Gender IS a Spectrum - and YOU are on it

That fake, dishonest, unintelligent, bigoted meme

Get used to it.

I see the internet is still ablaze with the claim that Bill Nye once said that gender is determined by chromosomes.

In the wake of Bill's new show, Bill Nye Saves the World, in which he asserted that gender is on a spectrum, some bigot produced a meme with a still from his 1996 show, Bill Nye the Science Guy, with wording added stating "Gender is determined by your chromosomes". Despite Snopes and other sources on the internet utterly destroying the myth that Bill Nye said any such thing, the meme is still doing the rounds, and people are still trying to assert that gender is driven by chromosomes.

It is quite sad that among those claiming such things are people who are otherwise quite intelligent, and usually very liberal towards others. Yet every time they assert that gender is determined by chromosomes., they exhibit a form of thinking which is dishonest, ill-informed, intellectually stunted, prejudiced towards others, and anti-science in the extreme. In other words, the usual traits I have come to expect from the unintelligent rantings of right-wing bigots, usually of the religious persuasion.

Not only did Bill Nye never say that gender is determined by chromosomes, whoever put that meme together is disingenuously referring to two episodes of Bill Nye the Science Guy, and a line spoken not by Bill but rather by an actress.

In the episode of the show entitled "Genes", Bill Nye stated "Our genes are stored in parts of our cells called chromosomes. They look like this. Chromosomes contain all of the genetic information, all of the instructions you need to make a person. Now humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes for a total of 46." Then in an episode in Series 2 entitled "Possibilities", actress Amy Broder stated "You’re either X and X. Girl. Or X and Y. Boy. The chance of becoming either a boy or a girl is always 1 in 2."

In these statements, neither Bill Nye nor Amy Broder never said a thing about gender at all. As any biologist worth their salt will tell you, what both were talking about is not gender, but rather biological sex. Keep this in mind; it is an important distinction.

It is also interesting to note that even for their time, the shows were fundamentally flawed in claiming that there is only ever a biological binary. The very existence of babies born intersex, that is with both 'male' and 'female' genitalia (formerly known as hermaphrodites) tells us that simply is not so.

And here is where the distinction comes in. Those who have latched onto the chromosomes=gender mantra are trying to assert that gender and biological sex are one and the same thing. That is the first part which is anti-science and which simply is not so.

To explain this, we have to look at human development in the womb. The glands which form into ovaries or testes develop around week 9 of pregnancy, and will continue to develop based on the biological sex of the foetus until around week 13, when external sexual organs in the form of a clitoris and labia in girls or a penis and scrotum in boys.

Whilst the beginnings of the brain start at around week 6 or 7 of pregnancy, this is no more than a developing brain which starts to receive impulses from growing nerve cells, and is by no means a functioning brain, capable of independent thought (no matter what the anti-abortion brigade may try to tell you). It is not until around week 16 that the brain starts to grow rapidly. This continues into the third trimester of pregnancy, when the baby's brain almost triples in the last 13 weeks of gestation, and becomes fully functioning and capable of thought.

It is now believed that gender, just like sexuality, is determined in this last period of cerebral development. That is that just as we now believe it is in the womb that it is decided whether the child will be straight, gay, bi, pan, or any other sexual persuasion, so the same applies to whether the child will identify as cisgender, transgender, genderfluid, non-binary, or whatever other gender (and it is now agreed there are many), has also already been decided prior to birth.

The important point here however is the difference in timescales between biological and cerebral development. As much as we all know many guys seem to think with their dicks, I am sure we all agree that gender, like sexuality, is 'all in the mind', and you won't find a tiny brain in the glans or clitoris.

And of course, in the above example, like Bill Nye the Science Guy, I refer only to the usual biological sex binary. But intersex children throw in an interesting point with regard to gender identity.

Here is the litmus test. Imagine that you had a child which was born intersex, with the genitalia of both sides of the biological sex binary. Now, just how are you going to bring that child up? Are you going to decide a gender for them and enforce surgery upon the child according to the gender YOU want them to be? Or are you going to leave the child to grow naturally, let nature take its course, and leave the child to decide which, if either, side of the gender binary they most identify with, and whether or not to opt for surgery when they are old enough to make that decision (some intersex people are in fact more than happy with their bodies as they are)?

For my part, I would go with the latter option. If I were the parent, I would not know the child's gender identity, and I would seek only that child's happiness. Therefore, I would leave it to the child to decide their gender for themselves, which starts to show as early as 3 years old.

To date there is only one country in the world which has outlawed 'gender corrective' surgery on children, and that is the tiny island state of Malta. Quite a surprise in fact, as Malta has been at the crossroads of religions for millennia and still has very conservative religious views on sexuality and gender. And yet, they have taken this very brave step, which I personally believe is the right one. Malta is standing up for the human rights of gender identity like no other country in the world has done so, and in doing so they have sent a firm message to the world; biological sex and gender are not one and the same thing.

There is an important point to be learned here, and that is just who is the expert on gender identity. And I put this to each and every reader; who is the expert on YOUR gender identity? Your parents? Your doctor? Your family? Your friends? Or is it more likely that you and only you are the one and only true expert on the gender which you identify with? This is true for each and every one of us. And if it is true that nobody has the right to tell you what gender you are, or exhibit prejudice towards your gender, even tell you that you need psychiatric help, or even that your gender does not even exist, then the same is true for you, and every other person, towards others who may be of differing gender. The simple fact is that there is only one expert on anyone's gender, and that is the individual involved.

I would say a word here on those who say that those who do not fit into the stereotypical gender binary need psychiatric help. I actually had someone say that about non-binary individuals on an online thread just recently, the second time saying "If you don't identify as a man or a woman, go and see a psychiatrist." I twice asked them what their academic qualifications were in psychiatry - and I am still waiting on a reply. The actual nerve of some people who think they are so very 'expert' on the gender identity of others, when they patently do not know the first thing they are talking about. Amazing how you put a keyboard in front of some people and suddenly they become the expert on everything.

Actually, from what I have garnered from many non-binary (and transgender) friends and individuals online, many if not most, of them do go to see psychiatrists and/or psychologists; highly trained professionals who counsel them and help them to cope with their gender identity. But not one of these health professionals would ever coax a non-binary person into choosing either side of the gender binary.

But even if non-binary people don't seek such help, what the fuck is it to the individual mentioned above, and those like him? Speaking from their position of cisgender privilege, just how the hell is anyone not conforming to the gender binary hurting them, exactly? It's a rhetorical question of course, because the obvious answer is that it does not harm or even affect them one iota. And that being the case, we can only put their attitudes down to one simple answer; sheer blind bigotry. I really think that some of such people feel threatened by the gender spectrum. Because if they accept it exists, then they have to equally admit that they, like all of us, are on that spectrum; just as we are all on the sexuality spectrum, which also leaves some feeling threatened.

This too is important, because this is where the "chromosomes=gender" brigade are on dangerous ground, concerning others who share that view. As I have pointed out above, the very root of this mistaken belief are those who think gender and biological sex are the same thing, when they patently are not. Yet not too long ago, there were homophobes who were using the chromosomes. argument against homosexuality, claiming that because of the way the human body forms biologically, that homosexuality must be a choice. This is still prevalent among some religious bigots, particularly those who come out with the tired old "Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve" mantra. Again, these people are incapable of differentiating biological sex from gender. Most gay men and lesbian women are every bit as cisgender as the heterosexual majority.

So, those who would maintain that chromosomes=gender, be very careful of the company you are keeping. Lay down with dogs, do not be surprised if you wake up with fleas.

Ultimately, the very denial of the gender spectrum is indeed unintelligent, ill-informed, and anti-science. It is in fact born of lazy thinking. For science does say that gender is a spectrum. In the same thread I mentioned above, another person said of there being a gender spectrum "citation needed". I replied to their comment by leaving links to peer-reviewed science which asserts that gender identity is indeed on a spectrum (and I've had no reply from them either). And if the science says that, then that's what I am going to roll with.

But then, that is what Bill Nye said in his new show, Bill Nye Saves the World;

"If you’re like me, and I know I am, you’re still learning about this field of science. We used to think that there were just two settings. Male and female. But it’s actually a lot sexier than that... ...Take sex. We used to think it was pretty straightforward. X and a Y chromosome for males. Two Xs for females. But we see more combinations than that in real life… …We have to listen to the science. And the science says that we’re all on a spectrum."

There it is; an open admission from a learned man, more learned than most, that he - unlike all the keyboard experts - doesn't know it all, but that it is the science which says gender, just like sexuality, is on a spectrum, and it is that science we have to trust in.

To conclude, I will finish on a humorous note.

How do you tell the sex of a chromosome?

Pull down it's genes.*

*This gag is supported by the EU fund for the Continuance and Preservation of Extremely Unfunny Old Jokes.