The Distance

The Distance

Sex Denialists Are Worse Than Flat Earthers

We are in the real Dark Ages

Eva Kurilova's avatar
Eva Kurilova
Jul 14, 2023
∙ Paid
An 1893 flat Earth "map" by Orlando Ferguson

When trying to think of an example of an intellectually challenged position, many people default to the idea of a flat Earth. It’s hard to think of something else that so astoundingly flies in the face of very basic facts and what we know to be objectively true about the world. But I think the sex denialists are worse.

Like the various flat Earth cosmologies and conceptions, sex denialism takes many forms. Some people still obviously recognize the two sexes but muddy the meaning of words and play with language to try and obscure this reality. For example, they seek to replace the words “male” and “female” with the clunky phrases “assigned male/female at birth.” Others either wilfully or ignorantly misrepresent variations within the sexes to argue that there are more than two or that sex is on some kind of continuum or “spectrum.” For example, they will invoke Turner syndrome, a condition that by definition only affects females, as proof of th…

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