Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal: "How many genders are there?" (US Senate)

Tuesday, June 27, 2023

"How many genders are there?" (US Senate)

"How many genders are there?": Sen. John Kennedy questions Human Rights Campaign Chief Robinson about gender

(Forbes Breaking News) June 21, 2023. At today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. John Kennedy (Republican, LA) questioned HRC Pres. Kelley Robinson.

Forbes on Facebook: fb.com/forbes. Forbes video on Twitter: twitter.com/forbes. Forbes video on Instagram: instagram.com/forbes. More from forbes.com.

What's a "woman"?

Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Amber Larson, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly COMMENTARY

Hi. I'm a woman, I mean a geneticist.

That a dangerous question nowadays, politically fraught, a minefield. But we at Wisdom Quarterly do not mind answering it with scientifical accuracy. "Science" changes, but if what scientists have taught is true to this point (XY sex-determination system), then we can define womanhood as the presence of XY chromosomes. Manhood is XX.

See how the jaw is robust? That's nice, huh?

This brings up the sticky question of potential genetic anomalies: Do humans change? Are we born one way and stay that way. There are intersex beings between the sexes. There are masculine females and effeminate males. There may even be more "letters" than X and Y because apparently a Y is just an X with a broken X, the lower right foot missing. What then if some human beings are born with an X and a ~ (chromosomal foot or fragment)? Or another "letter"? Or neither? Or something completely different? Biological sex is tough, but it seems to be mutable.

Defend Piers Morgan's right to be a Black lesbian.

"Are you transphobic?": Sen. Mike Lee questions NCAA's Riley Gaines

(Forbes Breaking News) June 21, 2023 At today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) spoke to Riley Gaines about the inclusion of transgender athletes women's sports. "Male gaze" is upsetting to biological female sports figures. Lia Thomas, "NCAA Woman of the Year," is excelling at the expense of athletes born female.

Gender is tougher. There is the genotypic and phenotypic distinction to be made -- what is in the genes (genotypic) and what is expressed (phenotypically). Gender is psychological and socially-constructed more than biological or biologically-determined.

No one may like to hear it, but Dr. Joseph Wallach (criticalhealhnews.com) has researched the matter and found that the increasing birth rate of transgender children is due to a nutritional deficiency in the mother during gestation. He has scientific evidence for this, but the LGBTQI+ community is not likely to be happy with such news. Pre-parents might like this news, but post-parents almost certainly will not. They'll say the mother is being blamed, as she was with SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), which Dr. Wallach cured by first discovering the nutritional deficiency that caused it then getting those nutrients into baby formulas.

What makes a person gay, bi, lesbian, homosexual, pansexual, trisexual (try sexual), nymphomaniacal, questioning, confused, malleable, situational, asexual...? It's not clear if Dr. Wallach has yet successfully researched that.

What does Buddhism say?

Fortunately, Buddhism has an answer as to what a "woman" is and what a "man" is -- and there may even be a third and fourth gender, if not more.

The personally verifiable answer to this is found in the Abhidhamma or the "Doctrine (Dhamma) in Ultimate Terms," a dense and profound work on ultimate reality in Buddhism.

Your own pronouns? Do I get my own adjectives?

What is ultimately real?

What is "truth" (sacca or satya)? The ultimate truth (paramattha-sacca) is distinguished from the conventional truth (vohāra-sacca). By distinguishing them one can learn to discern conventional mind-and-body (into ultimate nama-rupa, "name and form").

There's a level deeper than conventional truth, analogous to physics. If the conventional is psychological, at a deeper level there is the ultimate or physical: streams of cittas (which along with cetasikas, "mental concomitants," form the basis of Buddhist psychology) and streams of kalapas and their Four Elements (mahabhuta or dhatu, the Four Qualities of Matter, as distinct from the mind element).

Mind-moments and particles, these things are real. Through mental purification (visuddhi), one gains stillness/concentration (jhana) and is able to use this intensification of mind to discern the subtle and otherwise invisible: mind-moments and particles.

In so doing one becomes able to look at the characteristics of particles (kalapas), seeing them imbued with sex, biological sex. They do not have a gender, but they are imprinted with the biological sex (bhāva) of the person.

Human nature or inborn "faculties" (indriya)
The 18 constituents of a whole or being: dhātu
What is a "person" (or living being)? The Five Aggregates

Come and see. This Doctrine and Discipline (dhamma-vinaya) called Buddhism invites investigation and personal verification.

Then enter the debate with the certainty to be able to answer, "What is a woman?" Can it change? We speculate that biology is malleable (phenotypic plasticity and genotypic plasticity) as, for instance, seen with the use of biohazardous pesticides and other chemical toxins in the environment, particularly endocrine disruptors, which affect human hormones. It turns out we share hormones with animals and plants and even the mushroom kingdom (e.g., Vitamin D, which can be considered a hormone, is made in the fruiting bodies of fungi exposed to sunlight).

What does it mean to be "transgender"?

- FU, mofos, don't you ask me nuthin!

Did ancient Buddhism have anything to say about gender?

Playboy Hugh Hefner was motivated by Kinsey

In a word, yes. And that word is pandaka, an unflattering catch-all term for gender-role-transgressing individuals. That can include anything -- sex starved eunuchs resorting to homosexuality, hermaphrodites, gender nonconformists, crossdressers, transsexuals, butch and effeminate individuals, twin spirits, non-cisgender folks, gays, possibly even asexuals. The ancient world in and around what is now India, as known through the commentators, had their own explanations for such behavior. Sexual behavior falls along a spectrum, and deviating from the norm might earn one the label of pandaka or "pervert," particularly if one stood out. Dr. Kinsey may have done much to liberate modern thinkers from old norms, but he himself was almost certainly a pandaka dressed up in a scientific labcoat, promoted by academia, and accepted as positive cultural influence.