CNN is being jeered at on the Internet for insisting there is “no consensus criteria for assigning sex at birth,” with banterers telling the network to “look just below the waist” for evidence of quite the opposite.
“It’s not possible to know a person’s gender identity at birth, and there is no consensus criteria for assigning sex at birth,” CNN’s Devan Cole wrote in a Wednesday news article about South Dakota barring transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports.
“Actually, there is a scientific consensus for ‘assigning sex at birth.’ It’s called observation, coupled with a basic understanding of mammalian and human biology,” one said, with another proving a similar viewpoint with personal experience:
“My wife delivered babies for 23 years and she could tell real easy what the gender was… Oddly enough, so could the parents…”
“Just… no words. I’m pretty sure there’s been “consensus criteria” for innumerable generations. But now we’re woke so we have no idea about these things,” another critic struck back.
“The ‘disputed term’ sentence earlier makes it clear CNN can't claim it was a typo. That the author meant to type ‘gender’ instead of ‘sex.’ They're really disputing biological sex exists,” some other netizen weighed in along the same lines.
“Extraordinary that CNN would describe ‘biological sex’ as a ‘disputed term’. Sex and gender are recognized at birth from the biology - not assigned,” another stated.
“And these are supposedly the "pro-science" people”, a third described the CNN editorial.
In the wake of the backlash, with many directly addressing the network in their comments, CNN later altered the wording “to provide additional explanation as to the distinctions between gender and sex,” but did it in a way that caused even stormier reactions.
“It’s not possible to know a person’s gender identity at birth, and for some people, the sex listed on their original birth certificate is a misleading way of describing the body they have”, the no-less-contentious statement reads.
These people are insane.@CNN
— Charlie's Angles (@CharliesAngles8) March 31, 2021
"It's not possible to know a person's gender identity at birth, and for some people, the sex listed on their original birth certificate is a misleading way of describing the body they have."
I checked and this @CNN article is real. For a discussion of how some queer theorists deconstruct not just gender, but biological sex as well, see here:https://t.co/rs9890dbN3 https://t.co/mjBbbG6W16
— Neil Shenvi (@NeilShenvi) March 31, 2021
