12. time! The scientist who made the discovery would be a household name!

The woman who wrote this meme claims to be a science teacher. She may well be, but science teachers come with political agendas too. Her words mean nothing more than there are some interesting sex

13. variations in some non mammalian species and that intersex conditions exist. Well yes. We know.

The leap from this, to the idea that male human beings are female human beings (or vice - effing – versa) just because they say so, and that anyone who disagrees is a bigot, is

14. so gigantic it boggles my mind. You can believe that a feeling or thought in someones head changes their literal sex if you want to. But I don’t have to. Share your meme. But I call bollocks.