Coda
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#39
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No, Tiva, it is not that easy.
Imbalances in fetal hormones during pregnancy can cause such effects as CAIS, in which a fetus with XY chromosomes doesn't metabolize testosterone and other androgens and as such their body develops under the influence of estrogens -- you end up with someone who appears female in every manner, including having a vagina instead of a penis, but carries a Y chromosome.
Hormones control fat distribution and tissue development. Even without a genetic intersex condition, under the influence of estrogen, a male body will grow breasts, will add new fat deposits to the hips instead of to the waist, will experience muscular atrophy, and will experience thinning of body hair. Under the influence of testosterone, a female body will experience muscle growth, hair growth, and deepening of the voice.
You can say that world cultures define genders that fall into seven rough categories, except that doesn't mean much. Even ignoring the fact that your categories conflate gender with sexuality, which is a pretty fatal blow for the theory, it provides no useful predictive value, because the social stereotypes RELATED to those seven categories vary from culture to culture.
Official documents offer M and F boxes, but that's because the law is a machine, a computer, an inflexible, ignorant piece of bureaucracy that doesn't care about human beings beyond their value as statistics. Only human beings can have value judgments. And note that at least one high-profile case in Australia has an official government ID that says "Gender: Not Specified" instead of "M" or "F".
So please, discard your preconceived notions and your attempts to define definite categorizations of what gender is and isn't. At best you can set up statistical groups, but no hard division of genders will ever encompass everyone.
Games by Coda (updated 4/8/2025 - New game: Marianas Miner)
Art by Coda (updated 8/25/2022 - beatBitten and All-Nighter Simulator)
Mega Man: The Light of Will (Mega Man / Green Lantern crossover: In the lead-up to the events of Mega Man 2, Dr. Wily has discovered emotional light technology. How will his creations change how humankind thinks about artificial intelligence? Sadly abandoned. Sufficient Velocity x-post)
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Posted 12-07-2012, 02:12 AM
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