Intricacy of Human Sexes

Little defines human life more than the biological sexes. The concept of the binary sexes greatly affects our choices given in society, our income, and our visibility. Moreover, it is also the root for profound discrimination. Today, the idea that the binary sexes are nature-given is so intrinsically woven into the fabric of human life that we tend to forget just how modern the concept is. We also tend to forget that it does not have to be more than a bump on the path to a just society.Drawing from philosophical, historical, and biological perspectives, the author challenges existing beliefs in the inevitability of the binary nature of the human sexes. The study compellingly argues for the existence of many biological sexes, not merely two. It also outlines just how otherwise overcome assumptions still shape our seemingly modern understanding of the most basic classification of our societies: that of the biological sexes and the attributes piled upon them.

Drawing from philosophical, historical, and biological perspectives, the author challenges existing beliefs in the inevitability of the binary nature of the human sexes. The study compellingly argues for the existence of many biological sexes, not merely two.

Foreword to the English Translation of the 4th EditionForeword to the 1st German EditionIntroductionWomen and some Men against NaturalnessHistory and Topicality: Simone de Beauvoir and Judith ButlerWhy considering »Naturalness«?Contra »Naturalness« - Emancipatory Arguing for the Education of WomenDifferences as the Product of Society:The Human Being as a Social OnePoverty and Limiting Recent Gender Research to the Privileged ClassesThe Human Being as a Social OneEvolutionary Thinking and its Potential for Social ChangeHistorical Biological Theories of Sex - Theories of Two or More SexesToo Simplistic: The Current State of Research in Gender StudiesConcerning the Biological Theories of the SexesAntiquity - The »One-Sex« and »Two-Sex« ModelsThe Middle-Ages - Not Just Reducing but CreativeHumorism and the Theory of the TemperamentsTheories of Preformation in the Seventeenth Century - Describing Differences of the SexesThe Transition to the Developmental Concept (Epigenesis) - Descriptions of Sameness May Tie In Analogy and Sameness, as Tied in With Developmental TheoriesHuman Beings are Paired in Themselves - Being Adult »Female-Males« and »Male-Females«»Activity«, »Advancement«, »Lag« - Descriptions of the Differences of the Sexes Which Tie in with Developmental TheoriesDetailed Descriptions of Differences»Newer« Evolutionary Theories After Charles Dawin - Differences of the Sexes and Emancipatory »Romanticizing Darwin«ConclusionsCurrent Biological Theories of the SexesThe Sexes between Brain, Muscles, and Microscopic ParticlesProcreation as a Characteristic of the Species - and the Individual Form of Human GenitaliaThe Formation of the Genitalia in the Development of the EmbryoGonads, Germ Cells and Eventually Chromosomes and Genes: Do They Prove Sexual Binarity?Development and Differentiation: The Transition to Process Orientation in Current Theories of the Development of the SexesConclusionsClosingQuoted and Recommended (*) Literature