• CADmonkey@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Human embryos (and probably others) start out female, and grow the male parts a fee weeks later. There is probably someone lurking who can give better details but that’s the gist of it. Thats why men have nipples.

      • LillyPip@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        You pretty much nailed it.

        Also, it gets much more complicated than that; at least 2% of humans are intersex, meaning they’re a mix of male and female, everywhere from outward presentation (rare) to chromosomal (more common).

        It’s not just gender that’s a spectrum: sex is, too. I said ‘at least’ because it’s possible for people to go their whole lives without realising they’re intersex. 2% is huge: if you know 100 people, statistically 2 of them are intersex. Most of us know more than that.

        The ‘only two genders’ thing is biologically bullshit. Biology is never cut and dried.

        eta: for reference, I have a disorder that’s been in the spotlight lately – Ehlers-Danlos – and you’ve probably at least heard of it. You’ve likely talked to someone who has it recently. It occurs in 1 in 20,000 people. Again, roughly 1 in 50 have intersex traits. I wish this had the visibility it deserves. It’s exceedingly normal.

      • meowMix2525@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Yeah the Y chromosome doesn’t kick in until later in fetal development.

        There’s actually a surprisingly small amount of biological information stored on the Y chromosome, IIRC the vast majority lies on the X.

        • Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          There’s only around 700 genes in the Y chromosome, with only about 70 actually making proteins. Compare the X chromosome with about 800 protein-coding genes and 20-25,000 total genes.

      • douz0a0bouz@midwest.social
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        1 year ago

        About the nipples. You’re right in that we all get them by default. As I understand it the only reason males keep them is because evolutionarily it would take more energy to remove them than keep them. Basically we’re all slackers at the genetic level.

    • Jimbob0i0@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The He-Man series back in the 80s always ended with little moral quips, so this is mimicking that.

      The fact is that all fetuses start off assuming female, and then the presence of certain chromosomes trigger male anatomy.

      Hence all males being trans if life starts at conception, as at X week development shifts to generate the male oriented organs.

      At least that’s my understanding of this meme…

      • Strawberry@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        1 year ago

        presence of certain chromosomes

        well, the presence of certain hormones that are usually regulated by some genes on certain chromosomes

        • WalrusDragonOnABike@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          And the reception of those hormones, which may not exist or may not be functional for some people.

          Turns out making beings out of trillions of cells of 100s of types (all of which have basically the same 3 or 6 billion base pair genome, yet have to act very differently) is complicated and any process has many steps, which involve various genes, receptors, signals, etc, all of which could be interrupted.

    • thepianistfroggollum@lemmynsfw.com
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      1 year ago

      Embryos develop proto female genitalia that turns into male genitalia (or further develops into female genitalia). Iirc the seam on your testicles is where the opening closed.

    • instamat@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      During early development the gonads of the fetus remain undifferentiated; that is, all fetal genitalia are the same and are phenotypically female.

      sauce

        • alvvayson@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Wrong mate. Check out Swyer syndrome.

          XY vs XX chromosome is meaningless, since XY females occur in nature.

          We all start as female and testosterone turns half of us into men.

          Edit: I also just learned that XX men exist. It’s called De La Chapelle syndrome. TIL.

        • LostWon@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          It’s not just X and Y chromosomes that determine sex though, from what I’ve heard (from actual biologists). I don’t know the specifics though. I wish we could have up-to-date biology facts like this taught with the basics in grade schools, but I can only imagine the uproar while hostile parents are still going to court over effing gender pronouns.

            • MyFairJulia@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              I won’t have you teach my kids about this degenerate matter!

              You mean LGBTQIA+ people?

              No, degenerate matter! Unless you bring me a glass of, say, electron-degenerate matter, i won’t even entertain these made up states of matter! And shove your Bose-Einstein condensate where the light can’t exit the event horizon!

        • ristoril_zip@lemmy.zip
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          1 year ago

          Incorrect. Without intervention by hormone signals, literally every human fetus would develop as a “female” with all the traditional female sex organs and morphology. I believe they’d even be capable of generating eggs and carrying babies, but I’m not as confident on that.

          A lot of people think that the XX or XY is determinative or definitional, but it’s always the hormones, baby.

          • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            No, hormones are necessary for female reproduction. Read about Turner’s Syndrome (one X chromosome).

            • uid0gid0@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Also androgen insensitivity syndrome, when cells lack testosterone receptors. The complete version results in females with no uterus.

    • Turducken
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      1 year ago

      Basically, testosterone is one hell of a drug.

      • LostWon@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        Only if you’re trying to say they didn’t have a gender identity yet as fetuses. That’s why it’s a meme and obviously a joke. Otherwise it makes an interesting point about how silly it is for cis people to base gender on body parts.

        correction: 8 days later, I am editing to state I have since learned biological sex is actually undifferentiated in the first weeks of a pregnancy. This is NOT the same as being intersex, but I think an intersex individual would probably have the best perspective to weigh in on whether the joke in the meme still makes sense, due to overlap in the issues it raises. To my knowledge, I am not intersex, so I’ll shut up now.

        • Cockmaster6000@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          Cis and trans are mutually exclusive

          Edit: why am I getting piled on for this? Cis and trans are literally defined as opposites.

          • Syrc@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Yes, but since every male person at birth was actually “a female” at conception, that means people who are fine growing up in a male body are actually trans and the ones who want reassignment are just trying to “change back” and are therefore cis (according to the logic in this meme).

          • Lmaydev@programming.dev
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            1 year ago

            Because you’ve missed the joke.

            IF life begins at conception every one is biologically female because male organs grow much later.

            Therefore anyone who is biologically male (by real life standards) and identifies as male is trans because they are actually biologically female IF life begins at conception.

      • WalrusDragonOnABike@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Trans is about how your gender identity relates to their assigned gender. If life begins at conception and you assigned gender at that point, everyone should be assigned female. Anyone who identifies as a man would have a gender that doesn’t match their assigned gender and therefore would be trans.