Originally, I mostly defined sex as chromosomal. I knew all the differences between typical males and typical females, but I did not know just how much of it could vary between individuals. Now, I see that it is not so easy. Sex is so intricate and there are so many possibilities outside what our society typically accepts. Now, I would say sex is determined by a variety of characteristics, including chromosomes, gonads, primary and secondary sex characteristics, and your hormone levels and response. All these things influence your sex. It is certainly not as binary as many people believe it to be.
Something that I have learned so far that I had never known about was all the differences in sex development. I had known of the chromosomal differences like 45 X0 and 47 XXY based on what they mean in genetics terms, but I had never learned of androgen insensitivity or congenital adrenal hyperplasia. Learning how these can almost ignore the chromosomes entirely and work in their own pathway to determine sex was fascinating. I had originally thought that chromosomes were the main driver in sex determination, but now I see all the different ways they can be overridden.
I feel as though I have a newfound respect for what individuals who are intersex go through. Many of them have a hard time with their identity: even people with typical sex have identity crises but imagining what someone who doesn’t have a clean label for what they are like must go through mentally, it must be really difficult. I certainly can never go back to seeing sex as simple. I feel confident that I could now have a strong conversation/debate about sex differences and be able to back my points up with all that I have learned so far.
