The Fun Police

Bronzewing Pigeon

2025, watercolor and white gouache

Embarrassing u-turn by Amnesty UK after they tried to declare the only single-sex sexual violence support centre in Scotland to be 'anti-rights'. Amnesty International has decried the report and stressed that they were not involved in its publication.

'Amnesty UK has taken the report down for 'review' and apologised for publishing it without the 'normal checks'.

Amnesty has now issued an apology for the above confirming that the report will not be republished and also taking down a previous report that featured similar accusations.

(not the kind of record to be proud of)

story source: X

Heat and tainted produce have made this a record summer for foodborne illngdhess. Cases of cyclosporiasis have topped 10,000, and the CDC just traced a new salmonella outbreak to Mexican jalapeños.

The salmonella bacteria outbreak is only 345 confirmed cases so far, but it's widespread - in 27 states - because of national distribution.

The tainted jalapeños were grown in Sinaloa, Mexico, brought to the US by Coast Citrus Distributors, and served at popular restaurants like Chipotle and Qdoba as well as sold in stores.

The FDA has upgraded an egg recall issued last month to “Class I,” its highest risk level, as it warns the public that consuming the products could cause “serious adverse health consequences or death.”

The recall of 1,589,577 dozen white-shell eggs and brown cage-free shell eggs was initially issued by Midwest Poultry Services in late July, which warned they might be contaminated with Salmonella Enteritidis.

According to the company, the eggs were produced and distributed from farms in Texas between June 6 and July 3 and have sell-by or best-by dates between July 20 and August 17. The recalled egg cartons have either the code P-1950 or 0840962 and Julian Dates between 157-184.

it did not. it is public knowledge the slave trade worked like this

Well she’s going to prison for the rest of her life and her children are still dead and men still commit 90% of all violent crimes. Many of my friends who had babies did go on medication for anxiety/depression because they were immediately hit with postpartum depression and anxiety that their husbands did not face, and those symptoms have continued for months after birth.

I don’t know what to say. I feel more sympathy for a woman who’s been documented asking for help versus a man who chose to go war and kill people and then gave themselves PTSD from it. I feel more sympathy for women who are forced into caring for their kids 24/7 by a system that doesn’t consider their mental illnesses to be real or valid, whereas nearly any man can leave their wife and kids behind and flee the situation with almost no societal repercussions.

It’s not fair. But life’s not fair.

She’s not walking free. She’s not escaping justice. The best “privilege” she gets is women online feeling bad that the woman who seemed like she desperately needed help didn’t get it.

Having sympathy is not a get out of jail free card. It doesn’t bring the kids back to life. It doesn’t un-paralyze her.

At best, women are talking about their own experiences with postpartum psychosis.

The whole point of “assigned male / female at birth” was that it is NOT about anatomy. That’s literally the point. It was a way to talk about their lives and experience. Someone talking about being AFAB didn’t actually tell you ANYTHING about what their body was and is like.

Thank you!!

Sex is Binary

Despite efforts to confuse matters, there's one simple fact that underlies the sex binary in animals: anisogamy.

Anisogamy refers to the difference in size of the two types of gametes [1, 2]. Gametes are the sex cells (eggs and sperm), which are combined during sexual reproduction [2]. By definition [3, 4], the females produce the larger gamete (the egg or ova) and males produce the smaller gamete (the sperm).

There are no intermediate gametes; therefore, there are no additional sexes. No human has ever produced both ova and sperm; therefore, every human is either female or male.

Importantly, the sex binary is not equivalent to sexual differentiation or sexual dimorphism. (Although they are strongly correlated.)

Sexual Differentiation

Sexual differentiation refers to the process in which "male and female sexual organs develop from neutral embryonic structures" [5].

Every embryo has both precursor structures: the Müllerian duct, which can develop into the female organs, and the Wolffian duct, which can develop into the male organs. Once sexual differentiation begins, one of these precursor structures will develop into maturity, and the other will atrophy. [5]

In humans, the process of sexual differentiation is controlled by various hormonal secretions by the embryo at specific times during development. These hormonal secretions are determined by the genetic makeup of the fetus. For example, the SRY gene, found on the Y chromosome, regulates the expression of multiple genes which together result in the differentiation of Sertoli cells. In the third month of development, the Sertoli cells secrete Müllerian inhibiting hormone, which initiates the atrophy of the Müllerian duct. [5, 6]

Importantly, therefore, the process of sexual differentiation depends on biological sex. Or, as this article [1] puts it, sexual differentiation is a consequence of biological sex. In a healthy organism, the embryo has the genetic instructions necessary to initiate the process of sexual differentiation that will ultimately result in the production of either ova or sperm (which defines biological sex). This expected capacity or "developmental trajectory" allows us to categorize an organism's sex even in the absence of successful gamete production. Put simply, the organism's biological sex is defined by the gamete they would have produced, had they been capable of producing a gamete.

Disorders/differences of Sex Development (DSD, Intersexism)

The complex process of sexual differentiation can be disturbed at various points, which can result in disorders/differences of sex development (i.e., intersexism). Importantly, however, every embryo starts out with the capacity to produce only one type of gamete. [5]

Further, the development of the ovary is not a "default pathway" [6, 7]. Instead, ovarian development is an active process that necessitates the activity of many factors. The mere absence of complete instructions for male development does not mean a fetus will undergo normative female development.

In other words, each embryo has the genetic instructions necessary to develop the capacity to produce either sperm or ova. However, genetic mutations in many different genes can disrupt this normative development, typically resulting in the absence of any gamete production. These individuals still have a biological sex of either male or female; it is simply determined by which gamete they would have produced had they not had their genetic mutation(s) and instead undergone normal sexual differentiation.

Astonishingly, despite the many possible points of disruption in sexual differentiation, the frequency of genuine intersex conditions is extremely low. Based on the definition of biological sex and our understanding of sexual differentiation, we can describe intersex conditions as conditions in which an individual undergoes some degree of sexual differentiation that is inconsistent with the differentiation for their expected gametic production.

In practical terms, this means that intersex conditions include cases where an individual's chromosomal sex is inconsistent with their phenotype (primary sex characteristics) or they have an ambiguous phenotype. Using this definition, we can estimate that approximately 0.018% of the population has an intersex condition. [8]

And allow me to emphasize again, that these individuals are still either male or female. Their sex can be identified by what type of gamete they would have been capable of producing, had they not had a genetic condition that disrupted their sexual development.

Another way to think of this is that, had these individuals actually been the opposite sex, their genetic mutation would not have impacted their sexual development. For example, people with Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (CAIS) have a genetic mutation that means their "cells do not respond to testosterone or other androgens", leading to female-typical external genitalia.

This genetic mutation only disrupts the sexual differentiation of biological males. If this person had been biologically female, their sexual differentiation would have proceeded normally. It is possible they may have some other health condition, but they would not have an intersex condition.

Further, the occasional disruption of a biological process does not negate the validity of that process for the species. For example, normative human development results in the development of two (complete) arms and legs. However, some humans are born missing part or all of one or more limbs, which is called limb reduction. In fact, the frequency of this is estimated at 0.05%, which is almost three times greater than intersex conditions. Despite this, we understand that the statement "humans have two arms and two legs" is accurate and does not imply the absence of non-normative phenotypes. [9]

And, in addition to all of this, people with access to modern medicine do not go their "whole life" without knowing they are intersex. Intersex conditions that are not associated with ambiguous genitalia will generally be identified at the onset of puberty or when investigating the cause of infertility. If you were not identified as having an intersex condition at birth, you underwent typical puberty, and you are not having fertility issues, you are not intersex. If you did not undergo typical puberty and/or you are infertile, you may have an intersex condition, but there are also many other more common conditions that cause these issues.

People (now or in the past) who did/do not have access to modern medicine may not have been identified as having an intersex condition if it was not physically obvious at birth/puberty. However, these individuals would present with later health issues, including, but by no means limited to, infertility.

Sexual Dimorphism

Most of the arguments suggesting sex is not binary are based on the assertion that either (1) humans are not sexually dimorphic or that (2) the partial overlap in dimorphic traits suggests a continuum in human sex. Neither of these is true.

First, I've recently made a post on sexual dimorphism, describing a sample of the many ways humans are sexually dimorphic. Hopefully, that is sufficient to refute the first assertion.

Second, I state in that same post that:

It's important to note that it is not necessary for there to be absolutely no overlap between the sexes for any particular characteristic to be considered sexually dimorphic. It is merely necessary for there to be an average difference on the population level. We should also note that, due to the many, many traits in which humans are sexually dimorphic, an individual with an opposite-sex-average trait will typically still be same-sex-typical for the many other traits.

In other words, sexual dimorphism is not equivalent to biological sex, but a consequence of it. Biological sex normally determines sexual differentiation which in turn determines sexually dimorphic traits. However, while there is some degree of overlap in sexual dimorphism (e.g., a man may be as tall as the female-average), there is no overlap in biological sex (i.e., a human cannot produce both eggs and sperm).

(Also, for the Anon who sent a video from an "advanced biologist". See the above for the difference between the sex binary and sexual dimorphism and the relevance of intersexism.)

I hope this helps, Anon!

References under the cut:

and if you’re only referring to androgen insensitivity, does that mean you are defining people with complete androgen insensitivity as male? Because if they didn’t have that condition they would be male - but they do, and so they develop like a female. Throughout history they would have been seen as women. Only very recently has the framework and our understanding changed so that we can say “A woman is XX and a man is XY” rather than “A man has a penis and a woman has a vulva.” But that person would still be raised as a girl, experience misogyny etc. even most kids with partial androgen insensitivity would. So it seems unfair to class them as males.

In other words, each embryo has the genetic instructions necessary to develop the capacity to produce either sperm or ova. However, genetic mutations in many different genes can disrupt this normative development, typically resulting in the absence of any gamete production. These individuals still have a biological sex of either male or female; it is simply determined by which gamete they would have produced had they not had their genetic mutation(s) and instead undergone normal sexual differentiation.

I think the easiest way to understand this is to divide the process into primary and secondary sex determination. (This explanation is somewhat of an oversimplification, but I wanted to keep it to a manageable length as it got very long!) Primary sex determination controls the development of the gonads, and it is determined by the genes. Secondary sex determination concerns the rest of the organism’s phenotype (here we will focus on the development of the primary sex characteristics), and is controlled primarily by the gonads (which were developed in the primary step). [1-3]

Every healthy human embryo starts out with a bipotential mammalian gonad, which can be differentiated into either testes or ovaries. An embryo with a Y chromosome in this gonadal tissue* has the genes necessary to induce testes development and suppress ovarian development, no matter the number of X chromosomes that are also present. Following their development, the testes secrete both testosterone (which induces Wolffian duct differentiation) and anti-Müllerian hormone (which causes the regression of the Müllerian ducts). As a result of this, an embryo with a Y chromosome will develop testes and then male sex characteristics.

*And importantly, this is specifically about gonadal tissue, which is relevant to human chimeras/mosaics. [9] (I won't be expanding on this here, since that would probably double the length of this post!)

For an embryo without a Y chromosome in their gonadal tissue, a complex set of genes induces the differentiation of the ovary, meaning ovary development is not a “default pathway.” That being said, this pathway is only possible in the absence of a Y chromosome. Further, the secondary sex determination process (i.e., for other primary sex characteristics) can be conceptualized having a female-as-default path. In other words, whereas a male embryo requires the presence of testosterone and anti-Müllerian hormone to develop a normal male phenotype, the mere absence of these hormones (which is normal for an XX embryo) results in the development of a normal female phenotype.

So, in other words, for approximately 99.98% of the population [4], an embryo will follow one of two paths:

Presence of a Y chromosome -> normative testes development -> normative male phenotype development

Absence of a Y chromosome -> no testes development (ovary development assuming no other genetic mutations) -> normative female phenotype development

Given this, we can say that someone with a Y chromosome is male and someone without a Y chromosome is female. This is what I meant by "each embryo has the genetic instructions necessary to develop the capacity to produce either sperm or ova." The presence of a Y chromosome indicates the embryo has instructions to develop sperm; the absence of a Y chromosome indicates the embryo has instructions to develop eggs.

This also means that the vast majority of people have an unambiguous sex. That is, they will follow one of two patterns:

Presence of a Y chromosome – testes – male genitalia

Absence of a Y chromosome – ovaries – female genitalia

In other words, for most people, their actual phenotype (gonads and genitals) will match their expected phenotype as based on their genotype (chromosomes). Further, the type of external genitalia is highly correlated with both the internal sex organs and the presence/absence of a Y chromosome.

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So, what about sex chromosome aneuploidies?

The sex of people with a sex chromosome aneuploidy (and no other concurrent DSD) is unambiguous, as their phenotype (gonads and genitals) will match their genotype (presence/absence of a Y chromosome).

A man with a sex chromosome aneuploidy can have an abnormal number of X or Y chromosomes (e.g., XXY, XXXY, XYY, XXYY, etc.). An embryo needs only one Y chromosome to have the genetic instructions necessary to produce sperm, so a man with extra X or Y chromosomes is still biologically male. (Their sex organs may be considered “atypical,” but they will still be recognizable as male.) Furthermore, while these men are commonly infertile, they can produce sperm cells [5]. Infertility can result from reduced sperm production, insufficient motility, or other functional issues, but the production of the gametes themselves is possible. As such, the preceding clause, “absence of any gamete production,” does not apply in this situation.

Women with a sex chromosome aneuploidy cannot have a Y chromosome, because the Y chromosome determines male sexual development, but they can have an abnormal number of X chromosomes. The most common conditions are Turner syndrome (XO) or Trisomy X (XXX). Once again, the sex of these women is unambiguous because their genotype (absence of a Y chromosome) matches their phenotype (female genitalia). Furthermore, women with Turner syndrome initially develop normal gametes (i.e., egg cells) but these eggs die prematurely [6]. Women with Trisomy X have normal egg cells and are usually fertile [7]. So, once again, the clause concerning the “absence of any gamete production,” does not apply here.

So, in all of these cases, these individuals have the genetic instructions necessary to produce either sperm or eggs, and that capacity is what determines their sex.

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So, what about other DSD mutations where the genetic instructions present do not match the person's phenotype?

These sorts of conditions – which include complete androgen insensitivity syndrome (CAIS) – are the sort of condition I was referring to in that portion of my post, as many of these conditions preclude gamete production. (Although, I found during my research, not always [8].)

That being said, I don’t actually disagree with the points you make here.

First, using your example, a person with CAIS will present with female-typical external genitalia (but not female internal sex organs). However, a karyotype will show the presence of a Y chromosome. This condition results when there is a genetic mutation in a gene involved in the person’s response to androgens (i.e., testosterone). That mutation means the proteins created based on that gene are non-functional, so they will not respond to androgens. Due to the lack of testosterone response, the Wolffian (male) structures cannot develop correctly. (But the Müllerian structures do atrophy correctly.)

If this person did not have the mutation in the gene controlling their response to androgens, they would have developed following the normal male pathway (i.e., developed testes, produced sperm, etc.). This is because their cells contain the genetic instructions necessary to induce male sexual development. In fact, they only have the potential capacity to develop sperm, because the presence of the Y chromosome (in the gonadal tissue) prevents the development of ovaries/eggs. As such, we can conclude that this person is biologically male. In fact, this mutation only disrupts sexual development in people who are male; a female person with this same mutation would follow a normal female development trajectory (i.e., have no DSD).

However, you are correct that throughout history, these individuals would have been believed to be (infertile) women. Even today, these individuals may not be identified until puberty (when menstruation does not occur) or at all (in areas without modern medical resources). I fully agree that these people are (and should be) treated as women in almost every area of life. (One area where they should not be is their medical care, as ignoring their biological sex and DSD can cause them harm.) I discuss this in another post, which may help clarify this topic further; my conclusion was essentially “if someone would be recognized and treated like a woman prior to the advent of modern medical technology, they should be considered a woman now.”

I also recently added on to an additional post that may help. In it, I discuss how the “assigned female/male at birth” terminology is specifically for situations in which a person’s sex is not correctly identified. In other words, a biologically female person who was correctly identified as female based on her primary sex characteristics is not “afab,” she is just female. On the other hand, a biologically male person with female-typical primary sex characteristics at birth would be “afab.” She is not biologically female, but she should still be (and usually is) considered a woman.

I hope this is all clear?

References under the cut: