There is a recent trend on social media sent as a “gotcha” moment to transgender and intersex individuals and follows the phrasing, “Oh, you can claim to be whatever gender you want, but in 100 or 1000 years when archeologists evaluate those skeletons, they will be male or female.”
At first glance, this follows the same patterns as other attempts at “gotcha” moments. It caters to simplicity which a lot of people will grasp readily. There are a few fallacies in this logic.
First, sex and gender don’t always correlate. Sex is the external body manifestations we generally categorize into male and female characteristics. Gender is the innate sense of self and evolves from gestational development and genetic pathways which lead to our sense of who we are. While there is strong correlation, clearly, there are always exceptions.
The next makes the assumption that archeologists are always able to identify male and female skeletons 100% of the time. While there are indeed general characteristics which allow for these categorizations, again, there are exceptions. Archeologists and pathologists will use a collection of characteristics to try to make identifications, but they also know that certain disease processes will alter bone structure and will allow for variations/exceptions.
At birth and up to puberty, male and female skeletons are near identical and difficult to distinguish without additional outside information. At puberty, the introduction of estrogen or testosterone is the primary driver of skeletal structure. In other words, it is not the chromosomes that determine skeletal structure, but the sex hormones themselves. As a consequence of this, any disease process that causes alterations in sex hormones will lead to ‘cross-sex’ skeletal structure. For example, Klinefelter’s syndrome is a readily identifiable syndrome that can lead to alterations in bone structure. Swyer syndrome is another. It doesn’t have to be an intersex condition either. PCOS will lead to abnormal levels of testosterone and change skeletal structure as well.
While the above statement is generally true, it fails to capture the incredible beauty and diversity of humankind. Hormonal and genetic variations are not uncommon. Just looking at Klinefelters, the incidence is 1 in 500 or roughly 600,000 individuals in the US alone. PCOS affects roughly 3 million women/year.
Here are some of the main fallacies with the above claim (there can be others):
1) Appeal to authority – archeologists must all agree with this statement
2) False dilemma – you are either male or female and fail to see there are alternative explanations. It also creates this “dilemma” that is apparently going to be a concern to archeologists.