When we think of trendy endeavors, it’s the fashion and entertainment industries that come to mind, not anything so serious as science. But the new issue of Scientific American is out, and it’s proving yet again that the Bunsen-burner crowd is every bit as modish as the Kardashians.
In vogue are all things transgender, and so it comes as no surprise that science publications have, all of a sudden, discovered that last week’s science of sex will no longer do: “As science looks more closely,” the magazine editors inform us, “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).”
In an ever-so-bold editorial, Sci-Am gives us an example of what is becoming increasingly clear: “To varying extents, many of us are biological hybrids on a male-female continuum.” The evidence for this rather broad assertion? “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.” One might be forgiven for wondering whether such rarities are compelling proof that “many of us are biological hybrids.”
Lacking a Ph.D. in biology and never having monkeyed with an electron microscope, The Scrapbook makes no claims to scientific knowledge—at least none beyond the sort of common-sense skepticism that once was a pillar of the scientific method. That skepticism is aroused when significant changes in science just happen to follow changes in social standards. A massive cultural shift over the last couple of years has transformed transgenderism from curiosity to the conventional. And right on cue, science discovers that to be trans is the biological norm. Wow! What are the odds?
Could it be that scientists are eager to chase trends as a way to chase grants? Perhaps. And they may be wise to avoid the career-ending opprobrium that comes from trying to publish research with conclusions inconsistent with the morals of the moment. But whatever the reason, science is getting in line. That means the advocates of the new gender-identity movement will now be able to justify their agenda not just as a civil rights cause but as an imperative demanded by scientific consensus. Who said science wasn’t cool?
