Should we ditch the word “gender”?

I’ve written sentences like this many times: “While biological sex is a binary, gender in humans forms more of a spectrum.” But I was never really sure what “gender” meant. I know that it’s generally synonymous with “sex”, but that is clearly not what I meant when I spoke as I did above. What did […]

Should we ditch the word “gender”?

RICHARD PREBBLE: Letter of resignation from the Waitangi Tribunal

Hon Tama Potaka Minister of Maori Development 28 February 2025 Dear Minister, After careful consideration I must resign as a Member of the Waitangi Tribunal. The treaty is not just our founding document, it makes New Zealand unique. Two peoples peacefully agreeing to form a nation. Over the summer I have been reading Tribunal reports […]

RICHARD PREBBLE: Letter of resignation from the Waitangi Tribunal

Alex Byrne on sex, the history of its definition, and assorted misconceptions

I guess the number of papers and articles people send me about the definition of sex is one sign that it remains an important issue for the populace.  Indeed, I think that in future decades people will see the kerfuffle about a simple and widely accepted definition (the gametic one) as a tempest in a […]

Alex Byrne on sex, the history of its definition, and assorted misconceptions

Upcoming talk and new book on ideology and science

I have two announcements this morning: a.) First, next Monday, Mar 3 at 12:30 Chicago time (1:30 Eastern time), I am having a 1-1½-hour discussion with DIAGdemocrats  (“DIAG” stands for Democrats with an Informed Approach to Gender. And their slogan is “Liberals guiding our party back to reason and reality.” It’s tailor made for me!) […]

Upcoming talk and new book on ideology and science

Mandated Board Diversity Reduces Firm Value

Jon Klick finds that when courts in CA surprisingly invalidated a set of DEI laws, the market value of firms subject to those laws increased: California mandated that firms headquartered in the state include women (SB 826) and underrepresented minorities (AB 979) on their corporate boards. These laws, passed in 2018 and 2020 respectively, were […]

Mandated Board Diversity Reduces Firm Value

Bill Maher vs. Jon Lovett on trans rights

Jon Lovett is identified by Wikipedia as . . . .  an American podcaster, comedian, journalist, and former speechwriter. Lovett is a co-founder of Crooked Media, along with Jon Favreau and Tommy Vietor. All three formerly worked together as White House staffers during the Obama administration. Lovett is a regular host of the Crooked Media podcasts Pod Save America and Lovett or Leave It. […]

Bill Maher vs. Jon Lovett on trans rights

More tacit recognition of two sexes in humans

This article was mentioned in a comment by reader Ted Gold, but I thought I would highlight it just to show that when the rubber meets the road, people recognize that, yes, there are just two sexes. This is from the NYT on Feb. 25th. Click headline to read, or find the article archived here. […]

More tacit recognition of two sexes in humans

Gender gap

https://www.facebook.com/share/12FkDZFXvYc/

The fundamental fallacy of the “sex spectrum”

While thinking about about objections to the sex binary—usually discussed in humans but sometimes in other species—they all seem to come down to a single assertion: “Sex is complicated in both development and expression, involving chromosomes, behavior, hormones, genitals and even psychology.  Therefore there are more than two sexes.” One example of this is from […]

The fundamental fallacy of the “sex spectrum”

Richard Dawkins on the “tri-societies” fracas on sex (and a call for signatures)

And so we come to the last sex post of the day—about a new piece by Richard Dawkins on his Substack site, The Poetry of Reality. Richard points to what he sees as arrant hypocrisy in the statement on biological sex by the Presidents of the SSN, ASN, and SSB.  As I mentioned in my […]

Richard Dawkins on the “tri-societies” fracas on sex (and a call for signatures)

The U.S. government’s new definition of sex

There will be a few posts on the definition of sex today, as everything “dropped”—as the kids say—at the same time. First, on January 20, the Trump administration issued an executive order, “Defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government”—an attempt to efface gender ideology from the government and […]

The U.S. government’s new definition of sex

Our letter to the three societies on the definition of sex—with signers

Six days ago I posted a group letter to the Presidents of three ecology/evolution/systematics societies who had issued a joint statement that many of us found deeply misguided. As I wrote at the time: The Presidents of three organismal-biology societies, the Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE), the American Society of Naturalists (ASN) and […]

Our letter to the three societies on the definition of sex—with signers

RODNEY HIDE: Schooling Through a Te Ao Maori Lens

Last week my 13-year-old at Wakatipu High studied in English “An introduction to culture and identity in literature”. The class guide was as follows: Below are some links to helpful clips that may be useful for understanding ‘The Why’ when it comes to teaching and learning about all things culture and identity through a Te…

RODNEY HIDE: Schooling Through a Te Ao Maori Lens

Apparent independent and multiple evolution of binary sex

My friend Phil Ward at UC Davis found this reference and called it to my attention. It’s from the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (B), and access is free (click on title below).  The pdf with the numbered references is here. The paper is about how the evolution of two different types of gametes […]

Apparent independent and multiple evolution of binary sex

A group letter to the presidents of three evolution/ecology societies objecting to their characterization of sex as a spectrum in humans and all other species

As I reported recently, the Presidents of three organismal-biology societies, the Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE), the American Society of Naturalists (ASN) and the Society of Systematic Biologists (SSB) sent a declaration addressed to President Trump and all the members of Congress. Implicitly claiming that its sentiments were endorsed by the 3500 members […]

A group letter to the presidents of three evolution/ecology societies objecting to their characterization of sex as a spectrum in humans and all other species

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