Morgan Freeman takes a Look at the Sexes

It's back. One of my favorite shows -- "Through the Wormhole" with Morgan Freeman. It's on the Science Channel, and will continue on Tuesdays this season. He always presents an interesting and sometimes thought-provoking topic. This past one was definitely thought-provoking, and one which I wanted to dismiss from the start because I did not understand. Maybe now I do understand -- a little. The topic was Are There More than Two Sexes. At first I thought maybe there is another sex out there. Hold on...it is not that easy.

It has to do with transgender. One topic I do not understand, but possibly a bit more after viewing this program. There were many different ways of looking at the topic, but I am only gong to cover one, the one that has to do with the xx and xy chromosome, and what scientists are discovering about it.

From high school science class, we learned that women have xx chromosome and men have xy chromosome. Well, there is another important factor for men to be men -- and that is the hormone, testosterone. This gives the male his characteristics, such as facial hair, deeper voice, etc., but there is another factor to this steroid hormone called DHT (dihydrotestosterone) which is very important to the male factor.

Okay, okay, we know all that. So what!

I thought of the transgender topic which is foreign and new to me. This is what is being explained on "Through the Wormhole". I thought of the "60 Minute" interview where Leslie Stahl talked with Schuyler Bailar, the girl who transgendered into a boy. She was not an ordinary girl, she was the fastest high school swimmer in the country and the Ivy League schools wanted her. She selected Harvard, but when it was time to go, she went as a boy, and they accepted her to swim on the boy's team instead of the girl's team, which meant she would not be the fastest any longer.

So, why does someone want to change sexes? Schuyler was giving up a lot to be who he was meant to be. Why? Morgan Freeman narrated an explanation that shed a new light for me to understand. It has nothing to do with wanting it -- it has everything to do with that xy chromosome. This is a bit hard to understand, but sometimes girls will look like girls, but they really have the xy chromosome which may manifest to something more than a want, but rather a need to transgender.

What was even more amazing was one scientist who tested people, and particularly one girl who he found had the xy chromosome but she did not have any inkling that she did. What she didn't have were periods and she could not have children. The scientist then tested family members, and there were some women in the family who also had the xy chromosome, did not have periods and did not bear children. And they lived their lives as women. I could not even imagine learning this information after living an entire life. Here is where, I believe, the mind and attitude would play a part.

I don't know. I really don't know. But I do understand the topic on a more intelligent basis. As a species, we have a long way to go to understand. In our square mind, it is hard to accept another way of looking at our gender, our way of life, but then, I have a body of a woman, an attitude of a woman, and I would assume the xx chromosome of a woman. But, what would happen if I had the body of a woman, an attitude that vacillated between male and female attitudes (and I believe both sexes have some of those attitudes -- male and female) and then the xy chromosome. Just hard to understand.

If you want to see the entire episode, you can probably catch it on the science channel site or youtube. It is Season 7, Episode 3. Definitely, food for thought.

Have a great weekend, and I'll write again on Monday....