Gender vs. Sex: Pa. professor weighs in on controversary

The Spark

During the Paris Olympics, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif faced difficulty when she tested higher for testosterone in her system. Khelif was assigned female at birth, and it says so on her birth certificate. Dr. Frederika Schmitt Associate Professor of Sociology at Millersville university says the word sex is a noun.

“ Well, first, when we talk about sex, the noun is and we're talking about sex assigned at birth. That is, a term that we use to refer to one's, physiological makeup, one's physical makeup, such as one's, reproductive organs, hormones, chromosomal makeup. And we typically refer to these groups as female, male and intersex.”

She also says there is some variability with groups as female, male, and intersex when it comes to different levels of hormones.

“Females have different levels of, testosterone, naturally occurring testosterone in their bodies throughout their lives and different levels of estrogen and progesterone, in their bodies throughout their lives. That is naturally occurring. And additionally, in rare cases, women have, XY chromosomal makeup that we typically associate with men. Some women have that chromosomal makeup. And I think that was part of the issue, in the, with some of the Olympic boxers that are under scrutiny.”

Support WITF: https://www.witf.org/support/give-now/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.