I recently responded to Neil deGrasse Tyson’s perspectives on transgenderism and then I saw another clip of him and it gave me another thought.
Temperature is a spectrum. Humans created these things called “degrees”, but a “degree” is an arbitrary amount of temperature. A Fahrenheit degree is a different size from a Celsius degree. Because they’re both just made up. There’s nearly an entire degree of difference between the coldest temperature within a degree and the warmest temperature within that degree, yet there’s barely any difference at all between the temperature just below that tick mark and the temperature just above it.
Humans create arbitrary categories to help us understand the infinite complexity of the universe. It’s an extremely helpful and fairly accurate understanding. We can rely on it. We can predict the future of reality using our arbitrary categories because what they measure is real and the reality being measured transcends the measurement.
Nature is full of spectra. But nature is also full of binaries.
Water and ice are different. The line between them is just as thin as the line between degrees, but while the line between degrees was made up by humans, the line between water and ice would exist even if humans didn’t.
It’s true that water and ice are more similar than they are different. But no matter how much we focus on the similarities, you still can’t walk on deep water as effectively as thick ice.
0 degrees Celsius and 32 degrees Fahrenheit are an arbitrary measurement of where on the spectrum of temperature marks the difference between water and ice. And in spite of the fact that we have that measurement, water can actually remain liquid far below it. Not only can water be supercooled, but supercooled water exists in liquid form naturally in the atmosphere all the time.
So you can argue that temperature is a spectrum. You can argue that freezing temperature is not a reliable predictor of freezing. What you cannot argue is that water and ice are indistinguishable, unimportant, arbitrary, or on a spectrum.
I don’t say this out of a lack of respect for the genuine spectra of human characteristics, for the spectra of height, of interests, of presentation. I say this because the binary of human sex is important and real. We need to acknowledge the existence of this binary, and we need to teach it unequivocally to our children.
Believe it or not, there are actually people out there right now pretending that the binary doesn’t exist. And pretending the binary doesn’t exist is causing real people real harm. And there is absolutely no excuse for it.
Transgender people are beautiful, valuable, vibrant individuals. But being transgender is not an identity. And, contrary to what modern activists are teaching, it is not normal, it is not equal, it is not good. Being transgender is painful, it is difficult. Being transgender is living life with a disadvantage.
Some people only have one arm. And those people are beautiful, valuable, vibrant individuals. We should do what we can to welcome and accommodate them. But society has been, is, and must continue to be built for people with two arms. And every member of society should be committed to ensuring that as many people as possible continue to have two arms.
Gender theory still has valuable things to say. Even the conservatives who scoff at terms like “sapiosexual” will accept that what it describes is a phenomenon that does exist. We can build any model of gender imaginable, study as many spectra and coin as many terms as we care to. But at the end of the day, no matter how attractive and elegant a theory may be, it is worthless if it does not describe reality.
