Gender Isn't Binary

What comes to your mind when the word gender is mentioned? Do you know that the idea that gender is binary harms individuals by stigmatizing traits that lie outside of what society considers normal? This article will help you understand why gender isn't binary.

Schools teach the same narrative in sex education. Chromosomes determine one's genitals, which determine sex, which determines gender. Women are XX while men are XY. Science says that a person has a penis while another has a vagina. What about people with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), a disorder of sexual development (DSD) where an individual with two X chromosomes is born with a fully functional penis? What happens if you have androgen insensitivity syndrome, where regardless of having a Y chromosome, your cells don't respond to testosterone, giving you a female body? What if you have Klinefelter Syndrome, where one is born with two X and one Y chromosomes? The Science is clear. Sex isn't binary, and schools can bring about a true culture shift if they begin teaching that fact to the younger generation.

Sex and gender are more complex than people know. Many people sit between male and female genetically, physiologically, or mentally and scientists describe gender as a spectrum.

Scientists Describe Gender as a Spectrum

The more you learn about human genetics, the more complicated it reveals. The idea of binary gender has become less tenable. Ainsworth (2015) showed a complex process of sex determination, where the identity of the gonad emerges from a competition between two opposing networks of gene activity. Changes in the activity can lead the balance toward or away from the sex spelled out by the chromosomes.

People still believe gender is binary because it's the easiest explanation. It tracks the messages in advertisements, movies, books, or music. People relate with familiar things, and the Binary is familiar, especially if you are a cisgender person who's never dealt with sexual-identity issues. However, Science doesn't mind the simple route.

Some people still defend the Binary while claiming to be scientific. For example, Richard Dawkins, a well-known evolutionary biologist, has continued to describe trans issues in terms of a binary defined by chromosomes, despite research suggesting otherwise.

Biology Textbooks are Misinforming Students

The places to cover these topics are in biology or sex-education class. Sociologists and science educators have documented the refusal to integrate non-binary sex education into schools. Bazzul & Sykes (2011) found that any discussion of sexuality or identity beyond the set heterosexual norm or the male/female sex binary is absent. Publishers of science textbooks are unwilling to make decisions to include knowledge embroiled in political controversies and, through their silence, propagate the heterosexual norm. Attempts to fix these problems fail due to backlash. Jones et al. (2016) found that LGBT issues rarely arise in sex-education classes.

Biology textbooks are not ignoring important details but actively misinforming the students. Misinformation is partly responsible for the bizarre state of the mainstream discourse on human sexuality, where mobs of angry people claim that anyone deviating from the Binary of male and female is unnatural.

The problem here is worse than ignorance. People are defending an outdated model of human sex and then using that scientifically unsound model to deny rights to trans and non-binary people, justify their oppression, and exclude them from society. The bathroom bills proposed in some U. S states, which explicitly define sex in binary terms, are examples of poor education metastasizing into harmful laws.

Changing the learning ways of students about the biology of sex can't fix the whole problem. It is a step, and ways schools can learn to accept trans, intersex, and non-binary students. Teaching non-binary gender wouldn't mean overhauling curriculums, either: When teaching students what a chromosome is or how embryos grow, teachers could simplify and talk about DSDs and other topics alongside the lesson plan.

Schools should update their biology curriculums to reflect the current state of the research. They need to explicitly address the needs of their queer students through non-discriminatory sex education classes. To do anything less is unscientific, but it's also unjust.

Social Attitudes can Make It Hard For Intersex, Transgender, and Non-Binary People

The biggest problem is that doctors lack experience treating bodies that are neither male nor female, making it difficult to understand their patient's needs. It does not only happen to intersex people only but also to transgender and non-binary patients. Some patients may not be after affirming medical interventions and want their pronouns to be respected. Physical and psychological harm can be brought about by the medical enforcement of a sex binary, making it difficult to seek medical help they may need in the future.

Harmful approaches to sexual traits roll over to gender because society often thinks of sex and gender as interchangeable. Social attitudes can make it hard for intersex, transgender, and non-binary people to receive enough healthcare services or be protected from discrimination.

The idea that gender or sex is binary harms everyone and revolutionizes traits that lie outside what society considers right. Changing attitudes to recognize sex as a spectrum can be challenging, but it's possible. Jones & Hillier (2013) suggested that people need public education about the biological sex spectrum and policy changes to make a change. Surgery on intersex people without their consent should be banned.

Conclusion

There needs to be legislation that considers gender as a spectrum with unlimited options to end sex and gender-based discrimination. It could be as simple as expanding the language that has been used in laws such as Title IX to be explicitly inclusive of all sexes and genders. There's also a need for laws that protect people of non-binary sexes and genders from discrimination in workplaces, healthcare settings, and housing. The Science is clear; sex is a spectrum. There's also a need for better public education to recognize and protect people and their way of thinking concerning biology. Sex and gender should be embraced as one of the human's main aspects of life. Everyone is entitled to sex as it is from birth.

References

Ainsworth, C. (2015). Sex Redefined. Nature, 518(7539), 288.

Bazzul, J., & Sykes, H. (2011). The Secret Identity Of A Biology Textbook: Straight And Naturally Sexed. Cultural Studies Of Science Education, 6(2), 265-286.

Jones, T., Smith, E., Ward, R., Dixon, J., Hillier, L., & Mitchell, A. (2016). School Experiences Of Transgender And Gender Diverse Students In Australia. Sex Education, 16(2), 156-171.

Jones, T., & Hillier, L. (2013). Comparing Trans-Spectrum And same-sex-attracted Youth In Australia: Increased Risks, Increased Activisms. Journal Of LGBT Youth, 10(4), 287-307.