Submitted by WaryLouka t3_z4gxrz in todayilearned
SjuivaTuEtta t1_ixtgxgs wrote
Reply to comment by montanunion in TIL that turkeys can sometimes reproduce asexually, forming near-clones of themselves. by WaryLouka
The definition of men used for klinefelter’s is “has a y chromosome”.
also when talking about sexes there’s two aspects, yes there’s gametes but there is anatomy, secondary characteristics, and so on. If we reduce sex to the gametes, then someone with ovaries but otherwise male anatomy is female, and somebody with underdeveloped ovotestes has no sex at all bc no gametes, and someone with ovarie(s) and teste(s) is both, so there’s atleast four if you count combinations. Then add in anatomy/organ/secodnary characteristsics mismatched with the gametes, and you have many more. Its easiest to lump all atypical sex into one and call it ”intersex” and say it is an actual sex, the only place where that doesnt matter is a sperm/egg bank XD
montanunion t1_ixtjmp1 wrote
Klinefelter men also have a penis and testicles so they are male by anatomy and many do produce sperm, though often not enough/not viable (but there are also some Klinefelter men who produce viable sperm) and most have clearly male secondary sex charactetistics. Globally, only something like 1 in 4 Klinefelter men know they have it and even in the West, many only find out about the condition in adulthood when they realise they have trouble conceiving.
Sex is gametes. That's how biological sex is defined. That's why there are only 2 sexes in humans.
However that doesn't make people who cannot produce gametes non-sexed, any more than the fact that humans are defined as "bipedal mammals" makes people with one leg less human. They are just humans with a specific condition. Someone who produces both sperm and eggs shows characteristics of both sexes.
> Its easiest to lump all atypical sex into one and call it ”intersex”
Easiest for whom? It's not an actual sex (because intersex people do not produce a third form of gametes) and if you look at intersex activism, many intersex people are strictly opposed to the idea that they could be one. The vast majority of intersex conditions are sex-specific, so they only occur in males or only occur in females.
There's absolutely no benefit to lumping all intersex conditions together and calling it a new sex, any more than throwing all conditions that cause aberrations of secondary sex conditions together and calling them a new sex. No one would argue that men with gynaecomastia and women who grow excessive facial hair (which are both quite common) are really a different sex.
SjuivaTuEtta t1_iy36ssi wrote
Well good to know
you did ignore my thing about people who have both ovaries and testes though
montanunion t1_iy3k3nn wrote
I didn't ignore that part, I wrote
> Someone who produces both sperm and eggs shows characteristics of both sexes.
That isn't a different sex either though since there is not a different form of gamete that they produce. And as far as I know, there has never been any known case of a person producing both viable sperm and eggs.
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