How about we clear up the popular misconception that gender is a binary. It is not. It is a spectrum, with extremes of masculinity and femininity at both ends and various blends of each in between.
As for biological sex, a study on the incidence of congenital anomalies in newborns found only 2 “ambiguous” sex births (not clearly male or female) out of 4,454. That’s a percentage of 0.04490345. Thus, for all practical purposes, we can safely say that sex is a binary, not a spectrum, whereas gender can easily be recognized as a spectrum. Also, while sex is biologically determined, gender results from a mix of both biology and cultural, societal conditioning, or constructs. In any case, how about not conflating gender with biological sex?
The problem is, our culture presents gender as a binary. When gender becomes conflated with sex as a binary, where an either-or, male/female imperative rules thinking (“You’re either male or female gender”), and masculinity and femininity must align with biological sex identity, then we’re going to see confusion and dysphoria in sensitive, vulnerable people.
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