Shifting sexes and sequential hermaphrodites: How sex is determined
Deciding sex in the animal kingdom isn't always straightforward.
by Kate Shaw - Nov 23 2012, 9:00am EST
http://arstechnica.com/science/2012/11/gender-benders-and-sequential-hermaphrodites-how-sex-is-determined/It is easy to regard sex as clear-cut, black and white. We regularly have to check the "male" or "female" box on various forms, we go to separate sporting events to see men and women compete, and we often choose baby clothes based on whether the bundle of joy is a boy or a girl. But in the natural world, sex is a very gray area—it is diverse, intricate, and often incredibly malleable. Our sexual configuration is just one of many in the animal kingdom, each of which has evolved over many generations to solve particular problems or to ensure success in challenging environments. Sex is simply another tool in the evolutionary toolbox. It allows animals with completely different lifestyles and demands to thrive in an amazing array of ways.
By sifting through some of the discrepancies between sex and gender in the last installment, it became clear that these two concepts are not inextricably linked. Even in the scientific world where definitions are of the utmost importance, these terms are subject to a great deal of confusion. So we turn to the most basic underpinnings of sex—what distinguishes males from females, and how sex is determined—and find there is incredible complexity even in these fundamental concepts. By looking at sex in the animal kingdom, we can learn where there are hard and fast rules in terms of males and females, and where sex is more flexible and fluid.
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Pregnant males and pseudopenises: complex sex in the animal kingdom
Think sex and gender are simple? Nature says otherwise.
by Kate Shaw - Sept 9 2012, 4:00pm EDT
http://arstechnica.com/science/2012/09/pregnant-males-and-pseudopenises-complex-sex-in-the-animal-kingdom/Sex—one small word with huge implications. To most humans, being male or female implies a certain set of inseparable biological and sociological characteristics, but the natural world around us is rarely so black and white. For every characteristic that we associate with a particular sex, the animal kingdom harbors at least one surprising exception; concepts that we believe are inextricably linked are uncoupled, and even reversed, in other species.
Our sex exerts an incredible influence on our lives, influencing anatomy, appearance, behavior, and countless other traits. Socially, our sex also matters in terms of how we are understood and treated by others, because we see each other through a gendered lens. Female college graduates are hired more often than male graduates, for instance, but earn 17 percent less than their male counterparts. Police pull male drivers over at a much higher rate than they do female drivers. In high school math classes, teachers direct questions toward, call on, and interact with male students much more frequently than females.
We tend to recognize differences between males and females and try to explain them as a function of sex; we classify some things as masculine and others as feminine, often couching these divisions in evolutionary terms. But these justifications are often inaccurate. As we'll see below, many of the sociological differences between males a
