Meditations and Learnings

Meditations and Learnings

Accepting Biological Sex Differences Doesn't Hurt You

Much of the conversation surrounding gender and sex bores me, predominately because I don’t see why we can’t resolve it simply without people losing anything important. Biologists define sex by the size of the gametes - males have small gametes called sperm, and females have large gametes called eggs. All evolved sex differences fall out of this fundamental difference. The crucial distinction is that fertilisation happens within the woman, not the man. They carry the metabolic costs of pregnancy, have breasts for lactation, and invest a costly nine months of gestation to produce a child. While to put it crudely, a man can shoot and leave.

The reproductive sex differences created selection pressure for psychological differences comparable to height, weight, upper-body muscle mass, body-fat distribution, testosterone levels, and estrogen production.

Comparisons between sexes aren’t to deny that within each sex, there aren’t massive individual differences. Therefore, when we speak of dissimilarities between sexes, these are averages.

Notice no difference renders one sex superior to another. Each sex is highly reliant on the other and would cease to exist alone. Nor does this acknowledgement say anything about the humanity of anybody. We are each entitled to the same rights, negating any slippery slope argument one might level at the scientific fact that males differ in crucial ways from females.