They clearly misdate the painting, but otherwise an interesting read.
5 Likes
came here to mention that it got the 10,000 votes it needs to be reviewed by Lego corporate and possibly turned into a set one can purchase. The review process is in May, and assuming it gets the green light, will likely be a set by the end of the year, or early next year?
10 Likes
15 Likes
5 Likes
10 Likes
Ending paragraphs:
What we know right now is that if you were to ban every bit of research on the social determinants of health, on the different experiences people have depending on their gender roles or even on the effects of hormones on your body, you’d still be left with very critical differences between people born with one X and one Y chromosome (male), people born with two X chromosomes (female) and people born with another combination of sex chromosomes (such as XXY, XYY, XXX, or XO). These include differences that have nothing to do with sex or reproduction, and that don’t take place in our reproductive cells but in the various other cells that make up our body tissues. But they are vitally important differences, determining what medicines we need and what diseases we’re susceptible to, among other things.
“If we have created an environment where it’s not possible to study sex differences or hormonal exposures then we are literally erasing an aspect of science, which is going to have negative downstream effects on everyone’s health,” Ahmed said.
https://www.salon.com/2025/04/22/your-cells-carry-their-own-identity-thats-science-not-ideology/
I am so sick of no one-boxing, and thus having to re-open a site and find a salient paragraph or two to indicate why I thought it was worth posting.
9 Likes
The point about hamstringing research is valid but the emphasis on chromosomes as “cellular sex” seems wrong. Hudry is noted as working on fruit flies which are called “surprisingly similar” to humans. But there are differences and one is that while fruit flies coincidentally have an XX/XY sex determination system, so far as I can tell they don’t seem to have sex hormones.
So yeah, cells in their bodies have to simply express or male and female traits based on genes. That’s radically different from vertebrates where development is largely regulated by production of different steroids – to the point where for instance women can occasionally have a Y chromosome, and turtles and crocodiles don’t even have sex chromosomes at all. How then do we get to it being “science” that our cells have a chromosomal sex identity? I could believe it mattering for some things, but we already know we’re not fruit flies.
11 Likes
Women having Y chromosomes in their cells is how they figured out a key component of why so many more women then men have autoimmune disorders: women who have given birth to baby boys still have Y chromosomes in their system years later, which means they have foreign cells that their body’s immune system is geared to attack. Obviously gestating girl babies also leaves behind their DNA, but that’s harder to ‘see’.
12 Likes
10 Likes
7 Likes
10 Likes
10 Likes
Wow yeah a “trans folks all want to be invisible and cis-passing” take is pretty bad.
Also I wonder about it from an economic perspective… I don’t remember much made of it in the books, but in the TV show Earth folks on Basic seemed to have it pretty rough. Are they really getting comprehensive medical care that covers advanced gender affirming treatments?
8 Likes
Forrest gets s little revved up here, in a very good way. Anyone interested in understanding gender diversity dhould give this a watch. This guy and Erika (Gutsick Gibbon) are excellent science communicators in long form pieces.
6 Likes
7 Likes
3 Likes
11 Likes
Yeah. Most kids know who they’re attracted to.
10 Likes
I had the same feeling reading this too. I thought I’d post here and make up for my lack of repertoire to discuss this by listening to other people’s opinions. The impression that articles that come out in mainstream media give us is either very offensive, very condescending or just confusing.
8 Likes
So I don’t know a lot about this, but something that immediately stands out to me is the mention of pheromones. Lots of mammals have sex pheromones, but they are picked up by the vomeronasal organ at the back of the throat, which in humans is vestigial and apparently non-functional. Some people have singled out androstenone, a known pheromone in pigs which happens to be in our sweat too, and some studies do show it can help get people excited – but it’s not clear to me it’s that different from cologne or fresh bread or any other scents people find attractive. Consensus seems to be that if people have pheromones, they’re subtle, which makes their direct invocation here as part of development seem really questionable.
7 Likes