There are Only Two Genders

I will use the following abbreviations in my argument: "AMAB- Acronym for "assigned male at birth" which refers to anyone whose sex, when born, is that of a typical male." "AFAB- Acronym for "assigned female at birth" which refers to anyone whose sex, when born, is that of a typical female." My opponent mistakenly uses "sex" and "gender" as synonymous. These two terms are not synonyms, and this difference is demonstrated by the Oxford English Dictionary as follows: "Gender: The state of being male or female (typically used with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones): "traditional concepts of gender" "The construction of male and female gender roles was masculinist in nature." "It is well established that testosterone in males plays a key role in this gender difference." "She thinks the best way to level the playing field is to apply categories based on physical ability rather than gender identity."" "The word gender has been used since the 14th century as a grammatical term, referring to classes of noun designated as masculine, feminine, or neuter in some languages. The sense "the state of being male or female" has also been used since the 14th century, but this did not become common until the mid 20th century. Although the words gender and sex both have the sense "the state of being male or female", they are typically used in slightly different ways: sex tends to refer to biological differences, while gender refers to cultural or social ones." http://www.oxforddictionaries.com... This is as opposed to sex, which is defined as follows: "Sex: Either of the two main categories (male and female) into which humans and most other living things are divided on the basis of their reproductive functions: "Adults of both sexes"" http://www.oxforddictionaries.com... In the interest of fairness to my opponent, I will allow him to defend either of the following propositions, or both, as his initial arguments did not distinguish between the two terms: "There are only two sexes" "There are only two genders" In opposing the notion that there are only two *sexes*, which is what my opponent has thus far argued, I would like to point out the existence of intersex individuals. "Intersex: the abnormal condition of being intermediate between male and female; hermaphroditism. "an intersex individual; a hermaphrodite."" https://www.google.co.uk... These individuals are neither wholly male nor wholly female, as they may have ambiguous genitalia or secondary sex characteristics, or chromosomes which differ from the "XX/XY" binary typicality. https://en.wikipedia.org... ^^As listed in the above link, examples include: Klinefelter Syndrome (XXY),: https://en.wikipedia.org... Turner Syndrome (XO/X), https://en.wikipedia.org... (Partial) Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, https://en.wikipedia.org... https://en.wikipedia.org... Classical Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia, https://en.wikipedia.org... Late Onset Adrenal Hyperplasia, Vaginal Agenesis, https://en.wikipedia.org... Ivotestes, https://en.wikipedia.org... Idiopathic, Iatrogenic, 5-Alpha-Reductase Deficiency, https://en.wikipedia.org... 45X Mosaicism, https://en.wikipedia.org... 46XY Mosaicism, https://en.wikipedia.org... Complete Gonadal Dysgenesis, https://en.wikipedia.org... Hypospadias, https://en.wikipedia.org... And Epispadias. https://en.wikipedia.org... This is by no means a fully comprehensive list. This would imply that along with typical male and typical female, there are at least 18 sexes, all of which are medically documented in that they can be directly observed and detected by endocrinologists and geneticists. I, as the opposition to the motion, do not technically disagree with anything the proposition has said in his initial arguments- yes, there are biological differences between AMAB and AFAB individuals, both in humans and in other species, such as mallards. However, his observation of the existence of both male and female individuals, and the differences between them, is by no means evidence that there are not individuals whose sex differs from the typical male-female binary, which is a false idea which the above list rebuts quite thoroughly. It is irrefutable, therefore, as argued above, that there exists more than two *sexes*. If my opponent wishes to dispute this, he is more than welcome to and I will gladly take him up on this. Now, to move on to arguing that there exists more than one *gender*, which my opponent has so far yet to address at all. Remember, as before, that gender refers to one"s psychological identity, rather than to their physical anatomy and other biological differences. Gender, as a psychological state, is not a binary of "male/female", as this is a gross oversimplification. Rather, it is a spectrum with the majority of people falling within the very broad categories of masculinity or femininity. I feel this point is made very well by Hank Green in the following video: "As much as we try to label things, there is no way to label every point on an infinite continuum" "The obvious ones are masculine gender roles and feminine gender roles, but, as all dichotomies are false dichotomies, this one is a spectrum, too" "Many people move across these spectrums" "When the world becomes one of infinite continuums and those false dichotomies break down, and those two shiny boxes break apart into seven billion shiny boxes, it"s actually pretty beautiful". My opponent must, at this point, either contest the claim that there is a difference between the terms "sex" and "gender" (in which case, see the above argument regarding sex, and replace "sex" with "gender"), or he must accept that sex is physical and gender is psychological, which allows me to make the following argument: No two humans can be said to be in an identical psychological state, and, therefore, no two humans can be said to have the exact same gender identity, as gender is psychological. There are comparisons you can draw between individuals whose gender identities are extremely similar, and for all intents and purposes these people share the same gender, but they do differ slightly and therefore if one wishes to be pernickety, one could argue that there are technically an infinite number of genders as there are an infinite number of psychological states to correspond to these. In general, though, most people fit into one of a number of labels. The majority of people consider themselves to be men or women, but there are a number of other psychological categories which individuals do fall into: Agender- I do not identify with any gender. Bigender- I simultaneously identify as a man and as a woman. Genderfluid- My gender changes (usually identifying as a man sometimes and as a woman at other times). Gender Nonconforming- I do not fall into any of the labels people typically use in regards to gender. Third Gender: I identify as neither a man nor a woman. I do, however, identify with a gender which is neither of these. There exist a number of different categories which people place their gender identities in. The genders themselves can be any point on an infinite continuum, and therefore one could argue that there are technically an infinite number of genders. A majority of these points fit within 9 categories (the above listed, and then "man" and "woman"), and therefore there are at least 9 genders. In conclusion: 1) Sex and Gender are not the same thing. My opponent has thus far argued that there are only two sexes. 2) There are more than two sexes, with intersex conditions accounting for at least 16 sexes. 3) There are more than two genders, with technically a technically infinite number of gender identities mostly fitting within 9 categories.