Gender, Sex, & Sexuality: What’s the Difference?: Crash Course Biology
Understanding Gender, Sex, and Sexuality: Key Differences Explained | Crash Course Biology
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many people in societies think of sex as
split across two tidy boxes male and
female but life in all of its glorious
complexity tells another story like
there are these fish called Australian
goes that all start out as female but
later some start producing sperm while
still having cells that can become eggs
so in one lifetime they can be female
then male and female then female again
it's not a static either or thing and
that's just the start of life's binary
busting rainbow there's a plant called
tropical Ginger that switches between
male and female every
afternoon many kangaroo rats have both a
vagina and a penis and forget male or
female the split Gill fungus has over
20,000 Sexes and the evidence for sex as
a Continuum isn't just found in fish and
fungi but in us too hi I'm Dr Sammy your
friendly neighborhood entomologist and
this is crash course biology and this is
a singular theme song that also defies
categories hit
[Music]
it this episode we're talking about sex
gender and sexuality and the first thing
you need to know is they're not all the
same thing gender for example is totally
unique to humans it refers to a person's
inner sense of being a man a woman some
other gender or no gender at all and
it's about a person's identity and how
it's expressed in relation to Social and
cultural norms and different cultures
have different ideas about what it means
to be feminine or masculine or how many
genders there are like some Native
American groups have long recognized a
third gender which is sometimes called
two spirit the boogies people of sui
recognize five genders including one
that transcends male or female and many
Western cultures today are widening
their understanding to include people
who are non-binary trans and more so
yeah sex and gender not the same thing
sex isn't an identity but rather a way
of categorizing life based on a range of
traits including what reproductive cells
an individual makes this can seem
confusing because we do tend to assign
someone a sex and a gender when they're
born like when we say it's a boy or it's
a girl based on outward sex indicators
like genitals we're assigning a sex but
we tend to bring with that a suite of
cultural expectations that are part of
gender like the specific colors or gifts
that are typically brought to gender
reveal parties and sexuality describes
who someone is sexually attracted to if
anyone and just like sex and gender
sexuality exists on a Continuum but
we'll get to that later for now let's
get into biological sex which like I
mentioned is often tied to reproductive
cells called gametes you see the ability
to reproduce is one of the Hallmarks of
life and life has evolved a lot of ways
to do it with diverse bodies and
behaviors to match though for a long
time time it seemed like this was
relatively simple see there are often
two different forms of the same animal
one has small simple gametes that don't
require a lot of energy to produce
called sperm and the other has a smaller
number of larger gametes that are
comparatively expensive to produce which
are called eggs the individual that
produces the sperm is called the male
and the individual that produces the egg
is the female this holds true for a fair
number of organisms but the more you
look the more complex it gets like for
example it is not super rare for one
organism to contain both sperm and eggs
but the sperm egg dichotomy is common
enough among life on Earth and useful
enough that it's helped us classify all
sorts of life like take genko trees for
example when we talk about male and
female genos we don't call it a male
tree because it's taller and has more
body
hair that would be an odd tree indeed
but no we call it a male tree because it
produces pollen which is tree sperm and
not ovules which are tree eggs sometimes
we talk about sex in terms of ecology
and species-wide attributes but it's
also important to consider that when you
drill down into individuals we find
again that nature will make any harsh
lines fuzzy like if you're talking about
individual humans you can't just boil it
down to sperm and eggs because lots of
people don't produce either and there
are also a ton of other important traits
Beyond gametes like biologists also
consider several physical traits such as
Anatomy
chromosomes and hormones when
identifying Sexes and when biologists
study sex differences they often look at
averages for a sex average hormone
levels average Anatomy but those traits
can overlap let's look at chromosomes
for example more specifically our 23rd
pair of chromosomes called alomes in
humans and many other animals alomes
come in two versions the larger and
information Rich X chromosome or the
smaller y most people inherit one ome
from the egg that made them and one from
the sperm and each one holds genetic
instructions for making proteins which
are like the bodies clay for building
organs an XX person often has organs
called ovaries that make eggs plus a
vagina vulva and uterus an XY person
often has testes that make sperm along
with the penis ovaries and testies
secrete different blends of hormones so
XX bodies usually have higher levels of
estrogen while XY bodies usually have
more androgens such as testosterone
these hormones shape other physical
features that we tend to think of as
female or male like breasts or hairy
chests but I'm saying people with XX
chromosomes not women and XY people not
men because man and woman refer to a
person's gender which as we discussed
earlier is different from sex someone
with XX chromosomes isn't always a woman
and someone with XY chromosomes isn't
always a man plus when it comes to sex
what's going on in the soms is just the
beginning you see some XX or XY people
have Gene variants that cause a diverse
blend of hormones or anatomy and this
can result in the physical expression of
a different sex than the one that their
chromosomes would indicate and some
people inherit three alomes so they're
xxy or XXX or XY Y which can lead to a
bunch of different sexual features and
then some people are x0 with just one
alome but there's nobody out there who's
y zero because we all need at least one
X chromosome to live there are important
genes in there that help the brain
develop these variations along the sex
Continuum are called differences in sex
development or Some people prefer the
term interex and a person is about as
likely to have these Gene variations as
they are to have red hair they're
present in about one in every 100 people
so chances are you probably met at least
somebody with one of these differences
even if you didn't know it even if they
themselves didn't know it there aren't
always outward signs like if an XY
person inherits a variant of the amh
gene they may develop organs often found
in XX people so they might have a uterus
and Fallopian tubes while also having a
penis testes and levels of the hormone
testosterone that would be normal for an
XY person or if an XY person has a
variant of the AR Gene their body
ignores testosterone a condition called
Androgen in Sensitivity Syndrome often
they have a vagina and breasts and no
uterus and sometimes a testicle in
inside their bodies so yeah sex is way
more complex than male or female it
isn't determined by any single trait and
it's not turned on or off by any single
Gene it's an assortment of overlapping
interactions between chromosomes
hormones and genes so that's gender and
sex neither of which can be put into
nice tidy Little Boxes now let's take
some time to talk about sexuality which
like I mentioned earlier describes who
someone is sexually attracted to if
anyone just like sex and gender
sexuality doesn't fit neatly in distinct
boxes someone can be attracted to the
same gender uh another gender both their
own and other genders all genders or
none at all for some attraction stays
steady for life for others it's more
fluid all of this is normal and diverse
sexuality is nothing new attraction to
the same gender for example has been
written about in ancient texts from
China Japan India Greece and more across
cultures today it's experienced by about
5% of people that number varies a bit
from place to place depending on
cultural attitudes and the question
that's being asked in the surveys like
it's more common for people to report
that they've had at least one same
gender experience than to say that they
are exclusively attracted to the same
gender but either way diverse sexuality
is a very normal very human trait and
while we don't need to look to other
animals to justify human sexuality
life's diversity does help us understand
our own let's head over to the thought
bu it's 183 4 and German school teacher
August Kelch can't believe his eyes in a
forest in Poland he has just stumbled on
two male doodle Bugs well doodling each
other keep in mind the word homosexual
didn't exist yet in German or in English
so you can imagine Kel's surprise
especially considering people attracted
to the same sex were considered
unnatural at the time nonetheless Kelch
described what he'd seen and shared it
with the scientific Community the
reception was not great a mix of moral
outrage disbelief and disgust some tried
to explain it away arguing that one bug
was actually female or that both bugs
were confused I wouldn't be surprised if
someone tried to claim that they were
just really good friends or roommates
but other scientists came forward with
their own sightings of male doodle Bugs
doing the doodle and then in the 1890s
another scientist argued that it was
natural and the males were choosing to
mate with each other
sparking more criticism eventually the
doodle bug debate faded but then same
sex activity popped up again in Penguins
big horn sheep giraffes and the same
questions simmered each time questions
that were never really about just doodle
Bugs if samesex activity is truly
unnatural as many people had claimed
well why is it found again and again in
nature thanks thought bubble since the
doodle Bugs scientists have observed
over 1,000 different species mating and
even parenting with the same sex for
some species these are oneoff flings but
others show a strong preference for
samex partners like about 8% of male
sheep aren't interested in sex with
females and exclusively prefer other
males and all of this raises interesting
questions about Evolution like if the
evolutionary point of sex is making more
life why would same sex mating be a
thing at all a common thing even in
whales koalas geese even Beatles
and the answer is we don't exactly know
yet but there are a few different ideas
one idea is that organisms who will mate
with anyone mate more overall increasing
their chances of having Offspring so
maybe there's an evolutionary advantage
to just being a little thirsty another
idea is that samesex mating reduces
competition and helps social animals
form close bonds best way to not have
haters make them your lovers like male
Dolphins often pair together having sex
with each other multiple times a day
inviting the occasional female to join
in I'm thinking they deleted that scene
from sharktale and then there are
bonobos Humanity's closest relatives
among them same-sex mating keeps the
vibe of the whole group peaceful in fact
female bonobos have more sex with each
other than they do with males for some
species same-sex sexuality might
actually help survival and for the rest
is definitely not hurting them in the
end sexuality is just one aspect of the
incredible A diversity built into life
diversity that underpins healthy robust
populations after all like we said way
back in episode one life is the most
fascinating thing to ever happen on this
planet biology sometimes gives us broad
categories that are useful overall but
when it's something as complex and
gigantic as life it's not going to be
that simple and when you start talking
about human life and our societies and
cultures well then it's going to get
really fun we are like light through a
prism each of us a fractal beautiful in
our own right but bound together in
life's Kaleidoscope of color we know so
much about ourselves and yet we're all
still learning but here's one thing that
we like to say around here imagine
others complexly and that means looking
deep thinking hard being kind and
recognizing the reality of the beautiful
variety of Human Experience next time
we'll take a deep dive into animal
behavior I'll see you then peace this
series was produced in collaboration
with hhmi biointeractive if you're an
educator visit biointeractive.org g/c
crashcourse for classroom resources and
professional development related to the
topics covered in this course thanks for
watching this episode of Crash Course
biology which was filmed at our studio
in Indianapolis Indiana and was made
with the help of all of these nice
people if you want to help keep crash
course free for everyone forever you can
join our community on patreon
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