Defining Sex, the Updated, Expanded, and Corrected Version

Last Wednesday, I wrote a post titled "Defining Sex," which looked at your government's new guidance on approved terminology for the sexes. This guidance was issued by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, to flesh out Der Furor's imperial decree Executive Order 14168 of January 20, 2025, titled Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.  

I thought it was bad enough as it was, but fellow blogger Mike reminded me that the so-called "guidance" was, as are so many other things with the current administration, incomplete and poorly thought-out ... as he pointed out, many other important terms of sexual identity remain undefined. In order to help rectify this situation, I offer the following updates (in italics) to the previously-published terms, add other terms that the administration has not yet addressed, and add the additional information on sexual roles the religious and political buffoons leading this administration are thinking, but are not yet quite willing to say out loud: 

Sex: A person’s immutable biological classification as either male or female;

 

Female: a person of the sex characterized by a reproductive system with the biological function of producing eggs (ova). The naturally inferior and submissive sex.

 

Male: a person of the sex characterized by a reproductive system with the biological function of producing sperm. The naturally superior and dominant sex.

 

Woman: an adult human female, intended by nature to reproduce and to serve as a housewife. Appropriate social controls need to be placed on women for their protection.

 

Girl: a minor human female, learning her natural role as housewife and mother. Appropriate social controls need to be placed on girls for their protection.

 

Man: an adult human male, intended by nature to dominate the woman and serve as the sole protector and provider for his family;

 

Boy: a minor human male, learning his natural role as dominator, protector, and provider;

 

Mother: a female parent, responsible for bearing children and caring for her family by performing domestic tasks (cooking, cleaning, etc); 

 

Father: a male parent, head of the family, and responsible for ensuring that the mother and female children perform their tasks and that the male children learn to grow into their dominant role; 

The following terms were somehow missed in the original imperial decree executive order and implementing HHS guidance, and will no doubt be added in subsequent revisions: 

Husband: the adult male head of a family and of a household.

Wife: the adult female who manages a household under the guidance and supervision of a husband. 

Family: a social unit consisting of an adult male parent (father), an adult female parent (mother), and children of either or both sexes. The family ensures the propagation of the human species and trains children to assume the future roles appropriate to their sex.  

Parent: an adult male (father, head of the family) or female (mother) who ensures the propagation of the species and the education of children for their proper social roles.

Child: the generic offspring of parents, regardless of sex.  

Son: the male offspring of a parent, who learns his role as the dominant sex and master of a future family from the male parent.

Daughter: the female offspring of a parent, who learns from the mother her submissive role as the bearer of  children and manager of the household of a future family led by a husband. 

Grandmother: an adult human female, the mother of a child's parent, responsible for assisting the mother in the education and rearing of female children for their place as future child bearers and performers of routine household duties; 

Grandfather: an adult human male, the father of a child's parent, responsible for assisting the father in the education and rearing of male children to assume their place as future dominators, protectors, and providers.

 If I've forgotten any other ones, let me know.

And if you haven't read "The Handmaid's Tale" and "1984," now would be a good time to do it.

More thoughts coming.

Bilbo 

Defining Sex

One of the first things Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, did when he took the helm of the Department of Health and Human Services was to issue departmental guidance to expand on Der Furor's royal decree executive order titled "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government." The royal decree executive order actually had little to do with either "defending women" or restoring "biological truth" ... it was simply a chunk of raw meat tossed to the religious right as a reward for their support and proof that Der Furor sympathizes with the terrible cross they bear by being "forced" to coexist with people they hate.

Your President Musk's federal government has established the following officially-approved definitions as government policy*:

Sex: A person’s immutable biological classification as either male or female.

 

Female: a person of the sex characterized by a reproductive system with the biological function of producing eggs (ova).

 

Male: a person of the sex characterized by a reproductive system with the biological function of producing sperm.

 

Woman: an adult human female.

 

Girl: a minor human female.

 

Man: an adult human male.

 

Boy: a minor human male.

 

Mother: a female parent.

 

Father: a male parent.

Now, I don't want to chase too far down this rabbit hole, but here are a few of my candid observations ...

1. I'm a 73-year-old man, the father of three and grandfather of six. I understand how the biological function of sex for reproduction works. It's fun and, in my case, I like to think it's worked amazingly well.

2. I have never been attracted sexually to another man, although I know that there are men who are so attracted. I don't understand it (given the vast number of desirable women out there, and the spectacular one to whom I'm married), but I accept it.

3. I have been "hit on" by other men. Instead of screaming in terror, seeing the end of the world, and howling for pejorative litigation, I've simply told them I'm not interested. It works.

4. I have male friends that I know are gay or bisexual and female friends I know are lesbian or bisexual. I don't care. I can relate to them as friends without worrying about who they want to sleep with. Live and let live is not a bad policy.

5. Growing up, regardless of whether you're a boy or a girl, is hard. There are all sorts of complicated lessons to be learned about becoming an adult, making your way in the world, and relating to the opposite sex without being surrounded by howling mobs of people who insist on having a vote on who you choose to love.

6. Too many people spend entirely too much time clutching their pearls about something that affects a very small minority of the population. I'm an old guy ... when I have to pee, I really don't care if somebody else in the rest room with me used to be a woman. I understand that a woman may have a different take on this ... but unless the other person in the rest room with you is obviously a big, hairy dumbass who self-identifies as an "alpha male**," you should probably just each do your business and move on. 

There's more to the idea of sex and gender than I ever imagined as a teenager desperately trying to get dates with cute girls. I've learned to live with the complications. So can you.

Have a good day. Treat other people with the same respect you'd like to enjoy. More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

* You'd think we'd have more of a need for policies to address climate change (hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, droughts, etc), pandemics, rising authoritarianism, nuclear proliferation, extreme economic inequality, unhinged presidents, and other such existential threats than to address gender identity. But what do I know?

** Often known by the more scientifically descriptive term, "dumbass."

The Internet of ... uh ... "Things"

Warning - this post deals with adult* topics!

There are a lot of Wi-Fi enabled products out there nowadays, and they're being interconnected in many ways as part of what's being called "The Internet of Things." There are many advantages to this: your refrigerator, for example, can know when you're running low on milk and send you a reminder to buy more; or you can turn things on and off in your home while you're on vacation thousands of miles away. Yes, the Internet of Things is bringing you all sorts of new advantages ... and a host of new problems, too.

When everything you own is interconnected by Wi-Fi, that there are a multitude of "attack surfaces" that hackers can exploit to screw up your digital life. As crazy as it sounds, a Russian hacker - when he's not busy working on the Trump reelection campaign - can break into your bank account through your Wi-Fi enabled thermostat.

And it gets worse - consider this article by Angelo Young from a recent issue of Salon: Maybe You Don’t Really Need a Wi-Fi-Connected Sex Toy.

According to the article, a cybersecurity company in the United Kingdom has uncovered a disturbing vulnerability in a ... um ... sex toy. Yes, Dear Readers, meet the "Siime Eye**," a $250 camera-equipped, Wi-Fi enabled dildo (available in violet or pale pink) that can stream the most intimate details of your carnal knowledge via the Internet to another person’s computer or smart phone, even without your knowledge or consent.

It seems that the Siime Eye was designed so that its Wi-Fi abilities were more akin to a router than to a client, making it particularly vulnerable to the hijacking of its signal by potential high-tech voyeurs***.

But wait! There's more!

The article goes on to note that,

"Last month Standard Innovation, the Canadian maker of an internet-connected sex toy called We-Vibe agreed to spend $5 million to settle a U.S. civil class action lawsuit for collecting data from customers, such as the time, date and duration of use, level of vibration intensity and device temperature."

I don't think there's much else to say, except to encourage you to make sure your Wi-Fi password is encrypted out the wazoo if your intimate streaming is of the electronic, rather than the golden version.

Have a good day. Remember that not everything needs to be Wi-Fi enabled.

More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

* Although you may end up questioning whether the adjective "adult" is accurately used.

** When I first read the article, I read the name as "Slime Eye," which seemed somehow logical.

*** The Siime Eye website includes this warning: "To be more safe be sure to change the default password. We have created a default password "88888888" so that user can access the Siime Eye but in our Mobile Application interface (for both Android and iOS) we have stated to change the password to ensure privacy. We have given clear instructions in User Manual of Siime Eye about how to change password. We always recommend our users to create a strong password.
Most of the electronics devices including our smartphones, Wifi routers are vulnerable to be attacked by hackers. We all hate these unwanted things happening to technical gadgets. So we suggest all our Siime Eye users to change their passwords."