Sexuality & Evolution

Sexuality & Evolution

Gender has played a large role throughout human history even from the earliest stages of life. Gender used to be a solid ridge order which was not questioned and almost never breached, but now we are living in a different time and the lines have been blurred. Hence science has also become involved to a greater degree with gender and with science, evolution. With the advances in modern technology and medicine it has become possible to change sexes, though not fully functioning. This type of surgery has often been called gender reassignment. Gender and sex however are not to be confused for one another. They each refer to different things and have impacted very different parts of human development; sex is the biological and gender is the social and psychological. Is it really possible for medicine to advance so much that it can potentially change nature as it was and reassign sex?

With this territory come the issue of evolution and the advancement of the human race. The possibility of a nature disaster decimating the entirety of the human race is something which we as intelligent beings can deal with because with our technology and unlimited advancement we may be able to shield ourselves and further our livelihoods. However, the possibility of singular humans becoming something they were not meant to be and something which they may never fully become is something which intimidates and frightens many in our current world. The surgery is named gender reassignment simply for the fact that they are changing the reproductive organs however the patient will never have a fully functioning reproductive system of the new sex. This gives new meaning to gender roles.

In our modern society we have been more exposed to the GLBTQ (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, transvestite, questioning) communities. These communities are a vast leap from what is thought to be the traditional functions of male and female and procreation. For the transgender community they feel that their current gender may not correspond to their psychological gender and they may seek to live as the other gender. In some people this may lead to transvestism or transsexuality. In theory these people may never reproduce and carry on the human species. They may raise adoptive children or foster children, but they will never transfer their own DNA onto a new generation. They have effectively eliminated their genes from the gene pool and the variation which may arise from it.

The possibility of transsexuals eventually being able to be fully functional as the opposite sex is something which may or may not be a blessing in disguise. The potential elimination of their genes may be avoided and they can still procreate and contribute to biological evolution. Nevertheless there is nothing guaranteeing that this will happen and in the present we are a long ways away from being able to reassigning sex in this manner.

Although they have excluded their genes they have impacted the race through the single child which they may have raised through the influence of the social, psychological, and intellectual. From a purely biological standpoint this is useless. They have not passed on their genes and therefore have not helped to further anything in the evolution of humans. From a sociological and psychological standpoint this may have influenced a great many other factors which may have led to changes in decision making, association, etc. For example many people have accused gay, lesbian, and bisexual parents of influencing their children in becoming gay, lesbian, or bisexual themselves. It is not known if this is indeed the case regardless these things may greatly influence the child’s outlook on these and other issues. This then indirectly impacts the flow of evolution.

It can be debated whether the biological view of evolution is more important or the sociological and psychological. All are just as substantial in the evolvement of humans as a species and a culture.