Intersex people are born with sex characteristics (such as sexual anatomy, reproductive organs, hormonal patterns and/or chromosomal patterns) that do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies. Experts estimate that up to 1.7 percent of the population are born with intersex traits.
In the US, in 2023, there were about 3.6 million births. That means that ~800 babies were born this way that year. There’s probably 50,000 people in the US right now who were born with atypical genitalia.
I get you point, but biological sex is either male, female, or a combination of male and female. I see your perspective that there are three options. But something like testicle vs ovaries is binary, with the option to have both, or none I guess.
You just listed four options, but still argue that’s a ‘binary’. Every time you look closer, you’re going to find another outlier to categorize. Eventually, it starts to make more sense to look at it as a spectrum instead of a rigid set of ‘either A or B or AB or {NULL} or …’
See, I think you may just need a dictionary. Binary means there is one or the other, there is no “both or neither” option. If you have more than a forced “either/or” choice, then by definition it’s not binary.
True, false, and neither isn’t binary by any definition you’ll find in any dictionary.
So, no, definitionally that is not binary. Can’t have four options in a binary.
What you’re describing is actually a bimodal distribution. This is when the data congregates strongly around two peaks, but there are also many entries along a spectrum between them
https://www.ohchr.org/en/sexual-orientation-and-gender-identity/intersex-people
Biology is absolutely not binary.
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And 1 in 4500 births have atypical genitalia.
In the US, in 2023, there were about 3.6 million births. That means that ~800 babies were born this way that year. There’s probably 50,000 people in the US right now who were born with atypical genitalia.
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I get you point, but biological sex is either male, female, or a combination of male and female. I see your perspective that there are three options. But something like testicle vs ovaries is binary, with the option to have both, or none I guess.
Is it the primary sex organs that determines sex? Or is it hormone levels? Or is it chromosomes?
Each of these are non binary and have outliers and exceptions. All three together play a role in determining what we think of as being sex.
It’s not binary, unless your looking at it with a grade school level understanding of biology.
You’re so close.
You just listed four options, but still argue that’s a ‘binary’. Every time you look closer, you’re going to find another outlier to categorize. Eventually, it starts to make more sense to look at it as a spectrum instead of a rigid set of ‘either A or B or AB or {NULL} or …’
See, I think you may just need a dictionary. Binary means there is one or the other, there is no “both or neither” option. If you have more than a forced “either/or” choice, then by definition it’s not binary.
True, false, and neither isn’t binary by any definition you’ll find in any dictionary.
So, no, definitionally that is not binary. Can’t have four options in a binary.
What you’re describing is actually a bimodal distribution. This is when the data congregates strongly around two peaks, but there are also many entries along a spectrum between them