Most individuals in society perceive sex as being binary. It can either be a 1 or 0, in this case, one can be either a man or a woman. However, one does not need to look too far to see that this is not the case. This is because of the existence of the transgender which again is not a single entity as different transgender people come with different characteristics (Ainsworth, 2015) . This factor among many others has led to the development of sexual differentiation which is a process that involves developing differences between females and males in the zygote stage when it is still undifferentiated. Development after the zygote stage is what yields the differences in sex and gender. As one grows from the fetus stage into being an infant, a child, an adolescent, and ultimately an adult, they tend to lean more towards one sex category. This means at the zygote stage, there could be small unknown characteristics that eventually determine the sex that one will eventually fall under.
There are a lot of differences in sex including physiological differences. There are sex-dichotomous which show differences that are sex-specific and these include sex-specific organs such as the uterus, penis, ovaries, and scrotum. On the other hand, there are sex-dimorphic differences between different sexes such as the size of the phallus. Sex-dimorphic differences differ in degree. Some of these differences tend to overlap between female and male populations are they are mainly statistical.
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Biologists suggest that sex-dichotomous differences are caused by the fact that females only have the X chromosome while males have a Y chromosome aside from the X. However, the fact that individuals that are transgender, such as males with a uterus or ladies with huge amounts of testosterone that makes them grow facial hair dismisses the sex-dichotomous difference.
With respect to this, psychologist John Money comes up with the theory that there is a many-fold distinction between external genital sex, chromosomal sex, pubertal hormonal sex, and others. This is to say that each of them is unique and they do not necessarily align with each other (Oakley, 2016) . This theory caters for the existence of the transgender sex. For example, on can have the XY chromosome and be considered a male as per chromosomal sex, but can have the external genitals of a female and is hence considered female as per external genital sex.
From this discussion, it is eminent that the original categories of male and female defined by their genitals composition which was fully dependent on one’s chromosomal composition have been disposed of. New categories such as genitally-female and chromosomally-male have emerged. The main question, however, was whether sex is binary and not whether chromosomal sex is binary (Elizabeth, 2013) . Until now, we have been able to agree that chromosomal sex is indeed binary. This means that one can either be XX – which is chromosomally female – or XY – which makes them chromosomally male.
The answer as to whether sex is binary may have been in existence ever since the 19 th century. Simon de Beauvoir explains that sexes are determined by the gametes that one produces. Females tend to produce large gametes whereas males produce small gametes. Scientific research proves that there is on single species that contains an intermediately sized gamete. This way, Beauvoir concludes that there can only be two sexes based on the size of the gametes they produce. Looking into males and females across kingdoms Animalia and Plantae, it is evident that there can be no other sex apart from the two main ones. The fact that human females have chromosomes XX has no stand since it is only limited to human chromosomal variation. Females in other species such as birds have different sex chromosomes. Reptiles, for example, have no sex chromosomes. This makes the XX/XY chromosomal system to determine sex only relevant to placental mammals such as human beings. To achieve the same result, other species such as the few ones named above used different means. However, one constant thing that we human beings can rely on to determine the sex of say a reptile can be the size of the gamete produced by a reptile organism.
The ideas presented by Beauvoir present a reasonable basis on which humans can lay their foundations for correctly determining one’s sex. This way, sex would be binary the way the society perceives it to be. However, another complication arises if this is to be solely used as the method to determine one’s sex. There are individuals who, for different reasons, cannot produce gametes. There are chromosomally men individuals that cannot produce sperms whereas there are chromosomally female individuals that fail to produce ova during their entire life cycles. Aside from this, women stop producing their gametes after menopause. Does this mean that they will cease being female based on the theory presented by Beauvoir?
From the psychology issues presented above, it is clear that the debate on whether sex is indeed binary is mindboggling. Different people have presented different ideas on how to precisely determine one’s sex but they all seem to have their own downside. From this, it seems that the only way to be able to precisely do so is by combining all these methods that have been suggested and try to integrate them into one. This way, there will be no one particular way of telling whether one is male or female.
References
Ainsworth, C. (2015). Sex redefined. Nature , 518 (7539), 288.
Elizabeth, A. (2013). Challenging the binary: Sexual identity that is not duality. Journal of Bisexuality , 13 (3), 329-337.
Oakley, A. (2016). Sex, gender and society . Routledge.
