And even when a woman has cautiously prepared herself and has trained for the work, her speed should never be that of an adult man in full muscular vigor.” Just Championnière, an eminent French surgeon who authored the article, answered in the affirmative the question he had posed but hastened to add: “Even when she is perfectly at home on the wheel, she should remember her sex is not intended by nature for violent muscular exertion. After all, the article concluded, the muscular exertion required is quite different from that needed to operate a sewing machine. In 1895 an article in Scientific American-“Woman and the Wheel”-raised the question of whether women should be allowed to ride bicycles for their physical health. That is because arguments about innate biological differences between the sexes have persisted long past the time they should have been put to rest. They have particular bearing on issues of personal identity, health and the economic well-being of women. These findings have far-reaching implications beyond just updating the biology textbooks. New evidence suggests that the brain consists of a “mosaic” of cell types, some more yin, others further along the yang scale. Researchers have found XY cells in a 94-year-old woman, and surgeons discovered a womb in a 70-year-old man, a father of four. To varying extents, many of us are biological hybrids on a male-female continuum. The emerging picture that denotes “girlness” or “boyness” reveals the involvement of complex gene networks-and the entire process appears to extend far beyond a specific moment six weeks after gestation when the gonads begin to form. Less visible perhaps are the changes taking place in the biological sciences. “Nonbinary” definitions of gender-transfeminine, genderqueer, hijra-have entered the vernacular. In the cultural realm, this shift in perspective has already received a wide embrace. As science looks more closely, however, it becomes increasingly clear that a pair of chromosomes do not always suffice to distinguish girl/boy-either from the standpoint of sex (biological traits) or of gender (social identity). The biological explanations that appear in textbooks amount to X + X = ♀ and X + Y = ♂. Sex is supposed to be simple-at least at the molecular level.
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