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Is Biological Sex Binary? (What happened at FFRF?)

David Gamble
Science and Critical Thinking
10 min readJan 1, 2025

This is a controversial topic, even amongst skeptics, so buckle up. It is also a very important topic.

Most have very strong opinions on this. When expressed, both sides will assure you that they have both evidence and science on their side and yet very obviously that can’t be true.

So why am I writing about this now?

It concerns both FFRF, and some well-recognised names within the skeptical community.

Our little play today comes in various acts, so permit me to lay it all out step by step.

Act 1 — Kat Grant of FFRF publishes an Essay

Titled “What is a woman?” and published on Nov 7, 2024, Kat opens with a Plato story that involves the knowledgable-one attempting to define what a man is …

According to the tale, Plato had proffered the definition of “a featherless biped.” Upon hearing this, Diogenes, absolute chaos gremlin that he was, plucked a chicken, and took it to one of Plato’s lectures on the topic. When Plato gave his definition to the audience, Diogenes stood up, lifted the featherless chicken for the crowd to see, and shouted “Behold! A man!” Plato then amended his definition to “a featherless biped with broad, flat nails.”

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Science and Critical Thinking
Science and Critical Thinking

Published in Science and Critical Thinking

In the post-truth age, we are awash with many dubious claims; gods, ghosts, aliens, conspiracies, and other mysterious things. Here we strive to work out what is really true and what is sincerly belived but is just a myth.

David Gamble
David Gamble

Written by David Gamble

Blogger and writer with a keen interest in science, skepticism, critical thinking, and many other weird and whacky topics.

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