I've been getting increasingly frustrated by the idea "there are more than two sexes." You are still doing the thing where you draw rigid lines and there will still be people who fall through the cracks.
There are no sexes. Sex is defined by a bunch of arbitrary traits, some of which you will have no idea about unless you get expensive testing.
Intersex is only a useful term because the current world has drawn these lines and made two boxes "male" and "female." If there were no sexes, there would be no need for the term because there can't be subversion of rigid definitions if there aren't rigid definitions to subvert.
So what are you suggesting we do, just abolish all mentions of sex?
I think that for language to be the most useful and communicative, it has to be clear and concise. So mentioning what traits you are talking about explicitly is the way to go. Some examples:
People who menstruate may go on birth control in order to manage their cycle.
Those with a prostate should regularly get checked for prostate cancer, especially after age 50.
Oestrogen is a crucial part of having healthy bones, a rapid decrease in oestrogen levels makes someone more at risk of osteoporosis.
Taking testosterone after going through oestrogen puberty won't make you taller but it can make your face seem more angular.
People who don't produce any or enough hormones naturally have to take hormones for their health.
Internal condoms and external condoms.
Got a little carried away but you see my point. It is so much easier to just list the actual traits you mean than to try and list every type of person affected.
A person can have xx chromosomes and have a penis, testes, testosterone dominant body and all. Now tell me, is this person transgender? Why do you think that? Is this person intersex? What do you think they're assigned sex at birth is?
Trick question. Anything you answered was wrong. This person could be any of those and you wouldn't know and you shouldn't care.
A person can have xy chromosomes, a vagina, large breasts, and lots of body and facial hair. Are they trans? Which HRT do you think they're taking, if any? Are they intersex? What gender were they raised as?
Another trick question. You're wrong, no matter what you answered.
Do you see how there are so many situations where a person can have a certain sex trait? Male and female, as terms, lump together a group of traits that don't mean anything in conversation!
And what even does "male" mean? To doctors at a birth it means a baby with genitals longer than a certain amount of cm. At what threshold does someone go from "male" to "female"?
There's chromosomes, there's hormone levels, there's a bunch of organs that are all related to sex, there's facial hair, there's breast size, there's a whole spectrum of genitalia.
When does someone cross that line? What's the tipping point?
Anyway anyway my long ass rant is over. Thank you for reading. Stop using male and female when you could just name the traits you're actually talking about.
It's really fucking weird to try to figure out the exact anatomy of every person you meet.
And while we're at it, stop using amab/afab. They're really not useful discussion terms and they don't mean anything.
