It was Julia Menskia, the Minister of Home Affairs, and a former member of staff at the University in Krokom. "If I may, she began, we do have growing research about brain structure, but to mask it as a male or female brain is rather simplistic and frankly more down to a social construct. There are many reasons for the differences in brains, for example, did you know the hippocampus in men is generally bigger than women, however in truck drivers it is also significantly different to that of people who do not drive at all. The hippocampus is responsible for aiding a sense of direction, therefore as a study shows they have significantly different brain structures should we permit them to be a gender? Furthermore science has found changes in brain activity varies from culture to culture. For example studies have shown that social cognitive processes are characterized by stronger activity in the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex, lateral frontal cortex and temporoparietal junction in Rokkenjimans
[1] but stronger activity in the anterior cingulate, ventral medial prefrontal cortex and bilateral insula in Morelanders
[2]. Social affective processes are associated with stronger activity in the right dorsal lateral frontal cortex in Rokkenjimans but greater activity in the left insula and right temporal pole in Morelanders
[3] Therefore talking about brain structures being typical of a gender means there can be variation according to profession and culture. Does this mean if King David's lateral frontal cortex is more active he must be a Rokkenjiman and if he has a small hippocampus he must be a women? Can we therefore use brain structure and activity to define every characteristic of an individual. A brain structure can be changed by a whole host of issues and gender is but one of them.
"As we learn more about the human genome we spot other issues study has found that there are more than 6,500 unique genes in the human genome that express different traits depending on a person’s gender, either male or female, which explains the huge biological differences between men and women this means more than 21 percent of the entire human genome, which is composed of about 30,000 genes, code for gender-specific traits. These can only be changed with drugs or therapy. One of these genes, which is also related to calcium uptake, showed very high expression levels in younger women that sharply decreased with age; the scientists think that they are active in women up to menopause, protecting their hearts, but leading to heart disease and osteoporosis in later years when the gene expression is shut down.
[4] Therefore the concept of gender as being changeable is far from settled, if 21% of our genome is gender specific then this is significant and unchangeable. It would also mean there are likely to be more than two genders, possibly tens of thousands, therefore making this even more complex as the wording of these treaty seems almost binary, either male or female. A better step forward would be gender neutral legislation, this however is unlikely to find traction in all of those gathered around the table. Could you imagine for example the issue having non binary gender legislation will cause, we could potentially have thousands of genders people claim to be and certain laws and rules exist that wouldn't recognise that, for example Article 2 of the Rokkenjiman constitution reads, (assuming Beatrice hasn't changed it) "The Imperial Throne shall be succeeded to by Imperial female descendants, according to the provisions of the Imperial House Law." What if, just for arguments sake, Crown Princess Adriana identifies as Absorgender, a group that identify themselves as a gender that conforms to those around them and changes as they socialise with more or less people. Could therefore Adriana inherit the throne? As some moments she will be male, others female? This is the pandora's box we are staring at, a realm of new science and anyone claiming any one study or a conscientious at the infancy of these types of study holds the answer is setting the world up for problems down the road. Imagine it, a restaurant needing hundreds of bathrooms as Ambonec identifying individuals demand their own bathrooms, while Gendermavircks believe they should be able to use any bathroom they wish. Should a Nullgender identifying person be able to apply for a job say cleaning a female changing room in a public swimming pool? I personally believe Article 13 should be considered for either removal or needs serious reworking as it could lead to decades of legal disputes in every single nation around this table. "