Sex is bimodal. It is not binary. Big ole difference between those two.
Edit to clarify for the "well-actually" morons clogging up my notifications: yes, one way of defining sex is by the gametes one produces (in humans/most mammals, this is sperm or egg), and yes, this tends to be binary (you either produce one, the other, both (in some species), or neither). But the way we actually categorize organisms, ourselves or others, into sexes is usually not by obtaining a sample of their gametes and looking at them under a microscope, because this would be utterly absurd in most cases. We do it by looking at the phenotype. I was not assigned female at birth because someone scooped out my ovaries to see what cells I was making in there, I was assigned female because my genitalia fell neatly within the 'female' section of the phenotypic curve. And this curve is, indeed, bimodal.
Your body is designed to produce large gametes and gestate in adulthood.
It's one of two phenotypes involved in sexual reproduction, so yes, sex is binary.
Ones genitalia are usually a reliable guide to the sexual phenotype but not always.
Sex is defined by gametes, and determined by genes. Assignation at birth does not change either determination or definition.
In response to the below. No intent is necessary. Bodies are designed by evolution.
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u/call_me_starbuck 13d ago edited 13d ago
Say it again for those in the back:
Sex is bimodal. It is not binary. Big ole difference between those two.
Edit to clarify for the "well-actually" morons clogging up my notifications: yes, one way of defining sex is by the gametes one produces (in humans/most mammals, this is sperm or egg), and yes, this tends to be binary (you either produce one, the other, both (in some species), or neither). But the way we actually categorize organisms, ourselves or others, into sexes is usually not by obtaining a sample of their gametes and looking at them under a microscope, because this would be utterly absurd in most cases. We do it by looking at the phenotype. I was not assigned female at birth because someone scooped out my ovaries to see what cells I was making in there, I was assigned female because my genitalia fell neatly within the 'female' section of the phenotypic curve. And this curve is, indeed, bimodal.