Lessons
Planned Parenthood does sex ed. It has a section on “how pregnancy happens.” It’s a little…odd.
Pregnancy is actually a pretty complicated process that has several steps. It all starts with sperm cells and an egg.
Sperm are microscopic cells that are made in testicles. Sperm mixes with other fluids to make semen (cum), which comes out of the penis during ejaculation. Millions and millions of sperm come out every time you ejaculate — but it only takes 1 sperm cell to meet with an egg for pregnancy to happen.
Eggs live in ovaries, and the hormones that control your menstrual cycle cause a few eggs to mature every month.
Wait what? Millions of sperm come out every time you ejaculate and at the same time you have a menstrual cycle? That’s a novel kind of sex ed.
When a sperm cell joins with an egg, it’s called fertilization. Fertilization doesn’t happen right away. Since sperm can hang out in your uterus and fallopian tube for up to 6 days after sex, there’s up to 6 days between sex and fertilization.
If a sperm cell does join up with your egg, the fertilized egg moves down the fallopian tube toward the uterus. It begins to divide into more and more cells, forming a ball as it grows. The ball of cells (called a blastocyst) gets to the uterus about 3–4 days after fertilization.
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When a fertilized egg implants in the uterus, it releases pregnancy hormones that prevent the lining of your uterus from shedding — that’s why people don’t get periods when they’re pregnant. If your egg doesn’t meet up with sperm, or a fertilized egg doesn’t implant in your uterus, the thick lining of your uterus isn’t needed and it leaves your body during your period. Up to half of all fertilized eggs naturally don’t implant in the uterus — they pass out of your body during your period.
What are early pregnancy symptoms?
Many people notice symptoms early in their pregnancy, but others may not have any symptoms at all.
So people impregnate themselves nowadays, is that it? What an exciting time we live in.
If ever there was a context in which the generic “you” was simply not apposite, this is it. Wow.
“So people impregnate themselves nowadays, is that it? What an exciting time we live in.”
Maybe this is what Bannon was trying to do and Scaramucci just didn’t have a clear enough view.
Maybe they just wanted to avoid having to say “sex-and-gender inspecific sperm generators” and “ovary-bearing ovulators” over and over.
Once upon a time, trans activists were fine with male and female being used to denote sex, reserving man / women / girl / boy for gender. But now, even that is to be discarded; gender is gender and sex is also gender.
Holms @ #4.
‘Gender’ is what one says when wishing to remain politically correct. Its original use was exclusively grammatical, but then for God knows what reason, the PC brigade hijacked it and made it into the dog’s breakfast that it is at present.
I suppose the next step is to start talking about the sex of English pronouns, French verbs and such.
Yes, I think “gender” now means everything: gender, sexual anatomy, personality, outlook on life, attitude, etc. And woe betide those who say, “Okay, sure, but…”
I think the trans activism (or gender?) movement requires all good people to believe two things at once:
1) There are male brains and there are female brains—you are properly speaking a male or a female because of (at least some of) your body parts, and
2) Gender is fluid—you are whatever gender you are at the moment or at this point in your life because of your feelings, mood, etc.
I’m not sure either of these is true (maybe I don’t understand either of them), but I sure don’t see how they can both be true.
There’s also 3): Gender is about the very things we used to classify as sex/gender stereotypes, but now it’s politically progressive to believe that women are nurturers and men are aggressive competitors, and that’s just how it’s always been and how it shall always be. Amen.
And women wear make up and high heels, while men wear suits and trousers.
We had a trans woman in town who had a landscaping service. After her transition, she did her landscaping in mini skirts and high heels. This is a way no woman ever dressed to mow lawns and weed flower beds. My grandmother, who grew up back in the bad old days of men being men and women being women donned trousers and sensible shoes to weed her flower bed.
Your grandmother reeked of cis privilege.
(Is that the new “Your mother wears combat boots”?)
I award Ben one internet!
How on earth would one even begin to operate a landscaping service in a mini skirt and heels? I worked seasonally for the parks department for years and I can testify, none of the women ever wore anything other than jeans and work boots on the job. The boots in fact were mandated, for safety reasons; had to be steel-toed, too. I still have mine; they came in handy that time we had icy snow all over the streets for more than a week.
Personally I like the generic “you” here. Maybe it’s a little funny to parse, but I like the idea of a sex-ed program that has both females and males conceptualize themselves in both roles. Seems like that would engender sympathy between the sexes, as opposed to the normal situation where the girls and boys are segregated and only ever get half the equation, and get a distorted (and typically misogynistic) view of the other half filled in by their same sex peers.
Its telling that the entire passage is addressed only to girls, but cannot acknowledge the fact. Notice that ‘you’ don’t have sperm, testicles, etc. It COULD just be that evasion that makes this so incoherent. Even without the paralyzing groveling to the trans shibboleth du jour.
Not quite entire, since there is that bit I quoted: “Millions and millions of sperm come out every time you ejaculate.”