conix, The myth that gender is binary is perpetuated by a flawed education system
By Jeremy Colangelo June 21, 2017
High schools all teach the same narrative in sex-ed: Chromosomes determine genitals, which determine sex, which determines gender. Women are XX, and men are XY. One has a penis, the other a vagina. It’s science. Right?
But what about people born with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), a disorder of sexual development (DSD) in which a person with two X chromosomes is born with a functioning penis? What if you have androgen insensitivity syndrome, where despite having a Y chromosome, your cells’ unresponsiveness to testosterone gives you a “female” body? What if you have Kenefelter syndrome, which is when you’re born with two X chromosomes and one Y chromosome? Or what if you’re among the 1 in 4,500 people born with “ambiguous genitalia,” many of whom are surgically altered while still infants to fit into the binary two-sex model?
The science is clear: Sex is not binary after all. And schools can bring about a true cultural shift if they begin teaching that fact to our youngest generations.
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