Biological sex takes on so many diverse patterns across species, but discussion of human sex often consists of an oversimplified and incomplete binary. Biologist Sam Sharpe discussed this issue in a five-minute INSPIRE talk at the Ecological Society of America annual meeting in 2020.
Sex isn’t binary, and we should stop acting like it is
This article by Liza Brusman is available in English and Spanish, text or read loud.
Video: The Origin of Gender
This video, from the PBS “Origin of Everything” series, discusses the origins of gender in humans. The concept of gender is distinguished from biological sex, and the homology of sex organs is briefly discussed as it played a role in developing the concept of gender in some societies. Most of the video is spent how ideas of gender have developed through history in multiple cultures. We noted a valuable and rarely made distinction : the video discusses how the concept of “man” has often been closely associated with race and class, not just with gender.
GLSEN Gender Triangle - Graphic and Education Guide
GLSEN and interACT developed the Gender Triangle as an educational tool to highlight the main components that revolve around gender identity—our bodies, how we use our bodies to express ourselves, and how the world around us reads our bodies based on the cultural and social codes of our time and place.
Gynandromorph Animals - BBC Earth article
This BBC Earth article explores the rare phenomenon of bilateral gynandromorphs, or animals which develop different physical sex characteristics on their left and right side. This occurs when a cycle of meiosis yields multiple viable eggs rather than one egg and three polar bodies to be discarded. When two eggs are fertilized by sperm, mosaicism can occur in the sex chromosomes.
When introducing students to the article, the teacher should be sure to note that overgeneralizing language is briefly used to describe humans (“In humans, men have an X and a Y chromosome, while women have two X chromosomes.”) However, the article can still have value in demonstrating the nonbinary nature of biological sex and the scientific processes by which evidence is gathered to support this.
A Reddit post shows a gynandromorph lobster found in the wild:
Gender and Sex – Transgender and Intersex (Book Chapter)
This UMass Amherst textbook chapter models the use of precise, modern, and non-pathologizing language for discussing transgender and intersex topics in the context on human biology. The textbook authors are Miliann Kang, Donovan Lessard, Laura Heston, and Sonny Nordmarken. The chapter is available through Openbooks under a Creative Commons Attribution license.
Queering High School Biology Textbooks
This article by Vicky L. Snyder and Francis S. Broadway uses queer theory to question assumptions embedded in high school biology textbooks. The authors identify "deafening silences" on some topics and "socially sanitized concepts". The authors suggest ways to science educators to broaden their perspectives.
Article uploaded with permission from Francis S. Broadway.