#reductase

[biology-geology-beaches-india]

The Science Research Notebooks of S. Sunkavally, p 472.

[tenth-sentence]

Second, sulfite reductase transfers six electrons from ferredoxin (Fdred) to produce sulfide (S²-):

SO3²- + 6 Fdred → S²- + 6 Fdox

"Plant Physiology and Development" int'l 6e - Taiz, L., Zeiger, E., Møller, I.M., Murphy, A.

[kharmii]

Seems you are vindicated about that Algerian boxer. Sorry, don’t know how to make it a link. Someone saw his medical records.

https://archive.ph/Drkws

This is another case of hard leftists using bullying tactics to screech that the sky is green, and grass is blue. It was obvious Imame Khelif was a man. Reasonable people said, "Hey! Show us the genetic testing proving he/she has XX chromosomes!"

Instead, -typical- we had the useful idiot leftwing causehead harpies descending upon us screeching, "How dare you! She's intersex! How dare you question a minority Muslim! You are obviously weirdos with no friends!"

When none of that worked, they had to move on to lawfare against such as JK Rowling and Elon Musk for daring to speak the truth. What nerve that person has to threaten lawsuits against people telling the truth, just to shut them up! Typical left-wing tactic worldwide. Anyway, the take-away from that link is that Imane Khelif's parents may have been blood relatives who produced an offspring with 5-alpha reductase deficiency, a disorder of sexual development that is only found in biological males. This is why The Kharmii doesn't support the incest irl, even if I think identical twins making out is hot. Anyway, here is the entire article under the cut, plus a Twitter link about the problem of inbreeding in Muslim culture:

Cousin marriages are common in Muslim culture because it's a way to keep women down. They get caught in isolated, closely knit families that are able to control every aspect of their lives. That's why it's always good to see new people.

Now the article from the Anon's link:

A shocking new development has emerged in the case of Algerian boxer Imane Khelif after a French journalist reportedly gained access to a damning medical report revealing Khelif has “testicles.” The news comes months after Khelif seized a gold medal in women’s boxing at the Paris Olympics.

The genetic abnormality influences the normal development of a child’s sexual organs. At birth, male babies impacted by 5-alpha are often incorrectly assigned female due to the presence of deformed genitalia that sometimes takes on the appearance of a “blind vaginal pouch.”

This disordered development typically becomes apparent by puberty, when 5-alpha adolescents begin to experience signs of masculinization such as muscle growth, hair growth, and an absence of breast tissue development or menstruation. Without access to a proper clinical examination, males with 5-alpha may incorrectly believe they are female into adulthood.

At the end of October, French journalist Djaffar Ait Aoudia obtained a copy of a thorough physical examination that was conducted on Khelif in order to verify the presence of a disorder of sexual development.

According to Aoudia, the clinical report reveals that an MRI determined that Khelif had no uterus, but instead had internal testicles and a “micropenis” resembling an enlarged clitoris. A chromosomal test further confirmed that Khelif has an XY karyotype, while a hormone test found that Khelif had a testosterone level typical of males. In the file, doctors also suggested that Khelif’s parents may have been blood relatives.

This report coincides with an earlier admission by Khelif’s coach, Georges Cazorla, that the Algerian boxer had been subjected to an assessment at the Kremlin-Bicêtre Hospital after being disqualified from women’s boxing by the International Boxing Association (IBA) in March of 2023.

In an interview from August, Cazorla tepidly conceded that the endocrinologists had determined there was a “problem with [Khelif’s] chromosomes” at the time. Despite this fact, Cazorla insisted that Khelif should still be allowed to compete against females.

Cazorla also stated that Khelif was placed on testosterone suppressants following the 2023 medical assessment. However, the International Olympic Committee has not submitted athletes to chromosomal testing since 1999 and, at the Paris Olympics, the only requirement to participate in women’s boxing was to have a female sex marker on legal documents.

Further confirmation of the boxers’ karyotype was given by Alan Abrahamson, an associate professor at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, who is a specialist in Olympic sports and member of the International Olympic Committee’s press committee. In an August statement, Abrahamson said that he had personally viewed the results of the hotly-contested chromosomal tests ordered by the IBA in 2022 and 2023 which “concluded the boxer’s DNA was that of a male consisting of XY chromosomes.”

The news of Khelif’s leaked medical report comes after he won gold at the Paris Olympics in the women’s 65kg category.

In collaboration with the Independent Council on Women’s Sport (ICONS), Reduxx was the first outlet to break the news of Khelif’s participation in women’s boxing at Paris, raising alarm bells due to his previous disqualification from women’s boxing by the IBA. The news sparked a firestorm of controversy, with the IBA coming out in opposition to the IOC’s decision to allow Khelif to fight women in Paris.

Speaking to Reduxx on this latest revelation, ICONS co-founder Marshi Smith slammed the IOC and the Algerian Olympic Committee for allowing Khelif to continue his journey to Paris gold despite being fully aware he was genetically male.

“The IOC and the Algerian Olympic Committee are complicit in endorsing male violence against women under the guise of public entertainment on the world’s largest sports stage,” Smith said. “They stood by as women were subjected to physical assault for spectacle, stripped of safety, fairness, and their lifetime achievements. All those involved must face swift and serious consequences.”

Smith adds that she believes Khelif should be stripped of his gold medal, but doubts any action will be taken to rectify the injustice.

“We urge leaders in sports and governments worldwide to condemn the IOC and demand a public commitment to ensuring fair and safe sports for women from this day forward. This must never be allowed to happen again.”

[coochiequeens]

“The IOC and the Algerian Olympic Committee are complicit in endorsing male violence against women under the guise of public entertainment on the world’s largest sports stage,” “They stood by as women were subjected to physical assault for spectacle, stripped of safety, fairness, and their lifetime achievements. All those involved must face swift and serious consequences.” - ICONS co-founder Marshi Smith

By Anna Slatz November 4, 2024

A shocking new development has emerged in the case of Algerian boxer Imane Khelif after a French journalist reportedly gained access to a damning medical report revealing Khelif has “testicles.” The news comes months after Khelif seized a gold medal in women’s boxing at the Paris Olympics.

The report was drafted in June of 2023 via a collaboration between the Kremlin-Bicêtre hospital in Paris, France, and the Mohamed Lamine Debaghine hospital in Algiers, Algeria. Drafted by expert endocrinologists Soumaya Fedala and Jacques Young, the report reveals that Khelif is impacted by 5-alpha reductase deficiency, a disorder of sexual development that is only found in biological males.

From the medical report conducted on Khelif.

The genetic abnormality influences the normal development of a child’s sexual organs. At birth, male babies impacted by 5-alpha are often incorrectly assigned female due to the presence of deformed genitalia that sometimes takes on the appearance of a “blind vaginal pouch.”

This disordered development typically becomes apparent by puberty, when 5-alpha adolescents begin to experience signs of masculinization such as muscle growth, hair growth, and an absence of breast tissue development or menstruation. Without access to a proper clinical examination, males with 5-alpha may incorrectly believe they are female into adulthood.

At the end of October, French journalist Djaffar Ait Aoudia obtained a copy of a thorough physical examination that was conducted on Khelif in order to verify the presence of a disorder of sexual development.

According to Aoudia, the clinical report reveals that an MRI determined that Khelif had no uterus, but instead had internal testicles and a “micropenis” resembling an enlarged clitoris. A chromosomal test further confirmed that Khelif has an XY karyotype, while a hormone test found that Khelif had a testosterone level typical of males. In the file, doctors also suggested that Khelif’s parents may have been blood relatives.

The report concludes by recommending Khelif be referred for “surgical correction and hormone therapy,” to help him physically align with his self-perceived gender identity, and adds that psychological support would be required because the results had caused a “very significant neuropsychiatric impact.”

This report coincides with an earlier admission by Khelif’s coach, Georges Cazorla, that the Algerian boxer had been subjected to an assessment at the Kremlin-Bicêtre Hospital after being disqualified from women’s boxing by the International Boxing Association (IBA) in March of 2023.

In an interview from August, Cazorla tepidly conceded that the endocrinologists had determined there was a “problem with [Khelif’s] chromosomes” at the time. Despite this fact, Cazorla insisted that Khelif should still be allowed to compete against females.

Cazorla also stated that Khelif was placed on testosterone suppressants following the 2023 medical assessment. However, the International Olympic Committee has not submitted athletes to chromosomal testing since 1999 and, at the Paris Olympics, the only requirement to participate in women’s boxing was to have a female sex marker on legal documents.

Further confirmation of the boxers’ karyotype was given by Alan Abrahamson, an associate professor at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, who is a specialist in Olympic sports and member of the International Olympic Committee’s press committee. In an August statement, Abrahamson said that he had personally viewed the results of the hotly-contested chromosomal tests ordered by the IBA in 2022 and 2023 which “concluded the boxer’s DNA was that of a male consisting of XY chromosomes.”

The news of Khelif’s leaked medical report comes after he won gold at the Paris Olympics in the women’s 65kg category.

In collaboration with the Independent Council on Women’s Sport (ICONS), Reduxx was the first outlet to break the news of Khelif’s participation in women’s boxing at Paris, raising alarm bells due to his previous disqualification from women’s boxing by the IBA. The news sparked a firestorm of controversy, with the IBA coming out in opposition to the IOC’s decision to allow Khelif to fight women in Paris.

Speaking to Reduxx on this latest revelation, ICONS co-founder Marshi Smith slammed the IOC and the Algerian Olympic Committee for allowing Khelif to continue his journey to Paris gold despite being fully aware he was genetically male.

“The IOC and the Algerian Olympic Committee are complicit in endorsing male violence against women under the guise of public entertainment on the world’s largest sports stage,” Smith said. “They stood by as women were subjected to physical assault for spectacle, stripped of safety, fairness, and their lifetime achievements. All those involved must face swift and serious consequences.”

Smith adds that she believes Khelif should be stripped of his gold medal, but doubts any action will be taken to rectify the injustice.

“We urge leaders in sports and governments worldwide to condemn the IOC and demand a public commitment to ensuring fair and safe sports for women from this day forward. This must never be allowed to happen again.”

[cynthffxiv]

The fun part about when I eventually post my fic is that I'm going to have to resist throwing a Wikipedia article in the author's notes that explains my headcanon for how Viera grow/develop so nobody thinks I'm making shit up

[jppres]

Rhamnetin decreases the expression of HMG-CoA reductase gene and increases LDL receptor in HepG2 cells

Image: Flickr Article published in J. Pharm. Pharmacogn. Res., vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 47-54, January-February 2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.56499/jppres22.1507_11.1.47 Raghad R. Al-Yousef1, Manal M. Abbas1,2, Razan Obeidat2, Manal A. Abbas1,2* 1Faculty of Allied Medical Sciences, Al-Ahliyya Amman University, Amman 19328, Jordan. 2Pharmacological and Diagnostic Research Center, Al-Ahliyya Amman…

[whats-in-a-sentence]

In barley seedlings, nitrate reductase mRNA was detected approximately 40 minutes after addition of nitrate, and maximum levels were attained within 3 hours (Figure 13.4).

"Plant Physiology and Development" int'l 6e - Taiz, L., Zeiger, E., Møller, I.M., Murphy, A.

[radicalchemy]

Remember the man who won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing?

Imane Khelif's new medical reports show he has been confirmed for having 5-alpha-reductase-deficiency. 5-alpha reductase deficiency is a genetic condition that only affects biologically male people.

It is caused by a mutation in the SRD5A2 gene that prevents the body from producing enough dihydro-testosterone, leading to underdeveloped, but biologically male reproductive organs.

But that never mattered—they believe that words & feelings make you woman, not biology.

Absolutely abhorrent and a scandal.

[boringkate]

"In rare cases, an individual may produce an excessive amount of pre-ejaculate fluid, which may be treatable by a 5-alpha-reductase inhibitor, such as finasteride."

The crimes of the modern medical establishment can never be forgotten or forgiven.

[vavuska]

Imane Khelif.

In 2018 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships, Khelif participated for the first time, where she ranked 17th after being eliminated from the first round.

In the 2019 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships held in Russia, where she ranked 33rd after being eliminated from the first round against Natalia Shadrina.

Khelif represented Algeria in the lightweight event at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. She was defeated by Ireland's Kellie Harrington in the quarterfinals.

Khelif participated in the 2022 IBA Women's World Boxing Championships, she faced Ireland's Amy Broadhurst in the final and was defeated.

She is not a warmachine. Khelif is a biological woman. Khelif is NOT transgender or transsexual. In Algeria, the country that Khelif represents, transgender identity is prohibited, changing sex or gender is not allowed in official documents, nor are medical or hormonal treatments allowed to transition to another sex. If she was transgender, Khelif would not be able to rapresent her country at all nor travel with an official passport with a female identity!

However, pop up this rumor she was disqualified from 2023 IBA's Women's World Boxing Championships due to high levels of testosterone. Later this was debunked by the same organization. Potentially, could be doping and it was all covered up by sport industry.

Edit: This disqualification happened three days after Khelif defeated Azalia Amineva, a previously unbeaten Russian athlete. The disqualification restored the Russian boxer's undefeated record and IBA has huge ties with the Russian government: the president Kremlev is a Putin supporter and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) expressed concerns about the IBA under Kremlev's leadership. The IOC has also been alarmed by the fact that the IBA's only sponsor was a Russian state-owned energy company (Gazprom) that supports the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Imane Khelif is a UNICEF ambassador, which could again have been seen as a problem by Russian-led IBA, since UNICEF condemned Russian invasion of Ukraine. IBA's allegations that Khelif had failed unspecified eligibility tests are suspicious, expecially because no medical evidence that Khelif has XY chromosomes or elevated levels of testosterone has been published.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC), cleared Khelif to compete in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, confirming that she complied with all necessary eligibility and medical regulations for the event. The IOC noted that Khelif was a woman according to her passport and that this was not a "transgender issue".

She defeated Angela Carini in 42 seconds at the 2024 Olympics, after Carini decided to withdraw citing intense pain in her nose.

This remember me the 'Caster Semenya' case: after Semenya's victory at the 2009 World Championships, she was made to undergo sex testing, and cleared to return to competition the following year. The decision to perform sex testing sparked controversy in the sporting world and in Semenya's home country of South Africa. Later reports disclosed that Semenya has the intersex condition 5α-reductase 2 deficiency and natural testosterone levels in the typical male range.

In 2019, new World Athletics rules came into force preventing athletes like Semenya with certain disorders of sex development (DSDs) from participating in 400m, 800m, and 1500m events in the female classification, unless they take medication to suppress their testosterone levels. Semenya has filed a series of legal cases to restore her ability to compete in these events without testosterone suppression, arguing that the World Athletics rules are discriminatory.

As Khelif, Semenya is cis and has been accused by many people to be trans. Her story has, again, been used and abused to support the anti-trans agenda, claiming that two ciswomen are trans and are unfairly competing with women due to their superior "men strength".

I think Angela Carini was anxious and scared by days of reporter and far-right rumors about how Khelif is incredibly strong and unbeatable, even if Carini has better statistics and more victories in her career than Khelif herself (who was already a Olympics athlete), she was strumentalized by far-right propaganda and made a scene during the match due to anti-trans panic.

J. K. Rowling and Elon Musk, as always, had their small moment of shaming athletes. Most of people think that Carini has been strumentalized by anti-trans Italian propaganda and after being called out for harassing a cisgender woman, she claimed to be sorry for not having respected her adversary during the match.

Edit: more important thoughts on the matter in a detailed political perspective in Italy - A New York Times article develops more extensively what I wrote here.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/01/world/olympics/boxer-quits-gender-angela-carini-imane-khelif.html?smid=threads-nytimes

Edit 2: Imane Khelif spoke against cyberbullism.

Edit 3: Since in those past days we talked a lot about cis women being called men for not meeting western TERFs standard, I should resurface this old post about how a group of Chinese cis runners were wrongfully called "men" by TERFs.

Edit 4: Elon Musk and J.K. Rowling have been named in the cyberbullying lawsuit filed by Olympic champion Imane Khelif.

Edit 5 - 13th Sept. 2024: Imane Khelif interview

Edit 6 - 13th Sept. 2024: Imane Khelif won gold medal in boxing. Appreciation post.

[mithliya]

A French journalist claims to have the leaked reports of two endocrinologists confirming Imane has a male intersex disorder:

https://lecorrespondant.net/imane-khelif-ni-ovaires-ni-uterus-mais-des-testicules/

Few things to note, there is no confirmation as to whether the report is legitimate as we are only shown a tidbit stating Imane has Alpha 5 reductase type 2. Which would make Imane genetically male if this is the case. A lot of the symptoms they listed Imane to have is consistent with the disorder. However, I do not know the history of this journalist so I cannot determine if there is a history of bias or falsehoods to consider.

Another thing to note is that this is primarily being spread by Imane's detractors who previously and erroneously referred to Imane as transgender. Alongside them endorsing Donald Trump to "protect women" in the same posts, I wouldn't have taken them seriously to begin with.

While this report is exactly what we needed to make a decisive conclusion as to whether Imane should've participated in the olympics, it's being run a mock by conservatives and "gender critical" conmen to endorse politicians who have a history of harming women. No, I don't care if people bring up Reduxx as a credible source when Anna Slatz, a cofounder, published an article for a neonazi group and associated herself with Rebel News, who's a part of the alt right. Us as radfems seriously need to drop it and create an actual news platform FOR women and not have these thinly veiled fascists trying to promote their lapdogs to us.

i dont know how reliable le correspondant is and couldnt find much info on it as a source but imane khelif is already pursuing legal action over the claims that she has XY chromosomes (which is a strange course of action if she does have XY chromosomes)

i second you on reduxx though. that source is run by a racist & homophobic right-wing woman that caters to male conservatives all the time, i unfortunately cannot trust reduxx at all knowing this.

at the end of the day, as ive said in the beginning, idk her chromosomes or her intersex condition or any of that, but people were speculating based on a lack of evidence rather than based on evidence and pretending she was having a massive erection at the end of her fight and arguing no MENA woman would hug a man or be on a man's shoulders and making many racial stereotypes, calling her a man and erasing her experience. whether she has XY or XX chromosomes, she was assigned female at birth & raised female and that experience on its own is worth something especially in MENA where there is a big difference between how men & women are treated.

people have every right to critique the IOC and question the inclusion of intersex conditions which produce (proven) significant advantages but people were harassing her viciously and expecting a woman from an impoverished background to just... entirely drop her career in sports over speculations instead of criticising the olympics for not setting up clear regulations and ensuring fairness to begin with

anyways ill be waiting until something more reliable comes out, but i stand by the fact that the way she was harassed was completely disgusting and a lot of the shit ppl were saying was pure racism. its so easy to discuss that its unfair for people with certain conditions to compete against non-intersex women and to criticise the olympics for it without falling into that and yet people couldn't even do that.

[autogyne-redacted]

Cyperus Rotundus Report:

There's been some recent buzz about Cyperus Rotundus oil for long term hair removal and I've been doing some digging.

While Cyperus is a well established medicinal herb (and infamous agricultural weed) the only two academic studies that seem to exist on it's role in hair removal are a pair of 2012 and 2014 studies by GF Mohammed, an Egyptian dermatology/sexology/venereology professor. Both follow the same basic methods and show the same basic results:

Cis women with unwanted armpit hair massaged .25mls of distilled Cyperus Rotundus essential oil to the target area twice daily, during the study they plucked hairs from the area every 3 weeks (sugaring or threading) and applied oil immediately after hair removal.

They followed this protocol for 6 months. They were evaluated after 8 months, which was 2 months without the treatment and 1 month after their last hair removal.

Results were shockingly good! Showing a more than 90% hair reduction at that point, statistically equivalent to laser for dark hair and fully effective against white hair that laser isn't effective against. (This is the data for the 2014 study, the 2012 is basically identical just with a larger group and no laser comparison group).

This discussion of potential mechanisms boils down to "Cyperus rotundus is rich in potent components such as flavonoids, lignans, and polyphenols.30-33 Flavonoids and lignans have estrogenic activity that may inhibit 5α-reductase and 17β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase via differential transcription activity of an estrogen-response element reporter.34-36 Thus, hair follicles that are entirely androgen dependent can be minimized.1,21,35"

The discussion surrounding these results doesn't tell us much though. There's no discussion of whether or not the author thinks plucking the hair is significant (they just say participants removed hair via "their usual method (sugaring/threading). No discussion of how the dosage was determined or how long results might last/what a long term regiment to maintain results might look like.

Which is to say, maybe it's doing local hormone shit and maybe that's via 5α-reductase and 17β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase. Wikipedia tells me 5alpha is tied to steroid metabolism (with both estrogen and androgens) and that 17beta is involved with the " interconversion of DHEA and androstenediol, androstenedione and testosterone, and estrone and estradiol." This is largely beyond me so for now I'm sticking with, "maybe Cyperus Rotundus does some local hormone shit."

Initially I was dismissive of this explanation (after all, lower systemic androgen levels might lighten hair or make it thinner but androgen-activating hair follicles famously persists regardless of androgen levels. But I've seen some studies suggesting that local androgen levels can interact with hair follicles growth stages in some weird ways, including shortening the Anagen growing phase and maybe increasing the time duration of the rest period before a follicle resets to Anagen.

I wasn't able to find much anecdotal evidence and what I could find wasn't over large time periods, but some Reddit reports noted that even after just a week or so it seemed like hairs were coming out from the root when shaving (ie the length of hairs stuck to the raser was substantially longer than the length visible before shaving) and other noted a dramatically increased consistency of plucked hairs have a bulb (a sign that they were in the anagen growth phase before being plucked and that they actually pulled out from the root and didn't break midway).

Hair follicle growth phase and follicle damage is *weird,* I got midway into a deep dive and started losing focus so I'm posting this with less details than I'd like, but I think there's strong evidence that C Rotundus oil in some way affects the growth phases of follicles in a way that suppresses growth (at least short to mid term). It also seems vaguely possible that the oil somehow makes the follicles more susceptible to damage from the hair getting plucked. As I understand it damage to the follicle is far from guaranteed, but happens regularly with plucking. Tho generally it's only enough damage to push the follicle towards being inactive for a period of months and then coming back good as new, not much of a vector for permanent hair elimination.

The fact that results last months after treatment ends is sick. I figure this could suggest that the relevant medicinal compounds just hang around for a long time (if I circle back to this I'll see if there's halflife data on the potentially relevant compounds). If they do hang around on the scale of months than the twice daily application is probably major overkill.

I also think it's feasible (based off my v limited knowledge) that the C Rotundus effect pushes the follicles into an extended rest period, you stop applying the oil and the follicles stay in track to wait out that rest period before activating again.

And ofc there could be a vector for actual permanent hair removal that I just can't think of, but my slightly informed opinion is that that seems unlikely.

.

Side effects are supposed to be basically non-existent (the only object the studies cite is that some ppl don't like the smell of the oil).

I think the main question for me is figuring out what dosing looks like long term. (Do you cycle on and off, do you apply weekly, is daily application most of the time actually important? Etc)

It's also unclear if plucking vs shaving is important. I've been a big fan of epilating lately so that's what I'll be doing and it seems like it should pair nicely with what I expect from C Rotundus but more data from more ppl trying more different shit with this would be rly tight!!

if any of y'all try it out I'd love to hear how it goes <3 <3 <3

Also I probably have the citations for all of the shit I'm referencing around somewhere and can dig them up if anything is of interest.

[soisaidfine]

Liz Plank: Trump’s Definition of Gender Accidentally Makes All Men Trans (Congrats!)

"Here’s the reality: all embryos start as female. Biologically, every embryo begins with undifferentiated gonads and phenotypically female structures. That’s why men have nipples! And it’s not just humans; this is true for all mammals. Only later, when hormones like testosterone step in, do male traits develop."

Video: Ethel Cain

Liz Plank: "I know there are like eighteen weird things that have happened in the last 72h, but I want to focus on one particular one that I cannot stop crashing out about.

Donald Trump’s latest declaration that “there are only two genders” isn’t just offensive, it’s scientifically embarrassing. In his ridiculously long-winded executive order titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” (because subtlety is dead), he defines "female" as "a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell," and "male" as "a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the small one." It’s almost impressive how he managed to fit so much wrong into one sentence.

Here’s the reality: all embryos start as female. Biologically, every embryo begins with undifferentiated gonads and phenotypically female structures. That’s why men have nipples! And it’s not just humans; this is true for all mammals. Only later, when hormones like testosterone step in, do male traits develop.

And here’s where Trump’s logic does a perfect faceplant. His definition ties “maleness” to producing sperm. But guess what? No one is born producing sperm. That process doesn’t even kick in until puberty. By his own logic, every single man spends the first chunk of their life as “not male.” In other words, his rigid definition inadvertently makes every man’s journey to maleness a literal transition. Congrats, guys, you’re all trans now.

It gets dumber. Trump’s order assumes sex is as simple as reproductive cells, completely ignoring that sex is determined by a cocktail of chromosomes, hormones, internal and external anatomy, and even brain chemistry. Science is not here for his oversimplified take.

Biology isn’t nearly as simple as Trump’s “male makes sperm, female makes eggs” rule. Take Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, where someone with XY chromosomes, the supposed marker of “maleness,” develops female physical traits because their body doesn’t respond to male hormones. Or babies born with 5-Alpha-Reductase Deficiency, who look female at birth but develop male traits during puberty. And what about men who become infertile due to testicular cancer? By Trump’s definition, does that mean they stop being male? Then there’s the fact that about 1 in 100 babies are born intersex, meaning their anatomy doesn’t fit neatly into “male” or “female” at all. Human nature is messy, nuanced, and full of exceptions, unlike Trump’s oversimplified, outdated rhetoric.

This could almost be funny if it weren’t so deeply harmful. This is the same administration that banned some transgender people from serving in the military, repealed Obama-era non-discrimination health care protections, and actively fought against employment rights for LGBTQ workers. Trump’s legacy isn’t just about enforcing binaries, it’s about erasing anyone who doesn’t fit into them.

Science is clear: sex and gender are way more complex than Trump’s fragile worldview can handle. Biology doesn’t care about executive orders, and it certainly doesn’t bow to the insecurities of a man who spends more time perfecting his spray tan than reading a briefing. For someone so desperate to enforce outdated gender rules, Trump sure loves indulging in some gender-affirming practices of his own. spray tans, coiffed hair, lifts in his shoes, if gender is all about the biology, Donald, then what exactly are you so afraid of?

And let’s not forget: facts don’t care about your feelings. Biology is a spectrum, and no amount of insecure bluster or orange contouring can change that. Maybe the real reason Trump is so triggered by trans people is because they live their truth, and he’s been running from his for decades."

Liz Plank

. . .

[reveriesatelier]

Tips for hair growth

Massage your scalp for 5 minutes a day. This increases the blood flow in the scalp. Your hair follicles derive their nourishment from the blood which delivers oxygen and hair-building nutrients, so the more blood circulation their is, the more nutrients the hair gets, which leads to hair growth👌👌👌.

Regularly oil your hair. Sebum is a natural oil that is produced from the sebaceous glands in our scalp that helps maintain our hair health. Sebum is meant to help by moisturising and lubricating hair as a natural conditioner. But when it’s not produced in balanced amounts, hair feels extra greasy or super dry and flaky. This is where hair oiling can be helpful. A quality hair oil will mimic the effects that natural sebum provides. Because we all produce sebum, hair oiling works for all hair types. When you coat the strands, it seals in the moisture instead of having it evaporate. This properly nourishes the hair deep within the strands and scalp. 

Consistently eat pumpkin seeds. Pumpkin seed extract is a gentle yet effective ingredient that has been scientifically proven to block the 5-alpha reductase enzyme that produces DHT, a byproduct of testosterone that causes hair loss.

Don't wash your hair with hot water. Hot water in the shower can contribute to over-stripping the scalp and hair of natural oils, which can make hair feel brittle and scalp dry.

Remember that you won't see hair growth results immediately, it takes a few months to a year, just remember that consistency is the key! 

[rollerska8er]

On Transphobia as Cultural Imperialism

On 1 August 2024, Imane Khelif, an Algerian, and Angela Carini, an Italian, two Olympic women's boxers, fought a second-round boxing match. 46 seconds into the match, after two powerful blows from Khelif, the Italian withdrew from the match, reportedly exclaiming "It's not fair!" and complaining that she had never been hit so hard in her life.

Khelif is a cisgender woman with a build that reads, to many, as masculine. The international governing body for boxing, a corrupt organisation run by a Putin-backed wannabe Russian oligarch, had previously banned Khelif from participating in matches on the basis that genetic testing found that Khelif had XY chromosomes, indicating a possible intersex condition. To be intersex is a distinct thing from being transgender, but most people don't know or don't care to learn the difference.

What this precipitated has been well-documented. British right-wing television channel TalkTV called the fight "Domestic violence turning into spectator sport", while disgraced YouTuber Logan Paul called it "the purest form of evil". J. K. Rowling, posting a picture of Khelif placing a hand on Carini's shoulder in a show of good sportsmanship, accused Khelif of smirking and misgendered her as "a male who knows he's protected by a misogynist sporting establishment".

Khelif's father stated "My child is a girl. She was raised as a girl. She's a strong girl. I raised her to be hard-working and brave. She has a strong will to work and to train." After the end of the Olympic Games, Khelif immediately launched legal action against her critics.

Imane Khelif comes from Algeria, a former French colonial possession. It is pointed that she managed to win a gold medal in the heart of France.

Algeria is one of 63 countries around the world in which homosexuality is illegal, punishable by imprisonment and fines. Algerian law does not recognise the possibility of changing one's gender.

The accusations levelled against her by predominantly white Western commentators who hail from Britain and the United States, therefore, have a certain colonial edge to them. This is not to suggest that Algerian legal attitudes to homosexuality and transsexuality are morally defensible, far from it. But this debacle constitutes the projection of a specifically Western hatred - that is, transphobia in the guise of feminism and protecting lesbians - on to a person from a country that criminalises homosexuality and does not recognise transsexuality.

Transphobia of this kind is becoming a kind of colonial cudgel. The idea of men "dressing up as women" to overtake "real" women is a specifically Western concern, a reaction to increased visibility and accommodation for transgender and non-binary people. This anxiety operates within a specific cultural and political context, and one that is by no means global.

While it may apply in Italy, where homosexuality and transsexuality are recognised, It does not apply at all in Algeria, for example.

Rowling, Paul, and various other blustering commentators saw a woman with a masculine build fight another woman, and concluded that this woman was a male infiltrator who had somehow made it to the Olympics.

This is not to say that the treatment of Khelif would have been acceptable if she had been transgender. Far from it. But this mass-libelling was both transmisogynist and colonialist: transmisogynist because it relied on hateful tropes about trans women, and colonialist because it removed Khelif from her ethnocultural context and placed her in a Western context that did not and could not apply to her. She was expected to fit the norms of Western society, and she was publically harangued for it.

This has happened before, of course. Caster Semenya, a South African middle-distance runner found to have the intersex condition 5α-Reductase 2 deficiency, was banned from many athletics events due to the "unfair advantage" conferred upon her by her naturally higher testosterone levels, and continues to fight court battles to let her run.

(The argument has become cliché at this point, but Michael Phelps, a man with various bodily mutations which happen to make him an exceptionally good swimmer, has never been asked to return even one of his twenty-eight Olympic medals.)

Transphobia of the kind that is now popular across the political spectrum in the Western world has become a tool for a pernicious kind of cultural imperialism that is, quite simply, fascist. It stems from a colonial, white supremacist, hegemonic mindset, which insists that the Western world has the purest ethics, and everyone in the world must be held to such standards.

I am not a moral relativist. I do not believe that queer, trans and intersex liberation only works for some cultures. I believe in and support queer, trans and intersex liberation worldwide.

But by the same token, I do not believe that Americans and Britons should be allowed to demand that everyone in the world is an American or a Briton, to be treated like an American or a Briton. I do not believe that the collective white saviour complex of Western liberal democracy and capitalism will liberate queers, trans and intersex people.

And I certainly believe that the mass-crybullying of athletes who happen to excel at what they do on the basis of pseudo-feminist white woman pearlclutching can and should be called out for what it is: cultural imperialism.

It is the white Western world demanding that the entire world be brought to heel.

We must reject this, and we must not fool ourselves into believing this is mere idiocy. Mere idiocy is one thing. Trying to ruin a person's life because you assume every muscular, square-jawed woman is a secret man in disguise, because you're Oh So Fucking Feminist And Just Trying To Protect Women And Girls From Disgusting Violent Men is, quite simply, fascist crybullying.

Accept no excuses or apologies from these wheedling maggots. They want everyone who is not like them dead.

[harrypotterfuryroad]

Isn't that boxer being discussed female tho?

the reporting is really murky which is why i was trying to figure out what was actually going on before saying anything, but from what i can tell (which, again, murky) it's a semenya-like situation where someone with xy has something like 5a reductase deficiency or androgen insensitivity (both of which are male-specific DSDs)

the specifics are being kept confidential but multiple tests have supported the disqualification

either way i think i'd trust the olympic-level boxer to know what kinds of force she's been up against before, and i doubt she'd tap out that early unless something was really wrong