The willful obtuseness needed to hear "sex is a social construct" and think people mean "I don't believe chromosomes exist" and not "our attempts to define a 'sex' that can function as way to organize humanity into two distinct halves with differing social roles is, obviously, a cultural artifact and a problematic one at that"
reshared this
lynn / clarissa
in reply to lynn / clarissa • • •okay here's an example of how sex is a social construct:
testosterone isn't the Horny Hormone
that's entirely a myth, a just-so story that fits our current patriarchal narrative of sexuality (i.e. "men want it, women gatekeep it") which wasn't even the same narrative a couple hundred years ago when women were considered prone to passion and lust
it's true that your T being too low can affect libido but that's also true of estrogen and is true for everyone
every story we try to tell about what biological sex is and means will recapitulate our gendered understanding of cis people
T. T. Perry reshared this.
lynn / clarissa
in reply to lynn / clarissa • • •Content warning: more blunt talk about bodies and sexual function
it was only a few years ago that I learned that cis men having too low of estrogen causes erectile dysfunction because the dick has hella estrogen receptors in it
which is why there's a pretty common trans woman experience of "uhhh why am I still getting so hard after I cut my T down to cis woman levels?" even though doctors often tell you that taking estrogen will stop erections
Hazelnoot
in reply to lynn / clarissa • • •Content warning: RE: more blunt talk about bodies and sexual function
@left_adjoint@tilde.zone wait *that's* why? I honestly thought it was just lucky genetics or something.
lynn / clarissa
in reply to Hazelnoot • • •Content warning: RE: more blunt talk about bodies and sexual function
Philippa Cowderoy
in reply to lynn / clarissa • • •Content warning: RE: more blunt talk about bodies and sexual function
@hazelnoot There's another relevant hormone that you end up without after an orchi and of course I can't remember what it is because the NHS's idea of informed consent certainly doesn't include putting things like that in writing. Can confirm that a) it's very much relevant and b) its absence doesn't so much remove sex as a thing, more change what and how you react.
Which, totally worth not having to deal with all the literal ballache any more in my case.
Hazelnoot
in reply to Philippa Cowderoy • • •Content warning: RE: more blunt talk about bodies and sexual function