The dissatisfaction against the restrictive two-category model of gender acknowledges its inadequacy in capturing the diversities within the rich spectrum of human identity. Gender, shaped by sociocultural factors, diverges from the more biologically based concept of sex (as a category), which is related to characteristics like “anatomy, physiology, genetics, and hormones.” Human sexual categorization has mostly been divided into two alternatives: female or male, where the focus falls on bodies (especially genitals and reproductive systems) through a “biological rationale.”
While the prevailing belief suggests that the categories of gender may be more than two due to its sociocultural nature, the notion that sex is confined to a binary persists. However, this perspective ignores the diverse variations that occur within human biology. The large number of intersexual individuals, who are people that are born with varieties of these “sex traits,” reflects that our categories within human sexual categorization desperately need to be updated to have proper representation. Yes, we know that gender isn’t binary, but sex isn’t either.
The belief that sex is binary, meaning there are only two possibilities, can be challenged since not every person falls into the description of the phenotypic characteristics of female and male, where a series of variations exists across different levels. These biological elements can combine in multiple ways, resulting in the rich spectrum that is human biology, a notion that challenges the simplistic dichotomy of biological sex as black and white.
Perhaps recognizing that human nature is full of diversity and uniqueness can serve as a powerful tool for our society to become more accepting. Biology has been used as an argument to preserve the outdated categories of man and woman, but it has been selectively blind to its diverse nature. The reality is that a more panoramic observation allows space for everyone.
Variety is characteristic of every human body
Growing up we learn that women and men have different kinds of chromosomes, reproductive systems, genitals, gonads, and hormones. Nevertheless, there are a large number of humans whose characteristics differ from the sexual and reproductive systems of the male and female structure, known as intersexuals. Increasing intersexual visibility is of vital importance as it provides the opportunity for a large number of individuals to find a category they can fall into after being born into a system that only creates space for two. Studying and understanding intersexuality better, recognizing that it isn’t related to abnormality or disease, allows us to improve what we understand as sex.
To this day, there is still a negative association towards the term “intersexual” as a result of misinformation and social stigma. Being intersexual doesn’t mean that there is anything “wrong” with a person. In the largest study done in the US with 198 intersexuals, the majority of them reported having good physical health.
Intersexuals have been subject to invasive and unethical medical interventions that seek to erase or hide the diversity within their bodies — a result of the rigid attachment to the sexual binary. Both parents and intersexual people have witnessed being subject to inaccurate diagnoses, where doctors have conveyed that their condition needed to be intervened with, and later found out it was unnecessary. A study that analyzed the testimonies from the lived experiences of intersexual individuals found that the systematic pathologization experienced by them greatly affected them in a negative way throughout their lives.
Challenging the binary in sexual categorization
In an attempt to invalidate the term “intersex”, certain individuals have turned to biology in order to question its existence. The most common statistic when addressing the percentage of intersexual people in the world is Anne Fausto-Sterling’s data that 1.7% of the worldwide population is intersexual. This number was questioned by Leonard Sax in 2002 claiming that Fausto included individuals with Klinefelter and Turner syndrome, which he doesn’t consider as “true” intersex, and that without including those individuals, the percentage of intersexuals would be only 0.018% of the population.
Richard Dawkins used this argument from Sax in his text “Why biological sex matters,” and claimed that 0.018% of the population is too small a number to defy the human sexual categorization of female and male. He defends that there are only two sexes and that is the end of the story. However, intersexuality was developed to create a category, an acceptance, a sex, for all of the possible variations that can occur in a person’s body. Adhering to some things as an indisputable truth can become claims that incite division and discrimination.
Supposing Sax and Dawkin’s perspective of the “true” intersexual was how our society would deem the term, 0.018% of the global population is 1.44 million people, which is not a small number. Even if only one person existed as an intersexual, that’s enough to challenge the sex binary. Perhaps, by using only two categories that at least exclude 1.44 million people, we fail to be inclusive and embrace human diversity. The more we adhere ourselves to these biological arguments that defend that there are only two categories, two possibilities and everything else is abnormal or illness, the more division we create with one another.
Flexible perspective toward gender & sex
There is still so much we don’t know about our bodies and the human species, and by recognizing that our terms, language, and knowledge will always fall short of properly representing us, we can create more flexible ways of thinking, recognizing we will always need to change and adapt, without this being a negative thing. Although the majority of people are born in a phenotypical female or male structure, there are a large number of individuals born with an intersexual structure and they shouldn’t have to face any kind of stigma or social rejection. Having a flexible mentality can allow us to not judge any kind of situation, intersexuality, or any other, in which someone is different in any way from the majority. Adhering to something as an unquestionable truth, like sex as a binary, can pose the danger of inciting division and discrimination.
The argument being made here is not that we should completely erase the existence of the terms man and woman. These serve as structures that help us express, create, and navigate the complexities of human identity. Nevertheless, we can approach both gender and sex from a less rigid place that recognizes that every human is different. Ultimately, intersexual visibility aims to increase acceptance and the possibility to choose. To create a world where everyone, intersex, female, male, has the choice to decide what gender they identify with. In the past years, intersexuality has begun to gain more visibility and there is an imperative to increase the conversation to be able to reduce the negative connotations associated with humans who are intersexual, but there is still a long way to go.
Written by: Natalia Lozano Casique
Are you a walking encyclopedia of sex education, or is there more to learn? Click here to take our 'What kind of sex nerd are you?' quiz and find out your true rank in sexuality knowledge!