Carbon Hating: The Flawed Science of “They’ll Dig You Up and Know”

The Claim: “Archaeologists Will Know Your Real Gender”

One of the most common (and ignorant) arguments thrown at trans and non-binary people is:

“One day, when they dig up your skeleton, they’ll know if you were a man or a woman.”

It’s an attempt to reduce gender—a deeply social, personal, and cultural identity—down to biological sex, ignoring both science and reality. Let’s talk about why that argument falls apart.

1. The Science of Identifying Skeletons

Archaeologists and forensic anthropologists can sometimes estimate sex from skeletal remains. But it’s far from perfect.

• Pelvic structure: The pelvis can sometimes provide clues about whether a skeleton belonged to someone assigned male or female at birth.

• Skull features: Certain bone structures like brow ridges or jawlines may indicate typical male or female traits, but these vary widely between individuals.

• Height and muscle attachment sites: Cis men tend to have denser muscle attachments and larger bone structures, but again, this is just a trend—not a rule.

However, this tells us nothing about gender.

2. The Difference Between Sex and Gender

Sex is a biological category based on things like chromosomes, hormones, and anatomy. But even that isn’t as simple as “male” and “female”—consider intersex people, who have biological traits that don’t fit neatly into either category.

Gender, on the other hand, is a social and personal identity. It’s how someone experiences and expresses themselves, shaped by culture, language, and history.

If archaeologists only looked at bones, they’d be missing the bigger picture—because gender is about how a person lived, not just what their skeleton looks like.

3. Archaeology Already Recognizes Gender Beyond Bones

Modern archaeologists don’t just label skeletons as “male” or “female” and move on. They study:

• Burial sites: What objects were buried with the person? Were they associated with certain roles or status markers?

• Cultural records: If texts, art, or oral traditions exist, they help reconstruct how the individual lived and identified.

• Historical context: Many societies have recognized more than two genders throughout history, such as:

  Two-Spirit people in Indigenous North American cultures

  Hijras in South Asia

  Galli priests in ancient Rome, who were assigned male at birth but lived as women

If someone dug me up in 3000 years, they might be able to estimate my assigned sex—but that wouldn’t tell them who I was. If they had access to records of my life—videos, documents, or even just the cultural context of my time—they would know that I was non-binary.

The Future Won’t Care About Your Carbon Hating

Instead of “carbon dating,” I like to call this argument carbon hating—because it’s less about science and more about using bones as an excuse to erase trans and non-binary identities.

But history moves forward. And in 3000 years, when archaeologists dig us up, they won’t just care about what we were assigned at birth—they’ll care about who we were and how we lived.

And I promise you this: no future scientist will care more about my bones than the life I built and the happiness I found.