nobody ever believes me when I list off all of the ways that humans are significantly less sexually dimorphic than people seem to believe and it drives me batshit insane. “you’re denying the biological reality of sex” well you’re sticking your fingers in your ears and saying lalalala every time anyone presents you with data that confirms that women and men aren’t really that different. and refusing to come to terms with the two-way relationship between the “biological” and “social” worlds. I think one of us is ignoring the biological sciences here and it isn’t me
Someone once told me my biology degree was fake because I said humans weren't sexual dimorphic.
A male human and a female human are roughly the same size and same coloration.
Meanwhile, male black widow spiders are brown and a tenth the size of females. Anglerfish females are a full foot long and have a bioluminescent protrusion on their heads; males are barely half an inch long with no bioluminescence or protrusions. Male elephant seals are ten times bigger than females and have massive snouts. Male orangutans have big jowls and neck sacs that look like goiters, while females look more like other apes. Peacocks have flashy coloration and a long tail that they can display. The females are brown and simple.
Humans aren't sexually dimorphic! You only know someone's gender because of cultural identifiers, like clothing or hair.
The big things for primate sexual dimorphism tend to be canine size and body size. Male primates in sexually dimorphic species tend to have HUGE canine teeth for better threat displays, and are bigger for similar reasons.
Lowland Gorilla males tend to be 2.38x on average the mass of Lowland Gorilla females. Humans? That ratio is something line 1.15.
Male gorilla canines tend to be about 2 inches long, easily twice the length of some of their other teeth. Male humans have canines the exact same length as human female canines and the exact same length as the rest of our teeth.
We are not particularly sexually dimorphic.
i do find it a little funny how, if it weren't for the fact we insisted on demanding the sexes present and behave in vastly different ways, we actually wouldn't be able to tell each other apart that easily
