We talked to Rutgers biology professors about sex and gender identity

It’s been very clear that for a while now, gender identity has become the hot topic everyone seems to be interested in. This is due to a combination of factors, but mainly because of gender, it seems, is so vaguely defined that people with opposing views disagree on its influences on one’s identity. Identity politics is not new, it’s only becoming more popular with the increased use of social media and desire of minorities for their voices to be heard. For example, back in 2005 with the emergence of YouTube, Atheism vs Creationism was the hot debate; fast forward a decade later, now the topic is gender.

What is gender? How does it define a person’s identity? And on the new trend of people claiming they can be “gender fluid” and “non-binary,” is this supported by science? It has been long believed that there are only two genders, male and female, and this idea is being called into question. Unfortunately, the uninformed, tend to be the loudest voices — people who simply use their own emotions instead of listening to science, so to help put this debate to rest, I asked Rutgers biology professors for their take on this controversial topic. All but ONE of them chose to be anonymous.

Professor Ron Michaelis, Genetics, and Microbiology

According to Michaelis, gender has more to do with the individual, rather than the conventional binary. It’s believed that if you have a Y-chromosome, you are a male because there’s an “SRY gene” on the Y gene that makes you male. However, there are people who lose the SRY gene, and they LOOK female, so the belief that just because you have a Y-chromosome you are a male, gets tricky. Another determinant if you’re a male is if your testis produces testosterone and the tissues in your body change due to receptors that bind to hormones. However, there are mutations in these hormonal receptors, and despite having a Y-chromosome and testosterone, because of the receptor malfunction, they end up looking female. This leads to one’s personal identification to determine whether they are male or female. 

“I don’t have a definition of gender, but I understand why there’s a debate,” according to Michaelis, “I wouldn’t have thought there was a difference between gender and sex.” 

We continued the conversation, and according to his unbiased view, a combination of biology and environment affects gender. Some people are more affected by culture, but we are all affected by biology.

Most aspects of human biology don’t have a binary: hair color, weight, cancer risks. There’s always a bell curve, gender is the same thing, a spectrum. Psychological development also determines what gender you identify as.

“One of my best friends is a female to male transexual, he has a vagina, but psychologically he is a male,” Michaelis informed me. “It’s possible to change your physical apparatus,” he guided the conversation back to his transexual friend, and commented, “I’d think you were a female before the operation and I’d think of you as a male now.”

I started asking him about his views of transsexuals and the identity of “gender fluid.” According to him, you can change your gender in your own mind. If you want to change it, in your head you can do that. Other people may not see it that way.

Getting to know the person is important. If a male puts on a dress and he’s just a stranger, nobody would consider him female, but if you know the person, and know that they identify as a female, “You’d be an anatomical male, who thinks you’re a female. It wouldn’t change if you shaved and put on a dress, the only difference is that you’re dressing to your self-identification.”

There is no strict: male and female. You can be a female in a male’s body and vice versa.

The rest of the professors I interviewed wished to remain anonymous

I asked them the same questions Michaelis answered. The Rutgers Biology department was kind enough to collaborate together before giving me their final thoughts:

“Gender is a modern term that refers to the personal identity of the individual. For example, I could talk about the gender of a person, but I would never talk about the gender of a dog or a horse. I cannot talk to a dog or a horse, so I cannot make a statement about how they personally identify. As a biologist, I don’t generally use the term gender since I do not work with people, it is more of a social sciences term, or for languages, like French or Spanish, where words are defined as masculine or feminine.”

They answered the definition of “sex” in the following: “In general, if you make eggs (the gamete with a substantial amount of cytoplasm) you are female, and if you do not make eggs you are male. There are different mechanisms for determining sex in different species of animals, for example in some reptiles the temperature of the egg during development is the main determinant in the sex of the hatching.

“Sex in humans is determined by the combination of sex chromosomes that are received at fertilization. If an individual receives a Y chromosome they develop as male, if they do not receive a Y they develop as female.”

As for the relationship between sex and gender, they respond: “Sex influences gender. I would expect different hormones levels and development affect how a person perceives their own gender,” and went on to say that, “Gender identity is influenced by both social constructs and biology.”

On the topic of whether or not there are more than two genders: “Physical characteristics that are influenced by more than one gene often occur along a continuum, height and skin color are good examples. Every individual person is a unique combination of genetics, experience, and their environment, and that identity is a complex interaction of many factors. Therefore, I would predict that, since gender is influenced by a myriad of factors, that it should be expressed along a continuum.”

Proponents of gender politics tend to bring up the argument of biological accidents taking place on the genetic level. The Rutgers biology department responded, “Physical deformity or accidents change neither the persons’ sex nor gender,” but they go on to inform me that, “Both sex and gender are determined by much more than what I see on the outside of a person, and losing one physical part of a body does not change genetics nor self-identity.”

There’s this belief among millennials, that gender is how you feel and identify as. I asked them for their take on this as biology scientists. “Biologists only look at sex, but since gender is defined as identity, I think this statement follows the definition of gender.”

Lastly, on the topic of whether or not a person can CHANGE their gender, their response was left pretty open, “I honestly don’t know. Animals, humans included, are a combination of chemical reactions, genetics, and the influences from the environment. Since the interaction of those things determine gender, perhaps they could be manipulated to alter gender, but not with today’s knowledge.”

According to these Rutgers biology professors, they all seem to agree that gender has more to do with social identity, rather than biological determination. They also seem to agree that while there are only two sexes, and gender is heavily influenced by sex, it is not the only factor, and gender can exist as a spectrum.