Bill Nye Saves the World Series Debunked Part 9 of 13: Season 1, Episode 9 - The Sexual Spectrum

By: Shawn Alli
Posted: May 31, 2017 (on http://www.shawnalli.com/)

Unlike the homosexual debate (which is relatively calm in Western-European countries), the transgender debate (like the cultural appropriation debate) is not just controversial, it's very touchy. If you make one claim that people don't believe in, bang...automatic hate mail and death threats are coming your way fast. But if Bill Nye is going to get into it, I have to get into it as well.

Nye starts off by describing different sex chromosomes. And that's very true. Instead of the regular XY or XX chromosomes, some people have XXX, XXY, or XYY. Even mice have XXY chromosomes. [1] And some fish have organs for both sexes (intersex). [2] It's quite fascinating. Some people have these chromosomes without experiencing any significant issues. While others do experience significant issues.

People who have these chromosome aberrations are genuine transgender people. Hence, it's correct to say that a biological basis for transgender people (with chromosome abnormalities) exists. This shouldn't be confused with those that claim in adulthood that they're transgender and don't have these chromosome aberrations. I'll deal with that later on.

But aside from people with chromosome aberrations, there are people that have regular XY or XX chromosomes but have genitalia or partial genitalia from both sexes (intersex). Again, this is another example of a biological basis for transgender people. People with XXX, XXY, or XYY chromosomes and intersex people are true transgender people who deserve the label of transgender without the stigma.

And if you're liberal and politically correct, you've already taken offense to the chromosome aberration/abnormality term. Unfortunately, that's how the peer-reviewed literature labels it. If you have a problem with that you can write to all of the peer-reviewed journals and complain. And Nye also uses the term chromosome abnormalities.

Transgender men who use hormone therapy or surgery will never become female (sex, biological). But will they become a woman (gender, social construct)? It's debatable. First, let's remember that in the past students learn that XX equals a woman and XY equals a man. Schools, teachers, and scientists of the past don't interpret the gender category as being a separate and exclusive category with its own ideologies. It's only in the recent past that schools shift the conversation to gender having its own domain apart from sex.

So the question remains. Can transgender men ever become a woman? Yes and no. Transgender men will never experience the potential of becoming pregnant. But what about the fear of being raped? If a transgender man like Bradley/Chelsea Manning is walking on the streets and looks like a woman, he may have the subjective fear of being raped, even though objectively speaking, there's less likelihood of that happening when the potential rapist finds out he's male.

Nye talks about the male and female brain. Sorry, but there's no significant difference in the male or female brain in terms of identity, emotions, or character. All of those differences are due to conditioning, experiences, and consciousness.

Just as there's no such thing as a network of homosexual neurons, there's no such thing as a network of transgender neurons. The reason you may think the opposite is because you've been listening to the unfalsifiable discipline of neurology, neuroscience, neurobiology, and neuropsychology. It's all ideological junk science. It has no basis in objective science (see Philosophy of Mind in Philosophy Reborn Part I: Purpose).

Derek Muller (a member of Nye's team) goes to South Korea to investigate changing gender roles due to the positive influence of Korean pop (K-pop). He finds that many k-pop music stars are bending gender roles. And that's fine. I don't have a problem with that.

But I like the fact that Muller doesn't mention that South Korean women are the most superficial people on the planet. Forget about Hollywood and their breast implants or lip injections. Women in South Korea have the highest rates of facial plastic surgery. [3] [4] [5] [6] Why? Because they want to look like those beautiful women in K-pop videos. This is an example of culture having a negative effect on people's perception of beauty.

Nye says that people who aren't comfortable with homosexual or transgender people need to just get over it. Yah...that's not going to work. Culture in general doesn't work that way. There's usually a backlash to all significant changes. I argue for a more...non-physical ideological approach via radical dualism (see Homosexuality in Philosophy Reborn Part II: Social Humanities).

Nye convenes his panel: Solomon Georgio (a comedian), Dr. Jeffrey McCune Jr. (a professor of gender and sexuality studies), and Dr. Katrina Karkazis (a cultural anthropologist). Nye asks if there's such a thing as the gay gene. All of them say no. At least we're starting off strong.

Dr. McCune says that a woman compliments him on his baby boy but mistakenly calls her a girl. She apologizes and McCune says that he doesn't know whether he's a boy or not. Oh dear.

Let's say that you're a parent and your child has no chromosome abnormalities. Should you allow your child to pick their own gender? It's an open debate in 2017. Some say yes, others say no. I lean toward the no camp for the simple reason that I'm the parent and they're the child.

Children don't yet have the cognitive capacity to choose as a rational person. Sometimes kids act like animals. Should I create an animal category for them to identify with? Sometimes they say that they're a magician or a hobbit. Will I take those identities seriously? Of course not. Why? Because they're a child.

What about their young teenage years? Generally speaking, modern WE teenagers go through lots of fads based on popular culture. But as a parent, you don't really take it seriously. Just because they're interested in music or a sport doesn't mean that they'll go on to these professions in the future.

Just because they might feel transgender as a teenager doesn't mean that you should take it seriously. I'd like to say let them figure it out on their own, but we live in a liberal society that encourages the distinction between sex and gender.

Today, liberal leaning governments are advocating that all people can be transgender by choice. And now we're at the transgender choice debate. Aside from chromosome abnormalities or intersex genitalia, does choosing to be transgender count as being transgender? No. Why not? Because there's no biological basis for it like the other two.

However...and here's the good news. Much of our culture is ideological and unfalsifiable. We let religious people think that they're god's children and go to heaven or hell. Hence, it's irrational to vilify adult transgender people who choose to be transgender while not having chromosome aberrations or being intersex. Even though they're not true transgender people (like the other two groups), there's no rational reason to oppose their identification.

Note to the transgender movement. Stick to one pronoun each for a transgender man or woman. While you can have all the pronouns you want in your movement, heterosexuals will adapt and accept transgender people more quickly if you keep things simple.

The only time that transgender choice is an issue is when older men identify as transgender and go into a public washroom with young girls. Contrary to what politically correct liberals want you to believe, this is a real problem. What's the solution? Create another bathroom for them or create a locked single bathroom. Most public community centers and universities in Ontario have separate gender bathrooms along with a locked door bathroom for anyone. Simple.

Getting back to the episode, Nye uses an ice cream animation to explain human sexuality. Sigh. While this is ideological conditioning for kids, it's patronizing to adults. The ice cream analogies have no basis in objective falsifiable science. Please stop pretending that it does.

Contrary to what you may believe, conditioning (be it cultural or social) isn't science. Social and cultural aspects of our lives have no biological basis. Conditioning is entirely ideological and usually dependent on popular culture (see Philosophy of Society & Culture in Philosophy Reborn Part I: Purpose).

The musical skit in the end isn't bad. A decent attempt at comedy.

Oddly enough, Nye says that science is the process by which we understand our place in the world and how we fit into it. Umm...no. In the past, that "place" is guided by a racist and sexist framework. Today, it's guided by the ideology that anything counts as science as long as it's liberal.

Personally, I believe that the ideological framework that should guide all societies today and in the future is radical dualism and skoparxism (see Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Governance & Economics, and Philosophy of Ethics in Philosophy Reborn Part I: Purpose).

References:

[1] The Sex Chromosome Trisomy mouse model of XXY and XYY: metabolism and motor performance. Pub Med.

[2] Langley, Liz. 7 Gender-Altering Animals. National Geographic. September 22, 2103.

[3] Marx, Patricia. Why is South Korea the world's plastic-surgery capital? New Yorker. March 23, 2015.

[4] Swanson, Ana. Stunning photos show why S. Korea is the plastic surgery capital of the world. Washington Post. May 16, 2015.

[5] Whitelocks, Sadie. One in five women in Seoul have gone under the knife as South Korea tops global list of plastic surgery procedures. Daily Mail. April 24, 2012.

[6] Stone, Zara. South Korean High Schoolers Get Plastic Surgery for Graduation. Atlantic. June 27, 2013.