#11 The Spectrum of Both Sexes

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I took one big deep breath, preparing for my sister to snicker at me.

"lua, Leonardo was both a researcher and an inquirer. He researched everything he could find in order to complete a painting. Perhaps this insatiable inquisitiveness is one of the reasons he was called a perfectionist."

"Yeah ...... yeah, well, um, so what?"

"I mean, I don't think Leonardo was trying to depict the ultimate beauty or something unrealistic, but rather human nature."

"Human nature?"

"Yes, the essence of us, of Homo sapiens."

"I don't understand. What the hell does that mean?"

"It means that we are all a combination of two elements, the masculine and the feminine."

"We have both masculine and feminine elements, huh? So I'm a woman, but I also have a masculine side?"

"Yes."

I paused for a moment. I tried to organize my thoughts in order to explain it to my sister as clearly as possible. But to be honest, I still wasn't sure. I might be the only one who thinks like this, at least in this country.

"lua, we hear the word LGBT a lot these days."

"They are those who are considered to be sexual minorities, right ? I think L stands for lesbian, G for gay, B for bisexual, and T for transgender (people whose mind does not match their sex at birth, including those with gender dysphoria) [Note25]."

"Yes. I think they actually play an important role in our understanding of human nature."

"What do you mean?"

"In actuality, I think it makes little sense to separate those who are sexual minorities from the general public. And, of course, among sexual minorities."

I took a scientific journal specializing in chemistry from the shelf, flipped through the pages, and opened to an article.

"There is a Japanese researcher who has proposed the idea of a sex spectrum, as described in this magazine [Note 26]."<pic 36>

"A sex spectrum?"

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"A sex spectrum?"

"Yes, it is the idea that the sex of an organism should be considered as a continuum of phenotypes, rather than as binary opposites, such as male or female, as has been the case in the past."

"? ? ?"

"I'm sorry to be so difficult. I mean that organisms are not necessarily divided into either male or female, but there are organisms that have characteristics in between. For example, there are males that are more female-oriented and females that are more male-oriented. The degree of male and female is slightly different in each individual, and there is a continuum of them like this."

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