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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   34128 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 29, 2024

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Khelif likely has 5-alpha reductase deficiency. This enzyme turns testosterone into dihydrotestosterone which is required to produce male external genitalia.

This doesn't; however, prevent the body from producing and using testosterone to otherwise masculinize the body and brain. People with this disorder are often raised as girls; then, when they undergo male puberty, with it's massive surge of testosterone, they usually realize the truth of their biology and start identifying as men.

Someone with this disorder still has actual testicles that produce male levels of testosterone and is by any reasonable definition of maleness or manliness a male/man.

I'd guess Khelif grew up in a backwards environment where people didn't know about such things and Khelif and those around them didn't want to admit to the incongruence between the assumed sex and the reality in front of them.

My understanding is that DHT is critical for the development of many traits that are strongly associated with men, including baldness, body hair, and penis and testicles. If you want to claim that having a penis and functioning testicles are not essential parts of maleness you may certainly try, but I would find it very unconvincing. There is a reason we call it a "manhood"!

5αR2D is an intersex condition. People with it have some parts of maleness but not others. They do have functioning (though often not sperm-producing) testes, which produce the testosterone which (partially) masculinizes them.

Note that people with CAIS also have functional (but not sperm-producing) testes. But in their case, the testosterone does not masculinize them. Neither chromosomes nor testosterone tell you everything.

Male pattern baldness, BTW, isn't at all essential.

If this theory is true, there is a penis and there are testicles, the testicles are certainly functional in producing testosterone, they might even produce sperm.

I'm not really sure your point here?

Khelif isn't as manly as most men, but still manlier than plenty of men I've met.

I don't get what you're not getting. There's a pretty good case for not letting Khelif compete, since she has highly elevated testosterone levels, leaving aside this stupidity about how "manly" she is or whether "I have a penis, you just can't see it" is actually a convincing argument.

The argument is that Khelif is a male with a DSD; XY chromosome and male testosterone levels. Due to the DSD, he was raised as a girl, but this should not imply he ought to compete in competitions reserved for women.

The presence or lack of an external male sex organ is relevant to his DSD but not his competitive classification.

That's the argument you should engage with.

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