Gender: More than X versus Y
Part of the Edinburgh International Science Festival, 12th April, Informatics Forum. Prof. Richard Sharpe, Prof. Chris Kelnar, Prof. Richard Anderson.
‘Gender..? Man or Woman.' This was the first question of an equal opportunities form I found myself filling in recently. ‘Shouldn’t that say, ‘Sex...? Male or Female?’ my confused neighbour queried.
I was tempted to omit the tick from the woman box and insert an estimated (fluctuating) percentage into both boxes - Woman, 73%; Man, 27%.
Afraid of conforming to gender stereotypes whilst vaguely believing there is no smoke without fire and conscious of using gendered language to the point of writer’s block, I sought out the Edinburgh International Science Festival talk, Gender: More than X versus Y because you can’t argue with science.
I felt an over-riding security that all was as I had first suspected when Professor Richard Sharpe confirmed that men and women are ‘fundamentally different.’ We think differently because our brains are organised differently. I had the thought that the male brain wasn’t organised at all and imagined brain parts stuffed under beds and swept under rugs… but, of course, that would be gender stereotyping.
My sex, asserted Professor Chris Kelner, is based on the presence or absence of the Y chromosome; my gender is socially constructed. He underlined this point with evidence from the David Reimer case showing that nurture has a hard job altering nature. Indeed, I was beginning to feel pretty sure of myself.
At which point, Prof Kelner upturned my binary-structured world. If we could appreciate gender on a sliding scale affected by ‘internal make-up… hormone levels and the effects of hormones on [the] brain during development’, we could rest assured that our sex was clearly defined into two categories which we may judge solely by external appearance. Not so.
Kelner demonstrated cases in which the external appearance of an individual gave no, or at least a contradicting indication, of his/her sex. Professor Richard Anderson then introduced me to Androgen Insensitivity – a genetic male (XY chromosome) who is phenotypically female. Adding to the equation, the existence of a third gender, common in the Dominican Republic and furthermore, Prof Sharpe gave an example of an individual who looked externally woman (as regards body shape), was internally female (she gave birth) and showed maternal instinct, yet possessed the male XY genetics.
If any audience member was looking for confirmation of gender identity, they might request a refund. They most likely left with sex confusion. I had my suspicions that there was more to gender then X versus Y, but little did I know that there was so much more to sex than the presence or absence of Y.
There were no answers as to how I became the gender I am, no matter its percentage break-down. Nonetheless, Gender: More to X versus Y offered an animated, and insightful debate that proved science, like sex and gender, is not so black and white. Far from the right/wrong notion I had of the Sciences, it turns out to my delight, that you can argue with science.
by Michelle McCracken
Posted by Hannah on April 14, 2010.