The deleterious impact of that approach on female people - “ birthing bodies”, according to one female health charity - is profound. When transgender activists chant “transwomen are women”, they are in effect demanding that gender identity replaces biological sex when we demarcate men and women.
But no, sexual signalling does not supplant biological sex. Yes, it is an innate quality that is hard-wired into us: it is not something that we can choose, and it can lead to transsexualism if we are driven to signal in the way typical of the other sex rather than our own. So isn’t sexual signalling just gender identity by another name? Yes and no. Just as people with an atypical sexual orientation can be labelled as gay, those driven to atypical sexual signalling can be labelled as trans. Suggested reading Don't blame testosterone for male violence Neither can be disconnected from sex and the biological impetus to reproduce. Sexual attraction involves two vectors: sexual orientation is the sex we are attracted to, and sexual signalling is how we make ourselves attractive. While gender is a poorly defined term and rooted in culture, sex is the reason our species is here. When we hear “a real man”, we don’t picture an authentic producer of small gametes we think of a man with sexually attractive, testosterone-driven male qualities: strong and tough, and probably not wearing a dress.Īnd so sexual signalling is more than mere gender expression. Even the words man and woman evoke their sexual signals. But it is also overt and pervasive, extending far beyond clothes and makeup. Like sexual orientation, sexual signalling applies differently to the two sexes. She tells me, however, that unlike other species, “what particular signals we use are heavily dependent on culture”. In her book, Testosterone: The Story of the Hormone that Dominates and Divides Us, Carole Hooven - currently the Co-Director of Undergraduate Studies in Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard - builds a persuasive case that testosterone in utero affects the psychology as well as the physiology of the developing embryo. Peacocks not only possess distinctive plumage, they show it off. No doubt some of this will be socially conditioned, but that cannot explain our observations of other species. But to attract partners, men and women also signal sexually in grooming, dress and presentation, and they tend to do it differently.
According to the Office of National Statistics, 93.4% of men are attracted to women, while 93.9% of women are attracted to men. The most obvious difference is sexual orientation. Male and female psychologies are not the same. But can this be explained by differences in psychology, rather than a mysterious force? So why am I also transsexual? What could have caused psychological distress so severe that I felt I had no choice but to transition? At the time - nine years ago - the urge to change not only my social presentation but also my body was irresistible. Having fathered three children in the usual way, there can be no doubt which gametes I produced. But the crucial difference - which defines male and female in any species - is the production, or potential for production, of one of two gametes: ova in females and sperm in males.
In humans, adult males tend to be taller, while females tend to have wider hips. Since the whole debate rests on the distinction between men and women, it makes sense to consider the differences between them. Suggested reading Why did Sadiq Khan's office fire me?
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