Sex as a Process – Paul E. Griffiths – University of Sydney and Macquarie University

Abstract: Biological sex is defined by anisogamy: males produce small gametes, females large gametes. This definition has been criticised as a ‘sex binary’ harmful to sexual and gender minorities. Such criticism conflates gametic sex, which is binary, with phenotypic sex, which is not. There are two gametic sexes, but many kinds of sexed bodies combining sexes in different ways.

In a well-meaning effort to support diverse communities, many theorists have sought to increase the number of sexes. But there is a better solution. That is to realise that sexes are phenotypes. They are not present in miniature in the fertilised egg. Just like arms, livers or musical ability, sexes have to grow. Sex is a process.

Because sexes are phenotypes, chromosomes, nest temperatures and other sex-determining mechanisms may cause the sex of an individual, but they cannot constitute the sex of that individual, any more than the gene for blue eyes can be a blue eye.

This developmental perspective on sex provides a framework for understanding both the evolved diversity of sexed bodies across species and the open-ended, idiosyncratic diversity of sexed bodies within a single species.

Bio: Emeritus Professor Paul Griffiths was formerly Challis Professor of Philosophy at the University of Sydney. He has been both a Laureate Fellow (2018) and a Federation Fellow (2007) of the Australian Research Council. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Royal Society of NSW, and was awarded the RSNSW Medal for History and Philosophy of Science in 2019.  He was twice appointed to the Australian Health Ethics Committee, a Principal Committee of NHMRC (2006-9, 2009-12).

In 2022 Paul received the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Research Leadership Award and was named in a Stanford University study as amongst the top 2% of influential academics worldwide. He retired at the beginning of 2024 and in addition to his Emeritus position at University of Sydney he is a Senior Research Fellow in the School  of Humanities at Macquarie University, where he continues to hold research grants.