Explaining Sex to an Anthropologist

The president of the field’s leading professional association was asked about a polarizing topic—and showed that she doesn’t understand the position she is dismissing.

Ann Ronan Pictures / Print Collector / Getty July 16, 2026, 6:03 PM ET Share Save Last week, the president of the American Anthropological Association weighed in on one of the most polarizing subjects in her field: biological sex. Some anthropologists believe that biological sex is binary, and that it is a necessary and useful category; others believe that this position is at odds with settled science and is a threat to people’s “safety and dignity,” as the AAA put it in an official statement . In 2023, organizers of a large anthropology conference canceled a panel that sought to defend the importance of biological sex to the field.