'The Capture of Nature' A. Lewis @lecanardnoir http://www.quackometer.net/blog/2020/09/the-capture-of-nature.html

"Nature is recognised as one of the world’s most prestigious and cited academic journals. It publishes weekly a set of original peer reviewed research articles with accompanying editorials, scientific news and comment."

"Some of those comment articles have recently included a strange disclaimer.

In July 2020, a news item reported on “The gender gap in cystic fibrosis”. The article noted how women appear to have poorer outcomes than men, and die earlier...

...It then declared “(Nature recognizes that sex and gender are not the same, and are neither fixed nor binary)”."

"An article published in August 2020 declares, “Sex differences in immune responses that underlie COVID-19 disease outcomes”. An editorial on this paper noted, “The researchers noticed that male participants’ typical immune response to infection...

... differed from that of female participants, which could explain the more severe disease often observed in men.”

It then went on to add a similar disclaimer, ” (Nature recognizes that sex and gender are neither binary nor fixed.)”...

... This time, gender is not mentioned (in any meaning). The article is clear this is about sex differences. Why the editorial diclaimer?"

"The only explanation for these strange and incorrect statements is ideological capture. These sentences are mantras of gender ideology – an ideology that claims that sex is not a reliable classification for humans. It is too vague, mutable and subjective to talk about reliably..

... The only reliable classification is ‘gender identity’ – whatever that is. This fashionable nonsense arose out of postmodernist inspired philosophies in ‘gender studies’ and sociology...

... As with much of these philosophies, it seeks to undermine meaning in words, to break apart and deny objective knowledge and classifications in an attempt to undermine ‘oppressive power structures’...

... It is a strictly political philosophy with activist aims that denies science can obtain reliable and objective knowledge and any such claim to knowledge is merely the speech of a dominant and oppressive class – usually white, heterosexual men."

"But sex is, of course, fundamental to biology. No peer reviewed biology paper would characterise sex (at least in oogamous organisms like us) as not being ‘binary’, not being a material fact, and being mutable (except in sequential hermaphrodites)...

... We cannot understand reproduction except in terms of its strict binary nature based on the fusion of two highly asymmetric haploid gametes. It is startling that Nature feels it needs to deny these things."