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Gort@ControlGroup.Science's avatar

So I opened Sunday's SF Chronicle to find the top half of the editorial section devoted to the hypothesis that our species is full of intersex individuals ("as many as red-haired people"), and that the idea that there were biological determinants of male and female was invalid. This front page blather was written by a person who proclaimed to have a PhD in science, although they did not state their actual credentials. (When researched they turn out to have a short-lived PhD in Ecology, with several research projects on fungal impacts on insects that affect coffee crops.

Rather than taking up the task of discussing Walsh's excellent film (which I too appreciatively watched this weekend), the editors of what once was a fine newspaper decided to dumb down their leadership with more of this pathetic anti-scientific hogwash. It is alarming to me to see just how far this grasping will go in order to deny biological reality and basic respect for women.

I am not ant-human, I am concerned about the effect of plastics and chemicals on our unborn children and the outcomes to their sexual development, which needs to be addressed as a source problem. In light of that, I find the perversion of science for an agenda that supports taxpayer funded neutering, with no understanding of the long-term downside, to be an appalling affront, clothed in Drag as compassion and equality.

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Just a Clinician's avatar

Great post.

"Can a neurologist tell whether a brain is male or female given some varied electrical activity screenings or other images? Probably."

I recall when, in the late 80s, the first study came out claiming that women had more fibers in the corpus callosum connecting the hemispheres, it was highly controversial. Many men wrote letters to journal editors critiquing the study design. It was ON. (Most women read it, shrugged, and said, well, it makes sense.)

Many studies later, there is still an argument raging. Male brains are larger, including the corpus callosum, but size does not always predict function. Normalizing corpus callosum volume for size of the whole brain does reveal that the corpus callosum is relatively larger in women. https://afni.nimh.nih.gov/sscc/staff/rwcox/ISMRM_2006/ISMRM%202006%20-%203340/files/01606.pdf

Now that there are more sophisticated MRI technologies, it does appear that there are fewer myelinated fibers (white matter) connecting some structures in men than in women.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S105381191001459X

As for opening jars, my dad's suggestion was a strap wrench. Works for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJtAWhX2lWM

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