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Sunday, September 26, 2010

The Biology of Who We Are

Last Tuesday, Dr. Morbius posted an entry with link to an article in the Daily Kos by Rei that was a kind of FAQ about trans and some intersex issues. Rei has followed that post with a fascinating article called Beyond Male and Female: The Biology of Who We Are. The post is about how almost all sex-related organs have a cross-sex equivalent. It shows what happens during differentiation (in the womb), how it relates to transsexual women and men, and how often anomalies in these organs occur naturally.

I still take all assertions about the etiology of transsexualism with a healthy dose of skepticism, but the rest of this article is really interesting, as well as very straightforward and not at all sensationalist.

Thanks to Penelope of Penny's Story, who brought he link to my attention. And thanks to Zoe of A.E. Brain whose link Penny shared.

2 comments:

  1. I really like this post. It is really nice to see a scientifically based description of what it means to be "trans". Now what may surprise many of you is my use of the term "trans". I do this to avoid all the semantic acrimony over the distinctions of the pertinent NOUNS attached to this descriptive PREFIX.

    In other words what this post focuses on is NOT "trans-this" or "trans-that", rather the nuts and bolts of the actual biology.

    I also think that the following link might provide some insight into the etiology of the anomolous biologies...

    http://www.antijen.org/transadvocate/id31.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. Again, a wonderful article from Rei. Thanks for alerting me to this one, Veronica.

    ReplyDelete

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