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The Conversation
The Conversation
Ari Berkowitz, Professor of Biological Sciences; Director of the Cellular and Behavioral Neurobiology Graduate Program, University of Oklahoma

Biological sex is neither binary nor a spectrum – a biologist explains how it’s multidimensional

Some people may veer more typically female for some traits, more typically male for others, and intermediate for still others. aelitta/DigitalVision Vectors via Getty Images

Many people recognize that gender – how a person identifies, presents themselves and is perceived – has nuances. Some people identify and present as women, others as men, and still others as nonbinary.

But there is a common misconception that biological sex – usually determined by a person’s sex chromosomes, gonads (ovaries or testes) or genitals – is binary. This idea assumes that everyone is biologically either female or male, with no ambiguity or intermediacy.

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