• Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    Oh, just like they did in Nazi Germany back then, measuring skulls to find inferior people. They called it “Rassenhygiene” back then. It is amazing to see how many Nazi Germany ideas they unearth and recycle in the US nowadays.

  • Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de
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    Those two skull outlines just look like they were photographed with a different focal length or something. There is no way skull morphology is this strongly affected by sex.

    • Tattorack@lemmy.world
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      Yeah… Like there’d be a bit more credence if the guy was going after the pelvis but… You’d have to either xray or extract the pelvis for that.

      • AbsentBird@lemm.ee
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        Even then there’s so much overlap in human dimorphism that it’s not an exact science, there’s still like a 5-10% error rate in sexing perfectly preserved pelvic bones. Accurate enough for anthropology, but that’s a big error rate to apply to individuals.

        • TriflingToad@sh.itjust.works
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          that’s my favorite fact for the “YoUr SkEleToN iS mAle!!1!” crowd. Also I’d be dead then, I won’t a shit if some teenagers put my skull in a bowling ball, much less being actually used for archeological research that benefits humanity lol

  • RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    I love their little diagrams showing us just how fucking wrong they are.

    “That’s a female skull! (As long as you ignore 40% of the bone mass)”

  • yesman@lemmy.world
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    After the advent of DNA testing, many anthropologists and archeologists were embarrassed because skeletal remains were missexed.

    Even my A&P textbook had this garbage in it. It claimed racial difference in the skull and sex difference in the Hip bones. But it’s bullshit. The most reliable way to sex a skeleton is with DNA.

    ‘The Mismeasure of Man’ by Gould is a fascinating history of bio-determinism and psudoscientific attempt to measure it.

    • arrow74@lemm.ee
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      Archaeologist here, maybe it’s just new wave training but widely taught that it’s not an easy task to sex skeletons on morphology alone.

      Sure some features appear more commonly amongst men and some more commonly amongst women, but there is considerable overlap.

      Pelvis are generally identifiable, but the bio-archaeologists I know prefer to say the skeleton displays female characteristics without providing a definitive biological sex. They have to have some great evidence before claiming for certain.

      Also fun fact, you can’t measure this morphology when there’s still skin and muscle fucking attached.

      • turmacar@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        The show Bones had a lot of weirdness, but I did appreciate that they consistently (at least the first few seasons when I was watching) stripped the bones down and even had a bug guy on staff to do it efficiently.

    • qarbone@lemmy.world
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      The most reliable way to sex a skeleton is to be interested in what they’re interested in, and not say stuff like “ay, babey, you’d looked better with more meat on those bones!” Otherwise, just ride the vibe and see where the mood takes you.

    • VitoRobles@lemmy.today
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      many anthropologists and archeologists were embarrassed because skeletal remains were missexed.

      I mean I get it. Impossible to tell without skeletal boobs.

    • Complete tangent- I’m not up on the new lingo, is sex your presentation to the world, whether you’re xx or xy, or something else? Because I’ve been seeing quite a bit of conflation between sex and gender lately and it’s left me confused.

      • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Typically, “sex” is used in reference to biological characteristics, and “gender” to sociological ones.

        • So an intersex person might one day discover that their gender doesn’t reflect their sex, but their sex has never actually changed, right? Or if someone were to receive full and adequately administered treatment for their gender dysphoria, their sex wouldn’t change? Just trying to completely peg down any edge cases.

          To be clear, humans should be allowed to live comfortably in their own skin. Not jaqing off, just trying to become fully informed.

          • webadict@lemmy.world
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            An intersex person is typically assigned a gender at birth, but so is everyone else. Being intersex just means you aren’t biologically male or female (though I think this might also include people who have sex chromosomes that develop as though they were the other binary sex, but I’m not an expert). Most intersex people don’t typically know they are intersex, and thus they would count as cisgender so long as they identify as the gender they were assigned at birth and transgender if they do not. Thus, if someone had, say XY chromosomes, but was assigned female at birth, they would probably be cis if they identified as female.

            However, trans can be a bit of a self-identifying label, and thus someone in that situation might just as well consider themselves trans. There’s a lot of different definitions for trans. Many non-binary people would consider themselves trans since they don’t identify as their assigned gender at birth.

            Long story short, gender is complicated. Sex doesn’t change (put a couple asterisks here), but gender is super flexible (also asterisks here.)

          • Kuma@lemmy.world
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            Well intersex could be either, both or none. Some are born with something that looks like a vagina and has balls inside of them so they think they are biologically a woman until they try to have kids and it isn’t possible or are together with someone who knows what a vagina “should” look like or it looks kind of like a penis but everyone is a bit unsure. It is a big grey zone, I don’t know if you can even call them biologically anything, if biologically means having one type of genitals. I am not sure if bilogical means anything either way (for intersex). It depends what you want to actually know, if you want kids then no, no biologically kids. But that could be true for someone who is what you would call biologically man or woman any ways.

            So yeah one day they may discover they can’t have kids or that they also have balls inside of them, or they have no balls or they have a mix of both or none. Before (and still in some countries) did the parents pick a gender and then a lot of surgery happened to make it look like a typical penis or vagina.

            But it is an interesting topic, what is even sex? What do you wish to actually know? Because if it is about kids then sex doesn’t matter instead it would be better to just ask “can you produce x” ( depending on what you produce). Not everyone who is “biologically” can produce what you need anyways. I know many who needed to get a sperm or egg donator (or both) to have kids.

            • What do you wish to actually know?

              The definition of sex, and where it bleeds into gender or doesn’t. I felt like I had a complete understanding of the difference between sex and gender, but there were a few months, a while back, where the terms were used interchangeably and I began to subtly question whether I actually understood them.

              Now, several months later, I thought to ask in a relatively neutral space. You guys confirmed that I just happened to see many people misusing words for a bit, which I appreciate.

              • Windex007@lemmy.world
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                People play real fast and loose with these terms.

                My advice is to do what you’re doing here, which is learn… But to remember to meet people where they’re at.

                By these definitions, with sex relating to biological things, you might be tempted to tell someone they can’t just “decide” their sex, by this definition. Don’t do it.

                Not saying you would, but resist the urge to get into a semantic argument. Just ask the specific people what they mean by these words when they say them, and roll with it. Prioritize understanding over being understood.

                This advice goes for anything, but this is a particularly spicy meatball.

                • IndescribablySad@threads.net@sh.itjust.works
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                  This is excellent advice that I wish I could immediately incorporate into my being. You’ve described alchemy, as far as my technical but inarticulate ass goes. I hope to be able to do this in person some day.

              • selokichtli@lemmy.ml
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                2 days ago

                Just to add to the excellent responses, even “biological sex” may be complicated, because you can argue based on different criteria. At birth, genitalia is a relatively accessible and unintrusive way to sex humans, but even at birth other criteria may be available, like a chromosomal analysis. There are also genetic tests, which are closely related to chromosomal sexing, but are not the same. Also, from embryogenic and hormonal evidence you could try to make your case. Most people would comply with all of those, but some people don’t.

                • IndescribablySad@threads.net@sh.itjust.works
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                  “biological sex” may be complicated

                  Absolutely, and the level of hair splitting you can get into is maddening. It almost seems worth discarding the word entirely, in the world’s current state, as it relates to people.

  • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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    At school we had a thing where if your ring finger was longer than your index finger then it meant you were a bummer. Never mind the fact that you can change that with slight angling of the hand.

    This is what those kids are doing now.

    • Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world
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      What stops you from doing the same to them. This is the funniest shit. Why don’t we work. This is how deep they go and we’re like “I’m tired I’m so sweepy guys why can’t the other swide jus pway nice”

      pirate some photo shop. Drink a couple beers and fucking troll. What happened to the left being comedians and artists. Too busy selling feet pics?

      Let’s fucking go.

      • qarbone@lemmy.world
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        People are tired because there’s literally no winning with tactics like that. The idiotic tactics on display in the OP aren’t about realistically “winning” the culture war. It’s just sowing so many nonsense weeds that any reasonable discussion is choked off of the vine. When you allow inanity like “male/female skull assignment” as a platform instead of “simply being correct”, the whole game goes down the toilet. It’s now just “who can shout the loudest and the longest and into the most ears directly”. That’s not a race with a finish line, it’s the cultural equivalent to a “last person shitting” contest and these motherfuckers are full of shit.

        If you have a mind to think, you can only turn it off so long. And when the reasonable person does switch theirs back on, they’ll eventually have to contend with the mess.

        • Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world
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          18 hours ago

          People say they’re tired but that’s just defeatism. Tired before they begin. Too tired to try. That’s not fatigue; that’s losing.

          We keep hearing the same excuses:

          “Don’t wrassle with pigs.”
          “We all lose if we engage”
          “I think I broke his fist on my face”
          

          That is absurd. That’s just rationalizing inaction.

          There is no finish line in this fight. There’s only the work. You learn the game. Then you play the game. That’s it. No more nonsense. No more philosophical excuses for not doing the work.

          We’ve been shoved into corners of the internet because we act like spectators. We should be dominating those corners. We should be everywhere. Sharing content. Making content. Boosting our voices. Drowning out their hypocrisy with facts, with memes, with relentless presence. That is how the took over every algorithm. That’s why my grandmother knows every single one of their points and none of ours. Do we have any points beyond just calling them racists or fascist? What are we doing here…

          You don’t need to “win” arguments. You just need to amplify. Take their dumb takes, like Tim Pool calling online arguments “warfare”, and turn that into clips, memes, videos. Cut. Clip. Post. Share. Boom. It’s not hard. It’s barely work.

          And it isn’t being done. That’s on us. If content like this video isn’t going viral every day, that’s our fault. That’s a failure of effort and coordination.

          We need to wake up and get serious. Support each other. Boost names. Share posts. Make content. Don’t stop until your grandmother is quoting memes from Reddit, Lemmy, and X.

          Stop being passive. Start being present. Every single day.

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwNNB1FgEzA

        • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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          24 hours ago

          We can, we can laugh the loudest and longest. We can do the same. There is winning here. You make idiots look like idiots and they all know it when it happens. Highly effective.

        • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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          The only correct response is clearly to laugh at them, degrade them, and then slam a metal folding chair over their head. From there it’s up to you if ya want to steal their wallet and piss on them.

          • qarbone@lemmy.world
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            It’s true. I have been told by many women my head looks quite phallic. Every one that’s told me that has been too impressed to date me. I didn’t expect it to affect even my online interactions.

            Suffering from success…

      • LanguageIsCool@lemmy.world
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        There’s no winning against them fighting fire with fire. They’re masters of this stuff. Of double speak, hypocrisy, avoiding accountability, distraction, and so forth. I don’t want to fight just to fight. I want to fight to win.

        I agree with you that a fight must be fought. But, maximizing efficiency, what exactly is the fight?

        • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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          24 hours ago

          This just ain’t true. I run circles around every conservofuck in my office. They can’t even see me coming. Its the inability to grasp nuance that let’s us trounce them. Let’s do this to every member of Donald’s cabinet and we’ll just make the “femskulls” fit. It’ll be hilarious. Use GIMP.

      • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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        There’s no consistency to their beliefs. You cannot “gotcha” them by pointing out hypocrisy, it in fact makes them happier.