lifeisjustaconduit:

vondell-txt:

what’s cooler than talking about how seahorses defy traditional gender roles? next time try: seahorses do not have genders, they are little fish

Actually it’s kinda more important that that. Because we assigned sea horses genders and gender roles, as we do with all creatures. We call bees male and female, even though it would make more practical sense to give them three genders. We discuss species of fish “changing gender” are a certain age, because their role in reproduction changes. We have tried to apply our shitty understanding of gender and gender roles to the wider world and it doesn’t work!

And so it’s actually kinda important to use seahorses to point out that in science (even in science) gender is arbitrary.