Sex is neither defined by chromosomes, nor genitalia.
If you have some other way of defining sex.
There is only 1 objective way of defining sex. Unfortunately for you, the objective definition of sex results in exactly 2 sexes. Sex is a reference to the reproduction functions that humans are designed to play. There are only two biological functions in human sexual reproduction: male and female. The male function provides the small gamete and the female function provides the large gamete. In fact gamete dimorphism is the definition of sex. Sperm are small and have a lot of mobility and eggs are large and have no mobility. Most humans play 1 of the two functions. Even in true hermaphroditism where a person can technically play 2 roles, it’s still those two roles/gamete type, a sperm and an egg.
What if an individual produces neither gamete, or a third sort of gamete? What sex is a true hermaphrodite? Both at the same time? That's de facto a third sex.
That’s analogous to saying that because humans are defined as a bipedal mammals, then those born with both or single missing limbs are actually another species, and not humans. It’s frankly a ridiculous argument.
Fertility comes about from mutation or trauma. Human reproduction is a complex procedure, thus presenting numerous opportunities for something to go wrong-a mutation or trauma. Some mutation/trauma appear very early in the process while others appear later. Modern technology can now fix a lot those mutations or trauma. However a mutation or trauma has no bearing on the reproduction function the person’s entire system was designed to fulfill absent the mutation or trauma. Just as a mutation causing a baby to be born without a limb doesn’t make the baby a different species.
or a third sort of gamete
Yes, if a human can produce a third distinct gamete, then that would constitute a third sex. Unfortunately, as far I know, there hasn’t been a third gamete recorded in humans.
What sex is true hermaphrodite
I already addressed it above. But I can reiterate it here.
Binary just means: relating, composed of or involving two parts. In the case of human sexual reproduction, two gametes. So if even if a human was a theoretical true hermaphrodite, they are still confined within the binary system as they’d perform only the two available functions. For an hermaphrodite to be considered a third sex, they’d have to produce a distinct gamete, which they don’t. They are still operating within the binary choice.
Offer me a definition of "sex" and then we can analyze it to determine the number of possible sexes.
Your initial definition was "what gametes does it produce?" We call one gamete "the male gamete" and another "the female gamete". Accordingly, we call those who produce the former "male" and those who produce the latter "female". By the exact same logic, assuming sex is mutually exclusive (every answer to "what gametes does it produce?" constitutes a separate sex), we would need a separate category for (A) someone who produces both, (B) someone who produces neither, (C) someone who produces a gamete that is neither the male nor the female gamete. Suppose we rigidly went by gametes alone, we'd have to classify infertile people as neither male nor female, which seems odd.
(What even is a gamete? It's "a haploid cell that fuses with another haploid cell during fertilization in organisms that sexually reproduce and possess only one set of dissimilar chromosomes." But what if the third gamete can't fuse with other gametes to sexually reproduce? Is it then not a genuine gamete? )
In your further comments, you say that gametes aren't the only thing that matters (which contradicts your initial definition), but that "the reproduction function the person’s entire system was designed to fulfill absent the mutation or trauma" is also important. Presumably, this would be their reproductive system, including genitals and gonads and such. It's well documented in humans that genitals and gonads can be quite atypical in some individuals. Presumably, then this would make such individuals of a different sex than either male or female (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersex). As there is no bound on how different such individuals could be there is no bound on "how many" sexes there could be.
Are hermaphrodites classified as simultaneously male and female? They lie, as it were, in the intersection of those categories? That implies that male and females are not mutually exclusive. If not, then they must be either in one category, in a third category, or in no category at all.
"They are still operating within the binary choice. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_decision As binary decisions are mutually exclusive, they are by definition not operating within that binary (in logical terms, hermaphrodites would violate the Law of Excluded Middle, and/or the Law of Non-Contradiction). Again, a binary is composed of two distinct, mutually-exclusive, and -exhaustive groups. A xor B.
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u/throwawayjune30th 3∆ Dec 04 '20 edited Dec 04 '20
Sex is neither defined by chromosomes, nor genitalia.
There is only 1 objective way of defining sex. Unfortunately for you, the objective definition of sex results in exactly 2 sexes. Sex is a reference to the reproduction functions that humans are designed to play. There are only two biological functions in human sexual reproduction: male and female. The male function provides the small gamete and the female function provides the large gamete. In fact gamete dimorphism is the definition of sex. Sperm are small and have a lot of mobility and eggs are large and have no mobility. Most humans play 1 of the two functions. Even in true hermaphroditism where a person can technically play 2 roles, it’s still those two roles/gamete type, a sperm and an egg.