Sex
Sex – in a traditional biological definition, a set of anatomical and physiological characteristics of an organism that ensure the reproduction of offspring and make it possible to distinguish, in most organisms, male and female individuals, as well as one of the two categories of living beings – men and women, males and females – differentiated by these characteristics. The criterion for such classification may be the genitals at birth or the chromosomal type before birth.
The concept of sex is complex and is not limited only to the biological capacity to reproduce subsequent generations. The World Health Organization notes the importance of recognizing the existence of people who do not fit into the binary system of male and female sex categories. An emphasis on reproductive processes makes mixed and transitional sex forms invisible.
The well-known American feminist and professor of biology Anne Fausto-Sterling, in her article “The Five Sexes: Why Male and Female Are Not Enough,” argues that, from a biological point of view, there are many gradations from female to male. Depending on which complex of sex characteristics predominates, she suggests speaking of at least five sexes, namely:
- People with female genitalia – women;
- People with male genitalia – men;
- People with mixed genitalia – hermaphrodites, or herms;
- People with predominantly female genitalia, but with male elements – feminine pseudohermaphrodites, or ferms;
- People with predominantly male genitalia, but with female elements – masculine pseudohermaphrodites, or merms.
These terms are retained here in the historical context of Fausto-Sterling’s 1993 article. In contemporary scholarship and public discourse, the language of intersex traits or intersex variations is generally preferred, since terms such as “hermaphrodite” and “pseudohermaphrodite” are now regarded as outdated and potentially stigmatizing.
In addition, Fausto-Sterling notes that sex is a vast and extremely flexible continuum that cannot be rigidly limited even to these five categories (Fausto-Sterling, 1993, pp. 20–24; Males, 2004, pp. 114–115).
It follows that sex is not an antonymic pair or a dichotomy. Rather, according to Judith Lorber, it is a continuum composed of chromosomal sex, gonadal sex, and hormonal sex, which function under the conditions and influence of different environments (Males, 2004, pp. 114–115).
References:
World Health Organization. (n.d.). Gender. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/gender-equity-rights/understanding/gender-definition/en/
Fausto-Sterling, A. (1993). The five sexes: Why male and female are not enough. The Sciences, 20–24.
Males, L. V. (2004). Biolohichni, psykholohichni ta sotsiokulturni chynnyky [Biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors]. In Osnovy teorii genderu: Navchalnyi posibnyk [Foundations of gender theory: A textbook] (pp. 109–131). Kyiv: K.I.S. [in Ukrainian].
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