> but the science is beyond any question that XX and XY are distinct genders. They come with different hormone levels, XX can carry babies and lactate, etc.
What about XX with, say, Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia? They have excess androgens and sometimes ambiguous genitalia. Estrogen insensitivity syndrome also comes to mind, where the body is unable to process estrogen. Those XX individuals have the body shape usually associated with an XY.
Or perhaps XY individuals with 5α-Reductase deficiency? They cannot process androgens and are sometimes born with genitalia that look like one typically associated with XX. They used to be mistakenly raised as individuals of the female gender. In a similar vein, there's Aromatase excess syndrome where the XY individual has male genitalia at birth and female secondary sexual characteristics at puberty. What is their gender?
Are XXY females and XXY males their own separate gender? Then what about XYY and XXYY syndrome?
Even ignoring those rarer genetic differences, what about women with polycystic ovary syndrome who are unable to conceive and have high testosterone levels? Or XY who went through menopause and have their estrogen and progesterone production limited or even halted, do they stop being women?
There's a reason both the words "gender" and "sex" exist.
You're describing reproductive biology. I have a hard time categorizing this as anything but "sex". But turns out actual biology doesn't just a give clear separable binary male vs female distribution. Thus "bimodal" is a better word and allows for the many cases of "its complicated".
"Gender roles", in contrast, are by my understanding more what society expects men/women to behave like, including how to present themselves.
What about XX with, say, Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia? They have excess androgens and sometimes ambiguous genitalia. Estrogen insensitivity syndrome also comes to mind, where the body is unable to process estrogen. Those XX individuals have the body shape usually associated with an XY.
Or perhaps XY individuals with 5α-Reductase deficiency? They cannot process androgens and are sometimes born with genitalia that look like one typically associated with XX. They used to be mistakenly raised as individuals of the female gender. In a similar vein, there's Aromatase excess syndrome where the XY individual has male genitalia at birth and female secondary sexual characteristics at puberty. What is their gender?
Are XXY females and XXY males their own separate gender? Then what about XYY and XXYY syndrome?
Even ignoring those rarer genetic differences, what about women with polycystic ovary syndrome who are unable to conceive and have high testosterone levels? Or XY who went through menopause and have their estrogen and progesterone production limited or even halted, do they stop being women?
There's a reason both the words "gender" and "sex" exist.