In honor of National Woman’s Rights Day, I wanted to post my thoughts on the topic, with an understanding that a lot of the pro-gender identity discourse is really just a trojan horse to roll back the historical gains of feminism:
1. Sex is sometimes relevant, but not always. The facts are that there is typically more overlap in characteristics between the sexes than there are differences. At the extremes, though, the differences are more stark (ie, Serena Williams wouldn’t break into the world’s top 500 tennis players if she played against men).
2. Sex is an immutable scientific reality, whereas gender is a pscyho-social construct (like “being intelligent” or “being middle-class”).* For example, 50X more people identify as “trans” as are diagnosed with actual gender dysphoria.
3. People of either sex should be free to:
√ Dress & behave how they like,
√ Express any gender identity they wish
√ Not to be confined to the stereotypes of either sex.
4. People who disagree with these things should be encouraged to openly discuss it, in a fact-based but personally respectful, discussion.
*- “Although sex is a biological characteristic of humans and numerous nonhuman organisms and is an important category to continue to call out, gender is at the same epistemic level as other aspects of sociocultural diversity and may, in the future, be folded into diversity analysis.” (Article: A Framework for Sex, Gender, and Diversity Analysis in Research, from Science Magazine, Sept. 30, 2022)