Last week, the president of the American Anthropological Association, Carolyn M. Rouse, waded into the sex binary debate with all the grace of a bull in a china shop. In an interview with The Chronicle of Higher Education, Rouse - who is also a tenured Princeton professor - declared that the idea of two sexes is "factually incorrect" and that anyone who thinks otherwise might as well be an astrologer crashing an astronomy conference. "The idea that there are two sexes is just factually incorrect," she stated, adding that "all you need to do is literally type into Google" to see that we know "there are different types of 'sexes' and 'genders.'" In a particularly colorful aside, she mused, "You may not like it. I don't know, maybe you want to kill babies that aren't just XX presenting XX or XY presenting XY, but that's what we have in this world."

Apparently, Rouse is baffled by the whole debate, despite being the head of an organization dedicated to understanding humanity. She called the belief in binary sex "very strange" and claimed she still doesn't know what people mean when they assert sex is binary - or why it matters so much to them. This is a bit like a marine biologist professing confusion about why fish have gills.

When interviewer Stephanie M. Lee pointed out that a 2022 survey of forensic anthropologists found 42.4 percent believed sex is binary, Rouse dismissed opinion research entirely, saying, "I don't believe in opinion research." She then disparaged forensic anthropologists as mostly coroners without advanced schooling - ignoring the fact that 57.9 percent of respondents had a doctorate and 25.7 percent a master's degree. Only 20.5 percent worked in a coroner's office. But hey, who needs data when you have conviction?

Rouse's argument against binary sex relies on chromosomal variations like XXY or XYY, claiming these disprove a two-sex system. However, scholars who defend the binary view - like evolutionary biologist Carole Hooven - define sex by gamete type: males produce sperm, females produce eggs. No third gamete exists. Hooven, who was slated to speak on a AAA panel that got canceled, notes that this gametic view "applies across sexually reproducing animals and accommodates all the complexity and variation within the sexes." It holds for seahorses, clownfish, and even postmenopausal women.

Critics of the binary view, such as those citing intersex conditions, argue that developmental variation creates ambiguity. But as biologist Colin M. Wright explains, "the sex binary does not entail that every individual can be unambiguously categorized as male or female." The claim is simply that there are only two gamete types.

Anthropologists are supposed to understand humans, including those they disagree with. Rouse's dismissal of a view held by billions - and by a significant chunk of her own field - as "nonsensical" and unworthy of debate seems antithetical to that mission. Perhaps the AAA should consider whether its president is the best person to lead a discipline that values curiosity and nuance. Or maybe they can just cancel another panel.