Oh. Heh, ahem.
Hi.
These are human chromosomes.
They contain all the genes you need to make a person.
This one is called an X chromosome,
and that one down there... Wait, wait.
That's a Y chromosome.
They're sex chromosomes.
Females usually have two X's and males generally have an X and a Y.
But it turns out, about one in every 400 pregnancies...
has a different number of sex chromosomes.
Some people only have one sex chromosome.
Some people have three, four, or even five sex chromosomes.
For me, sometimes I feel I have a lot.
But using science,
we know that sex in every aspect of human sexuality is...
Well, it's a little complicated.
Whoo. Whoo!
Yes. Yes.
Welcome to the show.
I'm Bill Nye, and I'm...
And I'm here to, dare I say it, save the world.
The world is a wonderfully diverse place.
And as scientists, we use the scientific method
to try and understand that diversity.
This is what is happening with the study of human sex and sexuality.
Right now, biologists, sociologists, anthropologists,
they're all trying to figure this out.
And they're finding human sexuality is on a spectrum.
And if you're like me, and I know I am...
you're still learning about this field of science.
They used to think there were just two settings, male and female.
But it's actually a lot sexier than that.
Check out this smoking hot abacus of sex.
Yes.
Now, as you can see, this is a pretty complicated machine.
So, I'm gonna ask for a little help,
and who better to talk about sex than two cis-male white guys?
Derek Muller.
- Derek, it's good to see you. - It's good to see you.
I see you have the...
Pointer of sex.
Of sex.
A version of it.
If I'm going too fast for you, let me know.
The first aspect of sexuality is...
Anyone? Sex.
Here's what I'm saying. Biologically, not everybody fits
into the categories male or female.
And by everybody, I mean every living reproducing thing.
Am I right, Clarence, the clown fish?
Here he is.
No, this is relevant, everybody,
because, you may not know, clown fish can change their sex.
There's a variety in chromosomes.
And like I said, there are sex chromosome abnormalities in one in 400 pregnancies.
I mean, that is pretty frequent.
But there's also a variety in sex organs, hormones...
This whole thing is wild, people.
- Am I right, Derek? - Absolutely, sir.
Now, the next aspect of this is gender.
It works the same way. We used to think of gender and sex as synonymous,
but these days, we use these two words differently.
Sex is biological.
Gender is how you identify yourself and your experience.
I am biologically male, and I identify myself as a man.
Let's say that's me, right there.
And then, this is me identifying myself as a man.
So, my sex and gender are on the same side of the spectrum.
But there are people whose sex and gender are not the same.
As a first hypothesis,
scientists thought there might be a male brain...
Shown here.
...And a female brain.
Violà.
So, perhaps a person could have a male brain in a female body,
and a female brain in a male body, or the other way around.
But there are people who identify as both genders,
or neither gender, or a combination of the two.
And it turns out, you can't identify the gender of a brain
just by looking at it.
Gender is like sex, it's on a spectrum.
Now, I know when you started this ep...
I know when you started this episode,
this probably wasn't what you were expecting.
You wanna hear Bill Nye talk about
sexual intercourse.
Yeah!
About... About coitus.
About doing it.
We scientists call the Netflix-and-chill aspect of sexuality...
"attraction."
"Netflix and chill" wouldn't fit.
And guess what, it turns out whom you are attracted to
is also on a spectrum.
Some people are heterosexual, or "straight."
They're attracted to people of the opposite sex.
Other people are homosexual, or "gay."
They're attracted to people of the same sex.
But there are also bisexual people...
that are attracted to two or more sexes.
And asexual people who aren't attracted to any sex.
Pansexual people are attracted to individuals
regardless of their sex or gender.
There are so many different possibilities.
Even the current definitions don't fully capture the whole picture.
Science is a process.
But wait, there's more. Just one more.
Just one more.
We call it expression, or how you present yourself to the world.
In a lot places, like the U.S., many women wear makeup and men usually don't.
Although, I have quite a bit on right now.
How about you, Derek?
- It's just you, Bill. - Here...
Here in the U.S., makeup is considered feminine
as opposed to blue jeans,
which used to be masculine, but now everyone wears them.
Expression and style are cultural and they change with time.
We sent this man all the way to Seoul to see how K-pop is changing attitudes.
- You certainly did. - Did you have a good time?
I had an amazing time,
as I would love to show you if we could roll the clip.
South Korea, it may look incredibly modern,
but it's actually quite conservative,
especially when it comes to gender roles.
But now all of that is starting to change, and the reason
is K-pop.
The Korean music industry is just such a hyper-competitive industry
that there's this challenge to basically keep pushing forward
and keep being on the edge.
And often what that means
is sort of pushing the envelope on conventional thinking
and really tap into certain things that maybe in the past could have been taboo.
Korean pop culture has really transformed
a lot of traditional ideas of what's acceptable.
But I think one of the reasons why K-pop acts can get away
with sort of bending the rules or perhaps even breaking stereotypes
is that they pull it off with so much confidence
that it doesn't feel weird.
It just feels like, hey, this is something that looks cool.
♪ Here we go ♪
Meet K-pop superstar Amber. She's invented her own style,
her own gender-bending way of expressing herself.
And she is taking the country by storm.
Back then, when I first started in the industry,
there was no other androgynous girl out there,
and it caught people off guard.
But the past seven years,
I've seen a growth in girls with shorter hair, you know,
dressing in just comfortable clothing. It's a lot more common now.
Amber is personally my role model.
I also have really short hair for a girl and I'm also kind of a tomboy,
so I look up to Amber a lot.
Did you have your hair short before Amber or...?
One of the big factors was Amber, actually,
because I've always thought she looked so cool.
All I wanted to do was, you know,
give people another perspective on a different style.
K-pop has empowered fans to experiment with gender expression.
Even men are getting in on the action.
- Thank you. - Thank you so much.
Now, Korea is known for its exports of cosmetics,
but what surprised me is just how many male cosmetics there are.
Koreans actually buy the most male cosmetics anywhere in the world.
Four times as many as any other country.
They're catering to the male market here.
They're more vain.
Sometimes I'm more vain than the women, actually.
Oh, really?
A big percentage of that is because of K-pop.
Korean people have very strong desire
to catch up with what's really looking good.
So, for either a man or a woman,
I think it's totally liberating to try whatever they want.
What I wanna express today, that's how I'm gonna wear. Be yourself.
I feel like that's a big point.
Although Korean culture remains quite conservative
regarding alternative lifestyles,
the rise of K-pop has empowered a new generation
to express ideas across a broad spectrum of identities.
That was really cool.
Thank you.
Derek Muller.
So, when you... When we watch this, it looks like it's just happening.
- It's just going on. - Yeah.
But it's still a pretty conservative culture.
But K-pop is definitely pushing those boundaries.
Is it just young people or is it everybody?
It's mainly the young people, from what I could see.
I didn't talk to everyone, but that's where it starts.
You didn't talk to everyone? It's not that big a country.
It's big, Bill. Seoul is huge.
But I talked to as many people as I could, and clearly, the vibe was that
things are changing and that K-pop is leading the way.
Are people accepting it? Or is it like...?
We have some very conservative people here in United States
that would rather it never got accept...
- There'll always be... - A nontraditional...
There'll always be a conservative kind of backlash to progress.
But I think that's why it's so interesting and so exciting
for people to push those boundaries.
Because they do push people's buttons and get some people upset.
Nicely done, man. Blow it up.
Derek Muller.
You guys... You guys, look, I need a minute.
Tell them how you really feel, Bill.
We... Everybody's on a spectrum.
When it comes to human sexuality, it's a spectrum.
Some people are this way, some are that way.
We're all in this together. All right, what's the big deal?
For those of you out there... And I've met you.
...Who may be... concerned
about people who don't seem to share your sexuality,
just get over it, will you?! What do you care? Those people...
Those people are not gonna try to have sex with you.
For more than one reason.
So, let's just get over it and move on. Thank you.
But there's more than just my opinion on this.
Luckily, we brought along some experts.
I'll just tell you guys, on this episode, we have the fantast...
We have the panel of, I think, the world's foremost authorities.
We're here to discuss the hard questions. Solomon Georgio, you are a comedian.
- Yes. - And you do bits about being gay.
- All the time. - Hold that thought.
Dr. Jeffrey McCune, you're professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies
at Washington University in St. Louis.
A beautiful campus. And may I say, check out his tie.
- Can I just say that? - It's for you.
Looking sharp. I'm digging it.
And then, Dr. Katrina Karkazis,
cultural anthropologist at Stanford University.
- You're a cardinal. - I am a cardinal.
So, you... Everybody...
Just everybody has asked me about this the last few days.
Is there such a thing as a gay gene?
No.
Yeah. There's no such thing.
People have studied it? They've tried to sort it out?
You know, basically, we have this long-standing desire
to try to find biological origins
of all kinds of sexual behaviors and desires.
We've only been able to think about the idea of a gay gene
since the category "homosexuality" came into being.
- When was that? - Actually, within the last 100 years.
- That's all? - Around... Yeah.
- That's all? - That's it.
- What did people say before? - Meaner things.
But hold on a second.
I appreciate what you're saying,
- but when I think about Greek mythology... - Yup.
There were a lot of, uh, interactions.
- Can we say "interactions"? Is that okay? - Yeah.
And so, it's been around as long as people have been around.
So, it used to be, in Greek mythology, it was acts.
But what's different now is that there's an identity that goes with the act.
Homosexual people as a category of people with an identity, is the new idea.
Sexual behaviors in all of their variety have existed forever.
But people use labels, Bill, to kind of make sense of these things.
So, uh, even the category of race, right?
Blackness, right?
That didn't exist forever, right?
Categories are created to make sense of these things.
So, what I think the gay-gene conversation really is about is
how do we make sense of these other folks, right?
When we realize that there are many sexualities.
So, coming back to science, science is not interested in studying similarity.
The bump in the road is more important than the smooth part.
- Exactly. - Yes.
And so, you have to construct a difference.
And in constructing the difference, you try to explain it.
And in sexuality, they try to take the complexity of sexuality,
even in a person across a lifetime, and flatten it into a label.
But no one... I admit.
No one has said to me, "What makes you straight?"
- Exactly. - Exactly.
Angrily.
But along this line, you guys, let's say the world would be better...
Let's hypothesize that the world would be better
if we all accepted each other and each other's sexuality
and gender and attraction and presentation.
How are we gonna get there from here?
I mean, besides this show. This show is huge.
This one show is gonna do it all.
But how do we get there from here?
I think that part of what the solution might be is to develop. Right?
And be attentive to the language that people use themselves.
The thing is that you learn that there's no real definition to being a person.
And it's kind of...
The greatest thing for me, when I'm onstage,
is not being concerned about what my gender roles are.
I can call myself a diva if I want to, and no one can take that away from me.
No, you'd better not.
You're making me think about a circumstance that I was in very recently
with my, at the time, year-old son, right?
We were in what's called Schnucks in St. Louis.
- Oh, yeah. It's a grocery store. - Yeah.
- The market. - Yeah. And so, we're in this aisle,
and, you know, I'm playing with him, and a woman comes up and she says:
"Oh, my God. She's so beautiful."
And I'm like... "Thank you so much."
And then I say, "Hey, Caleb, you wanna get that right there?"
Animal crackers?
We'll say animal crackers.
- Probably Pop-Tarts or something. - Pop-Tarts.
But he's doing his goo-goo ga-ga thing, and she's like, "Oh, my God."
I didn't know he was a boy.
"I'm so sorry."
And I said, "I don't know that he's a boy either."
Yeah. And plus, why does she feel so bad?
- Exactly. - Right. Right.
Solomon, Jeffrey, and Katrina, thank you.
That's beautiful.
I love you, guys.
We are enlightened and forward-thinking, but not everyone sees it this way.
But there are lots of flavors to sexuality.
Right, why are we here, Vanilla?
- Damn. - Oh, this again? Come on.
- Chillax, Strawbs. - Settle, everybody. Settle.
Now, I've spoken to some of you
about my theories on the nature of being ice cream.
Which have no basis in science.
It's the science of feelings.
And as vanilla, I feel that I am the most natural of the ice creams.
And therefore, the rest of you should just go ahead and also be vanilla.
It's the one true flavor.
No, please! Ahh!
Don't make me stop being Strawberry Delicious!
Oh, cripes.
Look, no one can make you stop being strawberry, Strawberry.
You're strawberry.
Hold me, Salted Caramel.
If you wanna get right with a big ice cream in the sky,
change your flavor by wishing to be vanilla.
What if the big ice cream in the sky is chocolate?
Blasphemy.
Everyone should pretend to be vanilla
until they no longer have the urge not to be vanilla.
I did not urge to be pistachio. I am pistachio.
Hey, Mint Chocolate Chip.
Sorry I'm late.
I was being two awesome things at once.
Cool.
Uh, not cool.
Pick a lane, butt stain.
Vanilla is trying to convert us all again.
That's nuts.
No offense, Nuts.
Come on, Vanilla. Nobody wants just one flavor of ice cream.
I do.
Haven't you ever wanted to be in a Neapolitan?
I... I can't. I can't.
Come on. It's natural.
All-natural cocoa.
And strawberry fresh from the field.
And so creamy and delicious. Mm.
Big ice cream in the sky, help me.
It's good.
Meet you at the bowl.
- This is on! - This is on!
Oh, yes.
Yeah, get it!
Whoo! Ha, ha.
Get in here, Nuts.
That was cool, wasn't it?
That was cool.
It's a brilliant premise, doggone.
So, you guys, seriously, this next thing, I feel is very special.
This is a cool little segment.
You know this woman from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.
Please, give it up for Rachel Bloom.
This one goes out to all my bipeds who identify as ladies!
♪ Those world of ours is full of choice ♪
♪ But must I choose between Only John or Joyce? ♪
♪ Are my options only hard or moist? ♪
♪ My vagina has its own voice ♪
♪ Not vocal cords, a metaphorical voice ♪
Sometimes, I do a voice for my vagina.
Please, don't tell me I'm the only one who does that.
♪ 'Cause my sex junk Is so, oh, oh, oh ♪
♪ Much more than Either-or, or, or ♪
♪ Power bottom or a top off ♪
♪ Versatile love may have Some butt stuff ♪
♪ It's evolution, ain't nothing new ♪
♪ There's nothing taboo about a sex stew ♪
♪ Just add salt or Gérard Depardieu ♪
♪ French treasure ♪
♪ 'Cause my sex junk Is so, oh, oh, oh ♪
♪ Much more than Either-or, or, or ♪
♪ If they're alive, I'll date them ♪
♪ Channing or Jenna Tatum ♪
♪ I'm down for anything ♪
♪ Don't box in my box ♪
♪ Give someone new a handy ♪
♪ Then give yourself props ♪
♪ Oh, you think you're so smart ♪
♪ Did you learn gay in college? ♪
♪ Chill with all of that While I drop some knowledge ♪
♪ Sexuality's a spectrum Everyone is on it ♪
♪ Even you might like it If you sit up on it ♪
♪ Drag queen, drag king Just do what feels right ♪
♪ You're a tall pansexual Flirty wood sprite? ♪
♪ Who enjoys a Fleshlight In the cold moonlight? ♪
♪ With a sad clown Skyping via satellite? ♪
♪ Damn skippy, home slice Sing it with me all night ♪
♪ Sex how you want It's your goddamn right ♪
♪ 'Cause my sex junk Is so, oh, oh, oh ♪
♪ Much more than Either-or, or, or ♪
♪ Get off your soapbox ♪
♪ My sex junk's better than Bagels with lox ♪
♪ With lots of schmear ♪
That's exactly the right message, Rachel. Nice job.
Rachel Bloom, everybody.
Prashanth.
Nice job. Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Nice, beautiful, beautiful, nice.
- Carry on. - We'll go back.
Where was I? Oh, yes.
Give it up for DJ Seahorse.
One thing's clear about sexuality.
There's a lot more going on than meets the eye.
Female or male, gay or straight, pink or blue,
we were taught to see these as binary.
Now we're realizing it's more like a kaleidoscope.
And this stuff isn't just for adults. Parents know this already.
Kids explore gender, expression, attraction,
before they've ever heard of a spectrum.
Take sex. We used to think it was pretty straightforward.
X and a Y chromosome for males, two X's for females.
But we see more combinations than that in real life.
And even for people with just two sex chromosomes,
hormones can vary wildly.
So can anatomy.
What makes someone male or female isn't so clear-cut.
How about attraction?
Some people argue the natural thing is to only be attracted to the opposite sex.
But in practice, it ain't so simple, kids.
Some people are gay, some are bi,
some are asexual, and some will take whatever they can get.
If you know what I mean.
It's another sexy sliding scale.
When you throw in gender, it gets even more colorful.
By three or four, most kids identify with a gender.
And it doesn't always match the sex they were assigned at birth.
And a person's gender identify may change over their lifetime.
And culture is getting us new ways to express all of this.
How you dress, how you act and talk, how you present yourself to the world,
it should be up to you.
Sure, this might make things confusing for those who insist
everyone pick and M or an F.
But, people, we have to listen to the science.
And the science says we're all on a spectrum.
Our labels, our fashion,
even our washrooms are still catching up to that truth.
I think you'll find, when we look at sexuality this way,
it is more complicated, but it's also a lot more honest.
And it's more interesting.
I learned a lot tonight.
I mean, I'm this cis-male guy who's been living in this world,
but this stuff, to me, from a scientific standpoint, is just cool.
Science is the process by which we understand nature,
by which we understand our place in the world, how we all fit in.
And so, every one of these insights is just so exciting for me.
We, working together, can, dare I say it, save the world.
So, everybody, that's our show.
Thanks to our panel.
Solomon, Jeffrey, and Katrina.
Thanks to Rachel Bloom and the dancers, and Prashanth.
It was big fun.
Everybody, thank you. Thanks for watching.
Turn it up loud and watch another episode.
Let's save the world!