#yes its a chromosome

[mountaingulo]

*VARIABLE X*

artfight friendly fire for my twinnie (metaphysics on af) of her bizarre character created during middle school

[wasabikitcat]

Do you think he realizes that this implies all humans are female?

[steeb-stn]

My medically-trained self trying to figure out how omega, a girl, is a clone of Jango Fett

[hellsitegenetics]

https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-3999

String identified: SCP-3999 Object Class: Apollyon Special Containment Procedures: SCP-3999 cannot be contained stop be contained

String identified: Item #:

String identified: Researcher Talloran:

Closest match: Trametes ferrium Common name: Metal eating fungus.

Researcher Talloran is to be identified using the BLAST database modeled using AlphaFold kept in a standard terrarium suitable for moths.

Common name: finding tumblr's genome one post at a time.

String identified: The following file contains a virulent infohazard. Due to this, it is imperative that all personnel accessing this file be certified as having a Cognitive Resistance Value (CRV) of no less than 14.5. Should you fail an automated CRV verification, please remain calm and do not move. A member of your site's medical staff Researcher Talloran will be with you shortly.

Special Containment Procedures: Researcher Talloran is to have his genome aligned with its 12 closest genetic matches using MEGA. Navigate to the "table" section and select phylogenetic tree. Click "yes." Use sub-branches to note connections between each branch, such as families or kingdoms.

Item #: Cydia strobilella genome assembly, chromosome: Z Object Class: Spruce seed moth

(Researcher Talloran must link the image source.) This can be the only conclusive fact.

So stop asking.

[thatbitchery]

On today's episode of me doing everything BUT the thing I am actually supposed to be doing (I have work ppl if you see me on this app again remind me I have work) let me de-influence you a little because your questions are just- uhm. You're living in an illusion

Highly effective does not mean always busy, not even to men. It means effective. You are not supposed to always be busy what kind of life is that?? I know what you mean when you say you're wasting time and the answer is still the same but I think you have this weird idea that highly effective and highly successful people are always being productive? Uhm no thats not a thing. That is not even a life you want. Your favorite idol (someone you look up to, not singer) is not working 24/7. Its actually mostly finding a way to do the most work with the least effort. Your problem isn't that you are not busy it's that you are not effective, and I'm willing to bet it's a mix of intense loneliness and not really having a tangible working plan. You know what you want, you have a vague idea how to get there but not a tangible plan. The goal isn't to never go on tiktok again or watch your favorite anime or movie or not lazy around and suck the joy out of life to become a machine thats why they have robots. The goal is effectiveness.

Money is not made in investments it's made in taking risks. I don't want you to invest so you can make money (you could, if you invest a huge sum) I want you to invest so you can preserve your wealth as it grows. Bond with a 13% interest is better than your bank, isn't it? But 15% of 5000 is 750 you're not making any incredible wealth there are you? 15% of 500000 is 75k though and thats why I said investments only make wealth when you have a large sum- and even then in comparison to 500k 75 isn't that much is it. You can not invest your way into wealth but you can preserve your wealth that way. Investment is for beating inflation. If inflation is 7% and you have a 15% interest you have preserved the value of your money and added 8% value. You can not save your way into wealth either, you have to take risks with it. You can earn your way in if you work high paying and not have to pay off debt and bills yes but the main way people make wealth is by taking risks. Investing is for preserving value mostly. Seriously, get a finance bro.

There is not a single month as a person with an XX chromosome thingy that you will be consistent day 1 to day 30 that's a men thing. You will have a week you think you can take over the world, one week you will murder someone for breathing the same air as you and would rather die than leave your bed, one week you are full of ideas and- ma. Your body works in a cycle YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE PRODUCTIVE ALL MONTH you will superhead yourself into some type of PCOS be fr. It is not weird that you are not as motivated as the month moves it's nature. Make weekly goals not monthly goals. It is not a bad thing when you, a woman, are in a body that works like the body of a woman. Why am I not always motivated- because you are a woman and your vitamin balance is weird probably.

What you don't know you either fear or worship. It's really that simple. This sounds- heh- but you only want it because you have never had it.

Social climbing is only mostly beneficial when you have some level of wealth. Having wealthy friends is expensive trust me. And honestly if you are just starting out social climbing is a bad idea. Really really bad idea. Power imbalances are breeding grounds for abuse and one of these days you'll understand human beings are apex predators and your life will get so so so simple. One level above. Just one. {and frankly I highly advice social climbing for my ladies but if you are not an escort or sugar baby don't. don't. Just, it's not what you are hoping it is}

There is no formula to making friends you just have to go out there and do it. The social formula is called learning to read the room and having a very strong self concept, and both are learned in practise. There are no 'tips' talk to people.

It is 100% normal to not have things figured out pre 25. After 25 yes its a problem but you are 19. Just do whatever brings you money, be smart with that money, throw yourself into experiences and learn as much as you can. It is not weird that at 22 you don't know what you want to do with your life it's normal. It makes things harder yes but you have like 75 more years of being alive whats the rush? Make money, give your frontal lobe time. You are supposed to be confused about your future it's just a thing that happens relax.

There aren't as many millionaires as you think there are. Have you seen the wealth distribution chart? You seem behind and you feel like you are left behind because you are on the pseudo finance side of Tiktok with everyone and their mom being a millionaire and it seems like it's everyone? It's not. Most people live with their parents to 30 (which is why your mom bought a three bedroom btw. You fuss and fight but she wants you there) and buy homes in their 40s . You are not left behind you're normal you just consume content that targets that part of you that naively said she'd be a CEO by 22.

You just need to grow up tbh. This is how the world works.

[rei-ismyname]

Let's talk R-LDS

R-LDS or Resurrection-Linked Degenerative Sickness was alluded to in X-Men #4 and the Infinity Comics before being named in X-Men #7. We're told that Magneto has it and it's directly caused by Krakoan resurrection/The Five, kinda.

Here's Beast doing some alluding.

In the panels above, we learn that Hank McCoy is the only one working on the problem - the problem being Magneto's loss of his powers and his body breaking down rapidly - his very chromosomes unraveling. He seems quite sure that it could happen to 'any of us' though the lack of quarantine suggests it's not contagious.

The next bit of information we receive is from Magneto and Scott in conversation, reflecting on The Iron Night. They took down a wild sentinel that was attacking the town and Mags lost control over his powers immediately after, requiring Scott to knock him out for safety's sake. Scott is no scientist, and while Magneto is a genius polymath autodidact (with plenty of experience in genetics) it's not a character trait that's seen focus lately. Thus, I'm assuming they're discussing it as amateurs and as patient zero in Magneto's case.

Magneto confidently names the condition for the first time as well as using an acronym for it, suggesting it's confirmed to exist, he's had a positive diagnosis, and they're using the term enough to require shorthand. He even spells out the subtext for us - it was a hidden flaw in Krakoan resurrection. I'll come back to that notion. Scott says 'we don't know that for sure,' implying that R-LDS is just a theory or speculation, which Mags doesn't directly refute. Instead he lays out the worst case scenario. They can't both be right here, so what's the deal? Magneto's symptoms are obviously confirmed, but how did they get from there to here?

If Magneto is the first and only person affected by his condition, why are he and Beast so sure about its providence and everyone being in danger? How could they possibly link it to Krakoan resurrection? I'm no scientist but I do know that there's only so much you can conclude from a single data point. Magneto was indeed only resurrected by the Five once, but he died again after that on Arakko (X-Men Red #7). The body he's in came out of a portal from Overspace in Adam Brashear's underwater base (Resurrection of Magneto #3.) His body suffering a condition borne of something that happened to a different body doesn't make sense. Considering he's the only person to return to life that way AND the only one allegedly with R-LDS, that would be the place to start for Beast's sciencing.

There he is, good as new.

Word of God

In a recent AIPT interview, Tom Brevoort removed any ambiguity and just straight up confirmed it. With the caveat that his recent X-history knowledge seems pretty poor, he is the de jure ultimate authority on the matter. I don't agree with that, and not just because I don't respect him as a creator. This habit of on-panel ambiguity and editorialising in interviews is vexing.

It's especially vexing when he contradicts himself. He counterpoints his own information with some of what I just pointed out, but the fact that they've made a list of who was and wasn't resurrected suggests R-LDS is a plot point they're committed to. I have to wonder why he bothered giving a detailed answer to this question if it's 'yes,' then 'maybe', then 'it will definitely be a thing you'll see as we progress.' Saying all of that and then ending with 'we know very little so far' really makes me wonder what he's thinking. Tom Brevoort could have given his usual cagey answer about not wanting to spoil anything, but he didn't here. I'm saving most of my Brevoort-specific criticism for a separate piece, but this glib and irreverent tone is typical of his commentary - even managing a light jab at Jordan D White.

Frankly, I think it's a graceless and cynical development. There are so many character beats, mistakes, and conflicts to use from the First Krakoan Age that choosing to create R-LDS feels like a shot at the core of hopefulness and creativity that blew our socks off in 2019.

HoxPoX

House of X/Powers of X was hopeful and magical. After a decade plus of endless misery and genocides, dull stories and bizarre characterisation, for once mutants got a W. The ability to use mutants working together to right the horrendous wrongs they'd suffered was central to that - the power of community and cooperation. What they built wasn't perfect but The Five was something they got right.

What would possess someone to take the cornerstone of the greatest X-Men story of all time (don't @ me) and try to tear it down? Remember, when the dust settled we ended up in Moira X life 10E. In 10A, the original Krakoan experiment, the mutants won! They thrived and protected what was theirs against Dominions. It took a literal apex AI God existing outside of space and time directly opposing them to fail. Enigma, on the back foot, sent Omega Sentinel through time to start ORCHIS years early and ensure Krakoa's collapse. Am I to believe 'no, sorry. That was a dead end?'

Haven't we been here before?

We've had mutants suffer from the Legacy Virus and M-Pox already, and I might even be missing other examples of nebulous diseases that threatened to wipe out all mutants. Obviously it's the prerogative of the X-Office to use whatever plot points they want, but do we really have to do this again? There are plenty of ways to sideline Magneto as a combatant that don't require repackaging old storylines. We've even had Hank McCoy decades behind the curve desperately trying to catch up before - in All-New All-Different X-Men.

Small World

Defenders-era Hank McCoy might be the worst possible 616 scientist to tackle this problem. He's literally decades behind the science curve and doesn't have the experience in dealing with anything like this. He's not the same guy that worked on M-Pox or the Legacy Virus. He never set foot on Krakoa and has never met any of the Five. We don't know how much data was recorded or kept from The Five but Beast may not have access to it.

Why isn't he talking to Cecilia Reyes, Forge, Jean Grey, Reed Richards, Doctor Strange, Adam Brashear, Healer, Doctor Nemesis? Even doctor dickhead that extorted Storm has the ability to instantly diagnose anyone. It makes the world feel tiny, and when you're following an era of interconnectedness that's just so disappointing. Portraying him as supremely concerned about 'all of us being ticking time bombs' rings hollow if he's working on it solo. Hank McCoy has always had a sense of arrogance where his scientific ability is concerned but not to this degree. Look at the guy! He's hating the stress he's under.

Sins of Sinister and the White Hot Room

I have to wonder if the implications of linking Magneto's illness to The Five's resurrection have been fully considered. The Sins of Sinister timeline ran for a millennium with the Five resurrecting on an industrial scale. Rasputin IV would have noticed, or the Quiet Council. The mutants left behind in the White Hot Room in RotPox spent 15 years bringing back ALL the dead mutants. That's 16 million, minimum. 15 years is less than a thousand but it's still longer than the First Krakoan Age, several times over. Nobody noticed anything? Elixir, member of the Five and Omega biokinetic, with his unlimited mastery of DNA didn't notice anything? Destiny didn't see mutants falling apart? Sounds dubious as hell to me.

Towards the end of the era many humans were resurrected too. 5% of the Five's work was set aside for bringing back poor children etc through the Phoenix Foundation. Steve Rogers was resurrected into his current body on Judgement Day. I am extremely skeptical that this has been considered, and in Steve's case whether the X-Office can even use him.

Conclusion

Magneto's physical degradation has been swift. Here he is in Uncanny X-Men #700, implied to be at most 6 months before X-Men #1. I think I've demonstrated that the concept is nonsensical and to reiterate, I think it's a terrible narrative choice. If I'm being generous, it'll be interesting to see if they can explain R-LDS in a way that makes sense - if they can do something new and interesting with a tired concept. There's only been one issue since it was introduced, so perhaps I'm jumping the gun on breaking it down. Let's check back in 6 months.

What do you think of R-LDS? Do you think my reasoning is sound? As always, I'd love to hear what other fans think.

[official-megumin]

alright

So I have seen a few people talking about uterus transplants on this site and other places.

And other than the obvious(transphobes) not fully understanding how it works, it seems to be treated as almost some magical miracle treatment we'll get one day, which almost certainly boils down to how taboo the topic is.

I have personally read up on it as much as I can(specifically to shut up transphobes spreading misinformation)

So I felt like I had to set some reasonable expectations so we don't all set ourselves up for disaster once the technology fully arrives(which it will soon)

So first off, yes. Trans women and other AMAB people will be able to get uterus transplants. There isn't some mystical "maleness" that prevents trans women from being able to have a uterus transplanted into them or from being able to get pregnant. But it does have its limits.

This technology has already been successfully performed on cis women(note plural), and there is no reason to believe it won't be able to be done on a trans woman sooner rather than later(I am no expert, but I would still hazard to guess that the biggest hurdle for that right now is public perception and bigotry)

This means that we also more or less know what it will be able to accomplish.

There has been at least one successful pregnancy borne to term with a transplanted uterus, so yes. Trans women will be able to bear children sometime in the near future.

But, there is a big caveat. You won't be able to keep the transplanted uterus post pregnancy. This has nothing to do with AGAB or anything like that, it is the exact same thing for cis women.

Unfortunately organ transplants are very complex, and even in other less particular organs, you still need to be on immunosuppressants for the rest of your life to prevent your body from attacking the new organ.

The same sadly also goes for a uterus. You will essentially only be able to have a uterus transplanted into you, go through your pregnancy whilst immunosuppressants, and then get a hysterectomy when you've given birth.

Again, this complications arrise with any organ transplant, so it has NOTHING to do with trans women not being "real women" and anyone trying to tell you that a uterus would "wither away in a male body" is lying to you.

A womb doesn't need two x chromosomes to form to begin with. There are plenty of intersex AMAB people born with uteri(myself most likely included).

I don't mean to crush any dreams or bring down the mood, I just don't want anyone to stay waiting for some ideal future that likely never will arrive.

I can't predict the future, I am not a doctor or biologist. I can't say for sure that we will never develop a technology that removes all the risk of organ transplants. It is also very possible that we develop a way to make you grow a uterus or other organs in your body after being born, or even just lab grown organs using your own DNA.

All I know is how organ transplants work currently and for the forseeable future.

[cripplecharacters]

Hello, I'm writing a character that is autistic. I'm autistic and white (afab) and my character is black (amab), can I use my own experience with autism as a "draftc for his character? If not, what can I do to make the writing feel correct/original?

(sry if I made any grammar mistakes, I'm not a native speaker)

Hi asker,

Ultimately, autism is both race- and sex- and gender- neutral. Symptoms and traits are not going to vary drastically because of any of the above things.

So yes, you can use your own experience as a basis for your character. What you'd need to pay more attention to is the responses of other people to your character and the culture that they're being raised in.

For example, black disabled people are treated especially heinously by law enforcement, so if you were going to include anything about that, a little black kid might be taught as much as possible by his family to be careful around cops and develop a script and to not stim around them. Masking and not stimming in a case like this isn't a case of hiding your true self, it's about protecting your life and safety. And yet, this doesn't actually have anything to do with this character's autism being any different than a little white boy his age. Just that it is treated differently.

And, like any character of color, the only way to make them isn't just to make them live the same life culturally than a white person and then change the color of their skin. Researching about their culture and including bits of that in their life is important – things like food, values, hairstyles, cultural events, holidays, and such.

I want to add that the assigned genders of your characters don't matter as much as you think they might. I know it's common to refer to 'female/girl autism' on the internet as its own separate beast, but there isn't really a material difference in symptoms and traits. Some traits will be seen differently socially by others, like with race, and people might be treated differently depending on their sex about how they behave, but the behaviors themselves are not divided nicely on a gender line or anything like that. That misconception, really, is just born from misogyny, sexism, and societal expectations, not from autism itself being different.

Hope this helps,

mod sparrow

Hello,

mod Sparrow covered the actual question, so I'll mention the AGAB part.

There is no sexual dimorphism related to hormones, genitals, or chromosomes in autism. The severity of a person's symptoms or how they experience them is unrelated to any kind of sex characteristic, nor to a past decision made on the basis of at-the-time appearance of the person's external genitals, which is what AGAB is.

The "girl/boy autism" is a sexist dichotomy that is completely made up and presents girls as inherently less disabled by their autism. It erases the severely disabled girls and women who do have autism and shows "girl autism" as more manageable and pro-social than "boy autism" which is impossible to control and anti-social. That's nonsense and the same kind of erasure of women as in every other minority.

The only real difference that is based on gender is how it's socially treated by others, just like mod Sparrow mentioned. Men's autistic symptoms are generally considered more acceptable than they would be if they belonged to a woman, even if the symptom is exactly the same. If a man shows autistic tendencies, he can be considered "intriguing and unique", but if a woman did the same, she would be "off-putting and weird".

This, however, obviously isn't based on what the person's AGAB was. A transgender woman's autistic behavior won't be seen the same way a cisgender man's behavior would be. It will in fact put her under more scrutiny than a cis woman would be under, not less. AGAB is a past event that serves no function in this question, nor in most contexts. AGAB doesn't answer for gender, presentation, chromosomes, hormone dominance, organs, functionality of these organs, or anything else other than what someone arbitrarily said about a newborn. Categorizing people based on what gender they were assigned at birth - rather than any present characteristic - is bioessentialism.

I know this is not an answer to the ask, but please question what a past evaluation of the character's genitals would inform here that their actual gender wouldn't.

mod Sasza

[dhddmods]

Trans-women & cis-women can't be told apart.

So tired of people saying they "aren't attracted to trans-women" or "aren't attracted to intersex women."

You cannot tell who is cis or trans by looking at them. You cannot tell who is intersex or dyadic. You can have genital preferences, but you can't know what's in someone's pants by looking at them.

Intersex women can be cisgender. They can be AFAB. They can appear fully female externally, while having "male" or ambiguous organs internally. Or they can be fully female internally and externally, with only their chromosomes or hormones being different. (If you want to actually learn what it means to be intersex, read our post on it and reblog to spread awareness.)

And even if a cisgender woman is female, they can be altersex. They can choose to have their genitals altered. They can choose to go on hormones of some kind.

Equally, trans women can be intersex. They can have a vulva. Or they can be transsex, and have a vaginoplasty or vulvoplasty.

A cis woman could be intersex and have atypical genitals.

A trans woman could be intersex and have a vulva.

A trans woman could have a vulva from bottom surgery.

A cis woman could have been born with a vulva, but due to being altersex, have their genitals changed through bottom surgery.

A cis woman could be bulky, have a deep voice, have lots of body or facial hair, and a prominent Adams apple, due to being intersex, altersex and using hormones, or just straight up genetics.

A trans woman could be petite, have a light voice, have very little hair, and no Adams apple due to being intersex, altersex/transsex, or just straight up genetics.

A cis woman could have no uterus and/or ovaries, due to being intersex or having a hysterectomy or oophorectomy.

A cis woman could have testicles due to being intersex, or being altersex and having prosthetic testes.

A trans woman could have a uterus and/or ovaries due to being intersex.

Saying you are "only attracted to cis-women" is just ignorance, transphobia, intersexism, and altersexism. You don't know what you are talking about. You are implying that trans or intersex women look "less feminine" or "less like a woman." You are WRONG if you think that.

Yes, transphobes and intersexists unfortunately can sometimes clock a trans or intersex women, but cisgender dyadic women are also being accused of "not passing" constantly by transvestigators. That's our point. PASSING AND NOT PASSING IS CISNORMATIVE AND RIDICULOUS.

This goes for people who claim not to be attracted to trans or intersex men too. But its more often seen for trans and intersex women.

[sickly-sapphic]

Old post on intersex misinformation!! This was inspired by one of the *first* posts I saw mentioning intersex people having an intersexist definition on it.

[ID: A purple and yellow, warped and checkered background on all slides. Text reads; Intersex Misinformation. A quick guide to what intersex is and isn't.

With pride month finally here, queer celebration, pride and awareness posts are spreading like wildfire - and with them comes an onslaught of misinformation. A common victim of these poorly-researched, last minute, tacked on and misinforming definition are intersex people.

"Intersex means people who have multiple or different primary sex characterstics." This might be something you hear a few times while you're perusing pride posts. Primary sex characterstics, for starters, are anatomy like the vulva, scrotum and cervix, among other things. It's not a very long list.

Did you know? Boobs are a secondary sex characterstic - not a primary one!

But intersex bodies aren't always defined by the vulva, penis, or both. Intersex people are those born with bodies different to the typical male or female bodies, or that function different. This can mean different hormones, different anatomy and different chromosomes.

"But there *are* people with both, aren't there?" Yes! Ovotesticular intersexuality exista and can present as people having both a penis and vulva. However, this is not the only intersex variation and its not even the most common one! It just happens to be the "most fascinating" to perisex people.

There are 35+ intersex variations, and we *all* deserve respect, acknowledgement and celebration.

What should I do if I see misinformation?

Luckily, it's not all on you to be the saviour to intersex people! But you can try not liking or sharing these posts, or even blocking the creator to avoid seeing *more* uncomfortable misinformation.

If you want to do more, commenting or dm-ing creators of misinforming posts is also an option, but be sure youre thinking about your safety and mental health as not everybody is open to criticism. End ID]

[pokemonshelterstories]

Figured since you raise Pidove, I might as well ask you about this.

My roommate's an avid birder, whereas I'm not, but when I went to pick him up earlier today, after he blew his bike tire out on the cycling path, we ran into what he described as a "bilateral gynandromorph" Unfezant (again, NOT a bird person). The left half had the mask, green feathers, and dangly bits, but the right half didn't.

How does this kind of thing happen, and should I call the rangers?

yes, that's what it's called! bilateral gynandromorphs in bird pokemon are thought to occur due to an irregularity in the number of sex chromosomes, effectively causing two distinct pokemon of different sexes to combine into one pokemon with two sexes.

if the unfezant has survived to the point of reaching its final evolution, it's likely going to be okay. most predators find unfezant to be more trouble than its worth because of their ferocious nature. my main concern for this guy would be its ability to fly, since having that heavy mask on just one side might make it unbalanced, but male unfezant spend a lot of time on the ground, so i don't think it's going to be too devastating. calling the rangers shouldn't really be necessary.

still, you and your roommate are insanely lucky- these birds are rare, and you were fortunate enough to encounter one with obvious sexual dimorphism!

[amber-tortoiseshell]

Why was CC's (cloned cat) X already inactivated completely?

I thought the tortie pattern was just different to the original donor's pattern. I didn't know that their was no orange at all, making them tabby instead of tortie tabby.

Is it because the specific cell they used was from a tabby germ cell on the tortie donor?. I'm guessing the germ cell isn't tabby and orange? As tortie doesn't breed true, or at least I think soneone said that.

Could this have been possible to be orange instead? But then again, they would need two orange chromosomes? Is it possible that a self calico could make a clone of pure black or pure orange?

I don't know much about x inactivation. Especially in regards to clones.

Because in cloning, they put the nucleus of a (mature) somatic cell into an egg with its own nucleus removed. (For example Dolly, the cloned sheep was famously made from an udder cell.) I'm not sure about everything that happens during the process, but apparently it doesn't reverses the X-inactivation, so all of the clone's cells will have the same X chromosome active than the transferred nucleus. In CC's case, that was the black, and seeing her kittens, the inactivation probably included her germ cells too. (My guess is half of her eggs had the inactive red X and were nonviable.)

CC and her kittens. Seems like she's heterozygous for white spotting. And one kitten has white ears too!

And yes, if the nucleus-donor cell happens to have an active red X, the clone will be red. A self calico's clone would equally likely be black-and-white and orange-and-white.

Red clone of a tortie: cloned kitten with her (unrelated) surrogate mother, nuclear donor on the smaller picture.

[catboybiologist]

has anyone ever told you that you're perfect as a biological man and you should learn to love yourself as the man that you are????

so cw for discussions of transphobia and all that. So first off, yes, but I'm still trans. End of that discussion.

But anyways, I got this and a similar ask back to back, from either a transphobe or a troll making a weird joke. While the asks themselves are uninteresting, they made me want to talk about something that's been brewing in my head a while. And that's how the phrases "biological man" and "biological woman" make no goddamn sense, as a biologist. So I'm gonna use this ask as starting point to launch into that greater discussion- I'm not really responding to the asks itself, more dumping some thoughts I've had kicking around for a while. (Also sorry this blog is so transfemme language centered sometimes, I'm just writing from my perspective and don't want to exclude anyone I'm sorry. The rest of this post will be from a transfemme perspective but applies to transmascs as well for testosterone and other elements of ftm transition).

The reason it doesn't make sense to me is like, what exactly do you mean by biological? You're describing a massive biological system, and all of its components. So let's dissect what you could mean by "biological".

Obviously you're not talking about the entire human biochemical system, because biology includes our thoughts and behavior. So if someone socially or identity transitions, we're already eliminating some biological factors from what we consider as "biological" here.

Soft tissue secondary sex characteristics are easily acquired by HRT. Shit, I have some breasts growing already, and I'm 4.5 weeks in. So that can't be what you're talking about.

So maybe you're talking functional genetics? Well if we wanna talk that way, we gotta talk about gene regulation. The entire point of taking HRT is the change patterns in gene expression across the body, suppressing genes associated with masculine secondary sex characteristics and promoting genes associated with feminine secondary sex characteristics. Estrogen, like any hormone, is a signalling molecule that is trafficked between cells and across the body. Its job is to kick off a network of downstream signals that carry out a variety of individual functions. So in terms of active genes, a trans person on HRT will functionally be the sex of their target gender.

Okay okay, maybe for some reason you don't care if they're off or on, if you have a gene that has the potential to make you male, you're a man, dammit! Well, as mentioned before, everyone has the genes required to give you secondary sex characteristics of either sex. So under that definition, everyone is biologically both a man and a woman at the same time. And also biologically cancer. Not "biologically has cancer", biologically IS cancer. Also, we're all every organ all at once everywhere on our body. Changing patterns in gene expression are how one organ differentiates from another, and how many visible traits arise. As mentioned earlier, this includes many genes responsible for secondary sex characteristics.

But chromosomes! Y chromosome is a man! The only reason the X and Y chromosomes have relevance to sex determination is due to the Sry gene, which is linked to the Y chromosome. Why is this the case? Well, your chromosomes are paired. Normally, pairs of chromosomes are the same size and have the same genes. This is helpful, because it means you can have two copies of every gene- if one becomes nonfunctional, you have a backup, or you can express multiple spicy variants of the same gene. Somewhere in our evolutionary history, one of these pairs of chromosomes experienced a large scale deletion, causing many of these genes to be missing. It's fine if you have the backup copies on the other chromosome- but some kind of patch needs to be developed to help make sure that, on average, most offspring have at least one copy of the full chromosome. So, the individuals that linked the Sry gene to the Y chromosome, the chopped-up version of the chromosome, passed down some offspring. But there's nothing intrinsic about why it has to be this way- most animals don't have chromosomal sex determination at all. Even in mammals its fairly common for an X chromosome to grab the Sry gene, creating a phenotypic male with an XX karyotype. It's an evolutionary patch, nothing more, and a rule that is frequently broken. And if we want to talk about evolutionary patches being biological determinism… well then let's start talking about how vitamin C deficiency is the "biologically mandated" state of the human. And besides, chromosome structure is really mostly relevant for how it functionally affects gene expression, and we already talked about how gene expression is changed by HRT here.

Alright, alright dammit. I'm talking about the genitals, dammit. If you have a penis you're a man! Okay great. Tell me if you would classify post-SRS women as "biological" women then. Also, we're really starting to reach here.

Fine! I'm talking about bone structure and bone structure alone! I mean yeah, some elements of bone structure will always remain in someone that's had testosterone in their system long enough- its rock deposits in your body after all, its difficult to reverse. But some don't! Even adults on transfemme HRT experience hip widening, changes in height, and other changes in their bones (they just take a LONG time, and I've often ranted about the massive amount of misinformation regarding how long HRT takes to show its full effects). Additionally, there's plenty of surgeries for facial structures- is FFS the true hallmark of a "biological" woman? And also… no matter what metric you start drawing lines on here, you're gonna end up excluding some cis women as well.

To be abundantly clear, NONE of this is to say that you aren't valid if you aren't medically transitioning. What I'm doing here is pointing out that "biological" is a useless, overexpansive, arbitrary adjective that, even using the most transphobic definitions, still includes most trans people. The line is drawn… somewhere in here, to them. And more often than not, it will be drawn wherever excludes the most trans people, which will invariably exclude some cis people, and they'll all eat each other alive.

The reality is that "man" and "woman" are useful conventions that can be generally applied to classify most people into one category or another. And that's not unique to gender, it's literally how language works. As with pretty much any linguistic classification, its observational, not prescriptive. When thinking up of names for animals, we don't think up of a definition first, we see a group of animals that share similar traits and then think up of a name that will represent that species. But then, if we find more edge cases later, or an edge case becomes more prominent, we either adjust the definition or subdivide the group further with accurate terminology. Imagine if, around the time humanity discovered weasels, we made a definition of weasels that only included the European Mink. Then we found the least weasel, and people started crusading about how its "not biologically a weasel" and "defend weaselkind". It's just so… arbitrary. Where it begins and ends is up to us as a society, and linguistics, meaning that "biological" as an adjective here isn't doing much.

What is a woman? Well, some combination of the factors above, and many, many more I didn't talk about here. It's a classification cluster of people exhibiting certain traits that is not easily reducible to a simple adjective. And guess what, so is literally anything we see in the world. What is a race? What is a nationality? What is a species? What is continent? There are useful, simple definitions for each of these things- and those definitions are helpful on a first pass! But once you start to examine it more closely, that utility breaks down, and you have to get more nuanced. Which is exactly what happens for trans people, but for some reason, people aren't willing to have that conversation in the same way we're able to have quirky debates over whether or not Australia counts as a continent or an island.

I want to develop these thoughts further at some point, but I hope this is at least a good summary of my perspective on all this, as a biology grad student, and I hope that some people find utility and comfort in my explanation!

[aftonfamilyvalues]

how women on here are reacting to the boxing situation is the final straw for me with radblr tbh.

like imagine this scenario for a second: people are making false claims about you that you not only can easily disprove with a simple, uninvasive test, but you've ALREADY DONE said test in the past so you'd just need to ask them to publish the results. you can debunk these claims with the same amount of effort required to push a button.

but you don't. you have Literally The Easiest Option In The World to prove you're right and you don't do it.

and yet because women have created their own OC for this guy in their heads who is a female with androgen issues they'd rather defend their self-made blorbo as a way to peacock about how "yes all women" and/or "not racist" they are than do 2 seconds of research and critical thinking to realize "hey maybe this situation that fits literally all the criteria for the dude being a male, including the fact that he's been previously disqualified from competing in the women's league TWICE yet shows up for the Female Olympics anyway, means he's actually just a liar and cheater"

i'm open to having some sympathy for him if his parents (tried to*) raise him as a girl but like. he's a fucking adult. he took a sex test. he knows who he is now. he's making his own decisions. one of these decisions is choosing to hide who he is.

*idc how misogynistic his parents are in believing "no vagina??? but no penis. no penis = female. because female = non-male.", if they knew he had a male-specific dsd that coloured how they raised and treated him, even if they tried to hide it. the act itself of hiding it from him and trying not to raise him that way makes their treatment of him already inherently different from how they'd raise him if he were actually female.

link here

im going to try to go about this in the most respectful way possible.

i cant say i agree with everything youre saying here. theres still a lot of misinformation about this and i cant say a slatz tweet is very satisfying for me given the racist and homophobic things ive seen from her. but, if what you say is true, that this boxer is an intersex male who was assigned female at birth, i think its completely unfair to treat her entirely as a man. the community tends to regard itself as a place for intersex women too, those with this particular dsd were not spared misogyny just because they unknowingly had xy chromosomes. learning they are biologically male with a dsd doesnt mean they have a desire to completely restructure their lives and identity around being men, i think thats kind of insane to expect.

that being said, i think there needs to be a reevaluation of fairness in sports and how intersex people fall into it. what advantages or disadvantages do intersex women carrying a y chromosome have over those that dont? what male charactistics (bone density, for example) still exist in these women? do they pose a danger to other women in their sport? what about other intersex conditions? at what point does it become unfair? unfortunately it could lead to their exclusion, and if that happens will there be another place for them? theres a lot to consider and things will have to change as we learn more. its not really a black and white situation in my opinion.

[hellsite-proteins]

Are there ways to actually "program" cells to produce these proteins? Like if you fed ribosomes the right RNA sequence, would it synthesize a bullshit protein molecule that does nothing useful, or would it start falling apart immediately in reality? My knowledge on DNA splicing is old and I know near nothing about proteins so I'm just curious if it'd ever be possible to get a real world representation of anything on your blog (setting aside the cost and effort it would take to do that)

yes there is! and you actually got pretty close, but you have to go a bit further back and use DNA (there are ways of delivering RNA to cells, but I haven't done that personally, and for something like protein purification that would not be the method of choice, so I won't be going into that. there are two main ways of inserting coding DNA into cells: using a transient expression plasmid and gene editing. note: all of these will be very brief overviews, so if you want more detail about any part of this, then please ask!

first i'll go over the simpler method which is using plasmids. i've been doing a lot of molecular cloning lately specifically to put proteins into expression vectors so i can purify them and do some work with the pure protein, which is what i assume you would want to do here. (sidetone: once you have some purified protein, there are a number of different things you can do to find out its sequence or structure, but that is a whole other post). plasmids are circular bits of DNA outside of the genome that are not necessary for survival, but carry useful information. most of the ones used in labs will also have an antibiotic resistance gene or some other marker so we can select for only the cells with the plasmid by growing them in media with the right drug. using specific enzymes, we can cut these plasmids and then insert a new fragment of DNA coding for whatever we want, before sealing them back up. Then, a small amount of the plasmid can be transformed into cells (bacteria and yeast are commonly used), which will multiply and make more of your plasmid, as well as whatever it encodes if the conditions are right!

Genome editing is a broad topic, so i'm just going to give you a quick overview of CRISPR-Cas9, which I have a bit of experience with. this isn't something i would do if i just wanted to make a lot of a given protein, but it is useful to look at how much of a protein is made under the native expression system within a cell, or to edit the sequence of a protein being made (and much more...). Cas9 makes a cut in both strands of genomic DNA, but the really neat thing about this is that you can easily tell it specifically where to cut. to do this, you will build a plasmid with the gene for the Cas9 protein, as well as the guide RNA matching the sequence where you want the cut to be. there are other design considerations, but i'll save that for now. once the DNA has been cut, the cell starts to panic and try and stick it back together, but not before some random bases get added and/or deleted from either of the broken ends. this is useful if you want to knock out a gene, because you can go in and mess up its promoter or something similar so that it never gets made. if that is too messy and random, or if you want to knock something in instead of knocking it out, you can also take advantage of the cell's repair mechanisms. if a double stranded break happens, the cell would prefer to fix it properly, and so it will try and remake the DNA using the other matching chromosome as a template. but, if you add in another plasmid instead that contains sequences matching either side of the break with something you want to add in sandwiched in between them, you can make the DNA repair itself with your new sequence!

finally, all of this assumes that the protein would be successfully translated, and would not be so toxic to cells that anything expressing it dies. we would need to add a methionine (start) to the beginning of nearly all of these sequences, and ideally codon optimize them for the specific organism. ordering the custom DNA sequences also wouldn't be cheap, but is also not impossible. an inducible expression system would also help reduce the risk of toxicity and let us make a lot at once if we so desired. we would probably also want to add a tag to make these easier to purify if we wanted to use the protein itself.

again i am not great at being brief and i have no idea how much the average person knows about any of this, so please ask more if anything i've said needs clarification!

letter sequence in this ask matching protein-coding amino acids:

AretherewaystactallyprgramcellstprdcetheseprteinsLikeifyfedrismestherightRNAseqencewlditsynthesieallshitprteinmleclethatdesnthingseflrwlditstartfallingapartimmediatelyinrealityMyknwledgenDNAsplicingisldandIknwnearnthingatprteinssImstcrisifitdeverepssiletgetarealwrldrepresentatinfanythingnyrlgsettingasidethecstandeffrtitwldtaketdthat

protein guy analysis:

you know that feeling when you're writing a test and aren't really sure what the answer is, but you try and put down everything you know in the hopes of getting some part marks? i feel like that's what this protein looks like. there is an assortment of secondary structures all spread out between loops and even a beta sheet, as if AlphaFold was trying its best to make something out of this. still, it doesn't look the way we would expect from an ordered protein, and i do not trust it.

predicted protein structure:

[that-one-xachster]

Megumi x Childhood Bestie!Reader Hcs part two

ok I'm continuing this lmfao

so lets get to the part after go/joe kidnaps itadori

and you're just chilling with megumi in his room questioning all life choices

and he's questioning life itself

"crabs probably think fish can fly"

"...what did you eat today"

"tuna mayo"

"istg if you pull the Inumaki crap-"

"bean bags are boneless sofas"

"wHaT"

"...I want a beanbag."

*audibly sighs*

so yeah very fun

and you have a sleepover with him bc like

why not

and drama

so let's say todays that very special once in a lifetime day that you fall asleep INSTANTLY

and like just boom "I'm tired" you're knocked out

and megumi's just there like "gurl??"

my bro is absolutely done cause you're like taking up most of his bed

and personal space

give the man a break 😔✋

so he tries shoving you a lil to the side

keyword: tries

but you're a stubborn person so you don't budge

also you're gripping the bed for dear life in your sLEEP-

you haven't grown out of it lmao

megumi pulls his iconic face and is just

absolutely done at this point

so-

he's known you since childhood anyway right

and you're asleep right

right

so you won't mind if he just plops on top of you and cuddle-spoons you while your sleeping to create space right 😊

just to create space

you don't mind even when you're awake but megumi doesn't know that-

so yes he lies on top of you- wraps an arm around your waist- and spoons you while he falls asleep-

im giggling squealing kicking my feet writing this don't mind me

so yes he's still spooning you while you're asleep-

and in the morning he wakes up first ehe-

bc sleep = none or sleep = all

"all's well thats well for me"

iykyk

but you're still sleeping

and its like 7:30 am

its too early for this shit

so he just stays in bed cuddling you

and boom half an hour later you wake up

but you pretend to be sleeping heh

why

plot

so you two are technically cuddling rn and then my bro realizes that your awake-

and hes like

"oh good morning"

yeah we're totally gonna gaslight

"good morning to you too"

we're gonna keep up the gaslighting

so you turn around and you're facing megumi and you're like what time is it he's like 8:30 am or sum

so you both get up bleh the boring stuff

AND THIS IS THE MOMENT WHERE ITADORI IS GETTING SHOWN HIS ROOM SO-

YOU SEE WHERE THIS IS GOING

so then megumi walks out of the room but you're still inside cause why not

and then itadori and megumi have some bro talk and you just pop up behind megumi-

itadori sHRIEKS

gojos like 'did u two have a sleepover 😼'

and megumi ofc is like 'why do you care'

and itadori goes-

GASPPP ARE YOU TWO DATING???

the way your faces heat up so fast

FACES

WITH AN S

PLURAL

MEGUMI'S BLUSHING TOO

and hes like 'what the f no i'm not dating this idiot here'

you're like 'i wish 😔'

tHE WAY HE BLUSHES HARDER

no this does not go unnoticed by gojo and he whips out his phone faster than lightning mcqueen and bombards him with pictures

'smile for the camera megumi~'

'boy if you don't shut your skin tone chicken bone google chrome no home flip phone disowned ice cream cone garden gnome extra chromosome metronome dimmadome genome full blown monochrome student loan Indiana jones overgrown flintstone x and Y chromosome hormone friend zone Sylvester Stallone Sierra loan autozone professionally seen silver patrone head ass up-'

yes I had to

anyway y'all gotta go pick up the other first year aka nobara

and you're like

"OOH OOH GOJO SENSEI BOY OR GIRL"

"hehe you'll see"

so you make all of them speed to wherever the hell yer picking her up

idt I mentioned you slept in the car and your head was on megumis shoulder eheh

itadori kept teasing him and won't let him live it down fr

so yk nobara and her iconic scene

you have no shame

and you drink your respect women juice

im trying to make this gender neutral 😭

you see the uniform and you're cheering her on so much like

"WOO YEAHHH- PUT HIM IN HIS PLACE YOU GO GIRL-"

and shes like tf is this crazy bish doing

but you're just really excited to have another person in the group cause being around the same uh 7-8 people can get boring

so you meet her and you're pretty excited

"be glad boys, you're getting another girl in the group."

now that drops your opinion

so you have a smol idea

to uh

you whisper something in her ear and the wAY HER EXPRESSION DROPS

guess what you said <3 bc ik ofc I wanna see what y'all think

anyhoo so then shes like WHAT THE HELL and drops it

and boom you pull your feminine/masculine/nonbinary wiles and she's now your bestie

and gojo says we're going sOmEwHeRe

and nobara and itadori get so excited

yk the EJWRHTKWJEHTAUIETHR and the hugging gojo

you're standing next to megumi though cause you know whats coming

the way their face drops when y'all go to that messed up school- was it a school?

anyway yuji and nobara go in and you're outside with megumi and gojo

y'all are sitting down nearby

you're tired af with this shit so you just plop your head down in megumi's lap and no questions he just lets you

<3

and hes running his fingers through your HAIRRRRR

*screaming*

so you have some lovey-dovey time and gojo sneaks a picture cause he low-key ships you two

and after the two come out y'all just walk back very nice day

okay moving on from the boring stuff he goes back to his dorm

is developing a crush ehe

so hes just lying in bed thinking like

WHY TF AM I FEELING THIS WAY OVER THAT IDIOT RAHHHH

poor guys conflicted

but good for you hehe

sigh I'm tired ill write a part 3 later lmao