You explain this very well. Your calm, educated review of the subject will be accepted by most, but those with a misinformed view will persist in bad science. That said, our kindness to one another will strengthen our connections to each other, and respect for all by all should always be our goal. You have done that in your writing by stressing the science.
In my opinion, the expression of gender traits is very complex and could be compared to a sliding scale. We are what we are because of genetics, environment, or chemical makeup. Our challenge is to love and accept the other, not because we are forced to but because of our basic humanness—just love.
I couldn’t agree more, Joel, with your take on this, and appreciate your comment. As for expression of gender traits I have a very thorough mix of masculine and feminine and two of my offspring the same. Love is key here. I believe we *are* love at the core, and loving each other as equally valuable but unique individuals is the direction to head for.
My daughter and I had this conversation, but as I never was a geneticist, I didn’t have the ability to explain why I thought she was wrong. I know enough to understand X and Y and what makes a baby male or female. And then I saw funny memes of it being used to make fun of Trump. I think especially women are fairly scared of the things/laws Trump might create around women. He has threatened all sorts which look like undoing all the good women’s movements over the last hundred years or so have done. But truth is truth and that’s always the side I want to be on. So I will put my daughter right - in a non confrontational way :)
One day I aim to have a garden large enough for a goat or three ;)
It’s totally reasonable that women in particular are scared of what Trump might do in office. It was bad enough, before he was elected, seeing Roe v Wade overturned. And this week, the deletion of women’s health data.
But not being swept into irrationality by misinformation, and preserving a foundation of truth, and is part of the antidote to the madness.
I saw people making that claim and thought “that doesn’t sound right” from the very little I know about genetics. But I wasn’t sure. Thanks for clearing this up and explaining it in a way that the scientifically challenged, like me, can understand.
Have you been exposed to the falsehood “we all start female”? YES
If the answer to 1 is YES, did you believe it? TOTES
If the answer to 2 is YES, have I managed to persuade you otherwise? ALSO TOTES
What’s your favourite biscuit? BISCOFF
What’s your longest-ever headache? Very rarely get them, thank the baby jebus
What’s the best wake you attended? I think it's going to be mine
What’s an untrue thing that people say that really gets your goat? My keyboard will break before I get through with this, so let's just not start.
Should we all start keeping our goats in the backyard where people can’t get them? Definitely. And the donkeys. And the dinkeys, which is surely what miniature donkeys are called.
6. The quote "you are braver than you believe and smarter than you think" phrase being written by A A Milne. Milne would never have used the word "smart" to mean "clever". The quotation comes from a Winnie the Pooh Disney film. But even renowned academic and children's author Katherine Rundell misattributed it in her recent book on children's literature.
7. Yes. My husband regularly asks me if we can get goats to mow the lawn. I tell him they'd eat all the flowers and figs in the garden, and our washing off the line. We do not have goats.
I may have missed out a question.
Thank you for your firm but gentle and considered pushback against fake news. Could you next write an article showing that hundreds of air traffic controllers were not fired last week in the US, as I have had to Snopes it up several times in conversation this weekend?
Ah yes, missed out the best wake. It was my lovely dad's in 2019. He'd left instructions for it to be held in his local pub in Loughborough. I found things out from family, friends and work colleagues of his that I never knew before about my dad, all lovely things luckily, and it felt like a fitting closure to the gentle life of a gentleman. In his will, he'd left £500 for food and drink. We had an open bar, and when we went to settle up at the end, the final bill came to £499.50. My brother and I knew he would have been chuckling at that.
6. - that is a definite irritation! 7. You are correct about goats. If your husband wants a living lawnmower, a sheep is what he wants. Or more sensibly, rabbits, in a movable run.
They weren’t fired, but they did all get an email on Wednesday titled ‘A Fork In the Road’ asking them to consider taking voluntary redundancy, according to an air traffic controller in the Washington Post.
I’ve had this experience just so many times. Sometimes I wish I was a dentist or something. No one has strong opinions on oral hygiene that go around the world and get repeated in public arguments over and over again (aside from fluoride! Sigh).
But when you happen to have knowledge of some area that comes up in public discourse, you can see when someone is simply repeating a fake fact. And I’ve learned that apparently NO ONE likes correction of their preferred fake fact. So you just watch this fake fact circulate social media and the news and whatever else and you think what on earth is wrong with people and why is everyone latching on to this???
It is the strangest thing. The internet has worried me by its capacity to convince people to believe fake things en masse. It’s disturbing.
I did see the “we all start female” claim and I knew it was factually incorrect because I read a book on female sexual health not long ago that explained the development of a fetus and detailed how female and male sex organs form. Very interesting.
Thanks, Liya. Yes, the power of the internet to spread fake facts is profound! Who has the time or the specialist knowledge to fact check, is part of the problem. And the the fake fact becomes so widely accepted as truth that debunking, even by people with the specialised knowledge, is drowned out by weight of numbers.
Yes I was exposed to this misinformation and yes I've spread it ...now I know better, thank you for taking the time to write this! I'll be sharing it with others I know who also believed this.
Thank you, Kimberly! I really appreciate that. It’s good to know that it was clear and useful. It took me hours on trains over the last three days trying to get the tone and clarity that might make a difference.
2a - in Genesis, the Bible says “God *created* them, Male and Female, He *created* them” - it DOESN’T say, “He created them - Meh 🤷♂️ - We’ll Wait Awhile, Leave it to Chance and just See how they turn out!”
2b - It’s not scientifically sound, as you explained so well, above 👆🏼!
I was horrified to discover that my kids got TAUGHT THIS AT SCHOOL!! I asked them about it because a friend mentioned her son had come home saying it's what he'd been told. Sure enough, it's what they were told as well. So if you're wondering how this has become such a rampant belief, that may well be a big part of it.
Thanks for explaining that so well, makes me think about my Centaur and Centauride characters. Horses have 64 chromosomes, so what would they have if half human, half horse?🤔
You explain this very well. Your calm, educated review of the subject will be accepted by most, but those with a misinformed view will persist in bad science. That said, our kindness to one another will strengthen our connections to each other, and respect for all by all should always be our goal. You have done that in your writing by stressing the science.
In my opinion, the expression of gender traits is very complex and could be compared to a sliding scale. We are what we are because of genetics, environment, or chemical makeup. Our challenge is to love and accept the other, not because we are forced to but because of our basic humanness—just love.
I couldn’t agree more, Joel, with your take on this, and appreciate your comment. As for expression of gender traits I have a very thorough mix of masculine and feminine and two of my offspring the same. Love is key here. I believe we *are* love at the core, and loving each other as equally valuable but unique individuals is the direction to head for.
My daughter and I had this conversation, but as I never was a geneticist, I didn’t have the ability to explain why I thought she was wrong. I know enough to understand X and Y and what makes a baby male or female. And then I saw funny memes of it being used to make fun of Trump. I think especially women are fairly scared of the things/laws Trump might create around women. He has threatened all sorts which look like undoing all the good women’s movements over the last hundred years or so have done. But truth is truth and that’s always the side I want to be on. So I will put my daughter right - in a non confrontational way :)
One day I aim to have a garden large enough for a goat or three ;)
That’s great, Bronwen. Happy to be of service.
It’s totally reasonable that women in particular are scared of what Trump might do in office. It was bad enough, before he was elected, seeing Roe v Wade overturned. And this week, the deletion of women’s health data.
But not being swept into irrationality by misinformation, and preserving a foundation of truth, and is part of the antidote to the madness.
It definitely is. Here’s to keeping a level head.
I saw people making that claim and thought “that doesn’t sound right” from the very little I know about genetics. But I wasn’t sure. Thanks for clearing this up and explaining it in a way that the scientifically challenged, like me, can understand.
Cheers, Chris! A bit of effort (especially finding a good 6-7 week embryo image that didn’t cost) but worth it, it seems.
Adam Hills apologised for saying this one in The Last Leg. It's been getting around. Sigh.
I didn’t see that. It’s scary how many intelligent people are taking it as factual.
Heard it, believed it, now mind changed.
Just came to say how much I loved reading that, beautifully and really clearly explained. I so, so enjoyed my mind changing!
Oooooh, forgot to answer:
Have you been exposed to the falsehood “we all start female”? YES
If the answer to 1 is YES, did you believe it? TOTES
If the answer to 2 is YES, have I managed to persuade you otherwise? ALSO TOTES
What’s your favourite biscuit? BISCOFF
What’s your longest-ever headache? Very rarely get them, thank the baby jebus
What’s the best wake you attended? I think it's going to be mine
What’s an untrue thing that people say that really gets your goat? My keyboard will break before I get through with this, so let's just not start.
Should we all start keeping our goats in the backyard where people can’t get them? Definitely. And the donkeys. And the dinkeys, which is surely what miniature donkeys are called.
Any biscuit exhibiting essential biscuitness is my favorite biscuit.
😂 Kevin, you sound like my husband.
we biscuiteers are a consistent bunch, wherever we are.
1. Yes
2. Yes
3. Yes
4. Gingernuts
5. 8 hours
6. The quote "you are braver than you believe and smarter than you think" phrase being written by A A Milne. Milne would never have used the word "smart" to mean "clever". The quotation comes from a Winnie the Pooh Disney film. But even renowned academic and children's author Katherine Rundell misattributed it in her recent book on children's literature.
7. Yes. My husband regularly asks me if we can get goats to mow the lawn. I tell him they'd eat all the flowers and figs in the garden, and our washing off the line. We do not have goats.
I may have missed out a question.
Thank you for your firm but gentle and considered pushback against fake news. Could you next write an article showing that hundreds of air traffic controllers were not fired last week in the US, as I have had to Snopes it up several times in conversation this weekend?
Ah yes, missed out the best wake. It was my lovely dad's in 2019. He'd left instructions for it to be held in his local pub in Loughborough. I found things out from family, friends and work colleagues of his that I never knew before about my dad, all lovely things luckily, and it felt like a fitting closure to the gentle life of a gentleman. In his will, he'd left £500 for food and drink. We had an open bar, and when we went to settle up at the end, the final bill came to £499.50. My brother and I knew he would have been chuckling at that.
Oh, that is a bit magical re the bar bill. That sounds wonderful.
6. - that is a definite irritation! 7. You are correct about goats. If your husband wants a living lawnmower, a sheep is what he wants. Or more sensibly, rabbits, in a movable run.
They weren’t fired, but they did all get an email on Wednesday titled ‘A Fork In the Road’ asking them to consider taking voluntary redundancy, according to an air traffic controller in the Washington Post.
I’ve had this experience just so many times. Sometimes I wish I was a dentist or something. No one has strong opinions on oral hygiene that go around the world and get repeated in public arguments over and over again (aside from fluoride! Sigh).
But when you happen to have knowledge of some area that comes up in public discourse, you can see when someone is simply repeating a fake fact. And I’ve learned that apparently NO ONE likes correction of their preferred fake fact. So you just watch this fake fact circulate social media and the news and whatever else and you think what on earth is wrong with people and why is everyone latching on to this???
It is the strangest thing. The internet has worried me by its capacity to convince people to believe fake things en masse. It’s disturbing.
I did see the “we all start female” claim and I knew it was factually incorrect because I read a book on female sexual health not long ago that explained the development of a fetus and detailed how female and male sex organs form. Very interesting.
Thanks, Liya. Yes, the power of the internet to spread fake facts is profound! Who has the time or the specialist knowledge to fact check, is part of the problem. And the the fake fact becomes so widely accepted as truth that debunking, even by people with the specialised knowledge, is drowned out by weight of numbers.
Yes I was exposed to this misinformation and yes I've spread it ...now I know better, thank you for taking the time to write this! I'll be sharing it with others I know who also believed this.
Thank you, Kimberly! I really appreciate that. It’s good to know that it was clear and useful. It took me hours on trains over the last three days trying to get the tone and clarity that might make a difference.
Thanks so much for this article Ros. So well explained. I am deeply moved. The clear water of truth, and kindness, is the most delicious thing.
Thanks for spelling it out so clearly, Ros.
Pleasure, Wendy.
No. 1 - YES;
No. 2 - NO;
2a - in Genesis, the Bible says “God *created* them, Male and Female, He *created* them” - it DOESN’T say, “He created them - Meh 🤷♂️ - We’ll Wait Awhile, Leave it to Chance and just See how they turn out!”
2b - It’s not scientifically sound, as you explained so well, above 👆🏼!
Depressing this article is needed, but great job.
Re. goats, they should definitely be kept in the backyard where they are out of harm's way.
Thanks, Fran. I rarely leave my goat out front, but sometimes it makes its way there without my permission.
That's goats for you, irresponsible!
3. THANK YOU 👏🏻
I was horrified to discover that my kids got TAUGHT THIS AT SCHOOL!! I asked them about it because a friend mentioned her son had come home saying it's what he'd been told. Sure enough, it's what they were told as well. So if you're wondering how this has become such a rampant belief, that may well be a big part of it.
Just… wow. That is *so* wrong. If kids can’t trust teachers to teach them facts, who can they trust?
Thanks for explaining that so well, makes me think about my Centaur and Centauride characters. Horses have 64 chromosomes, so what would they have if half human, half horse?🤔
23+32 = 55? But where do the unpaired 9 go? And could they actually pair at all? This is why inter-species breeding has to be with *close* relatives!