Naughty X Chromosomes!

[minoanmiss]

Women are far more likely to develop autoimmune diseases. A new study may have finally cracked why

*makes a note*

ETA Using the term "women" in medical discussions is a bit inaccurate, as there are people with Y chromosomes who are women and people with only X chromosomes who aren't and other complexities as well. This reminds me to search again for guidelines on how to discuss medicine and science in inclusive ways. Last time I looked I didn't find any but here's hoping.

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

Fascinating!

[minoanmiss]

It really is! There's so much in our genes!

[cmcmck]

Intriguing.

Having been born with that intersex condition I haven't the foggiest what I am chromosonally!

[minoanmiss]

It would be reallly interesting to investigate, both in specific and in general, the genetic components of being intersex. I should do some research on the state of the research...

[acelightning73]

I believe the "legal" definition is a human being with two x chromosomes, a uterus and ovaries, and a vagina. I do have two X chromosomes, but my uterus and ovaries became medical waste several years ago, so am I female?

I remember hearing once that women are more prone to autoimmune conditions because we have to adjust our immune systems to not reject the fetus when we're pregnant. That makes biological sense to me, but I can't click on the URL; I have to copy and paste into Microsoft Edge, which I hate using (the interface doesn't work the way it's supposed to in Windows 10)

[minoanmiss]

Microsoft Edge is a miserable browser. I have to use it at work.

I don't think there is a current legal definition, and I don't want there to be. There's a batty bigoted Republican Congressman who keeps introducing a bill to set a definition and next year he'll probably get it through. I wish he would fail again but this time he'll likely succeed, and then they'll use that legal definition to legally hurt trans people.

The thing is, I know some people who probably have all of " two x chromosomes, a uterus and ovaries, and a vagina" who are men, and some who don't who are women, and know of more who have talked about their lives. And I also know some people who aren't men or women and know of more. What I know about all of them is that they harm no one by their existence and I wish our society would just let them live.

[acelightning73]

There are people who demand that the US declare that English is the "official" language of the US (we don't have an official language at all), so that nobody in the US is allowed to use any other language in public. And it's well-known that most Americans (except people from immigrant families, who shouldn't be allowed to be in America) don't speak any other language. I saw something on Youtube about a family that went to Spain on vacation, and were offended that the hotel staff and food servers and other people who dealt with the public DIDN'T UNDERSTAND OR SPEAK ENGLISH, and it was terribly rude of them to speak Spanish to Americans. (In most of Europe, the country next door speaks three different languages, and none of them are the one you were born into. That's why European visitors are alarmed at how far you have to travel to get from one state to another. It took six hours to fly from New York to California! It doesn't take that long to fly from Paris to Dubai!

[full_metal_ox]

There are people who demand that the US declare that English is the "official" language of the US (we don't have an official language at all), so that nobody in the US is allowed to use any other language in public. And it's well-known that most Americans (except people from immigrant families, who shouldn't be allowed to be in America) don't speak any other language.

Leaving aside Indigenous peoples and languages for the moment, last I checked, Isabella sent colonial agents to the New World considerably before Elizabeth did… so who are the dadgum interlopers on whose lawn?

I saw something on Youtube about a family that went to Spain on vacation, and were offended that the hotel staff and food servers and other people who dealt with the public DIDN'T UNDERSTAND OR SPEAK ENGLISH, and it was terribly rude of them to speak Spanish to Americans. (In most of Europe, the country next door speaks three different languages, and none of them are the one you were born into.)

Our right little, tight little bloody cross-section of a freaking continent.

I really wish I could refute the joke:

Q. What borders on stupidity?

A. Canada and Mexico.

[acelightning73]

Most Americans think it takes extreme intellect to speak more than your milk language. Even when many of us got the opportunity to study a foreign language in high school, "Ohh, French is so difficult! What's all this with le and les? WHy can't they just stick an S on the end the ways sensible English speakers do?" "I'm never going to be able to go to France in my lifetime - why do I need to speak French?" And anybody who speaks more than two different languages must be a supergenius. Everybody at the UN laughed at us for this. But the ambassador from Saudi Arabia had gone to school in England, and he had picked up French, Spanish, and Russian along the way. And none of his colleagues thought this was extraordinary. So I've tried to learn a few other languages well enough to ask "Where is the restroom?" "HOw much does that cost?" and "Do you speak English?" So I don't fit the stereotype of the illiterate and ignorant American tourist.

Many Americans think that everyone in the world speaks English because of movies and TV and music. There's only one phrase in English that even in places where people only vaguely understand where America is , they'll know one phrase: "Fuck you." That seems to be universal.

I picked up a bit of French at the UN. And when my family and I went to Montreal, I had to teach them how to say "I'm American, I don't speak much French" . And I found it quite stimulating and interesting to be in a place where I barely know the language, and I have to communicate as best I can. Like aerobics for my brain. Some of my online friends thought the prospect was as terrifying as being dropped into water over their heads. Well, I find the current political situation terrifying, but between the UN and "culinary french" I was able to get by, and I enjoyed the mental exercise.

I'd have to work a whole lot harder if I were suddenly dropped into Beijing or Moscow or Tokyo. I might find myself resorting to arm-waving and making faces.

Many Americans think that everyone in the world speaks English because of movies and TV and music. There's only one phrase in English that even in places where people only vaguely understand where America is , they'll know one phrase: "Fuck you." That seems to be universal.

[pameladean]

Thank you for your ETA; that "explanation" of the difference "between" the sexes was barely up to kindergarten level.

The actual discovery is really interesting, and I hope it may lead to useful interventions for auto-immune conditions, which are so difficult and widespread.

P.

[lunabee34]

Very interesting.

[full_metal_ox]

There’s also a lot more to go askew in an X chromosome—simply because it’s a lot larger and more complicated.

(A question I see periodically on Reddit: would it be possible to bioengineer a human with YY chromosomes? The answer is no, because there wouldn’t be enough genetic information to sustain life absent an X—-but I suspect that the underlying desire is to engineer the maleiest male who ever maled, purified of sissy girl cooties down to the fundamental chromosomal level!

This notion was probably furthered by a dubious scientific study of XYY Syndrome that led to popular belief that XYY people are unusually large and tough but wild and lawless: a portrayal that informed a number of cop shows and at least one action series.)