I know that gender != sex, but people are societally assigned the gender corresponding to their biological sex (or more accurately the gender corresponding to their genitalia). So if gender is a wholly social construct, there would probably not exist such a thing as gender identity dysphoria.
I don’t trust the particular answers of Ev. Psych either, but I also mistrust any claim of psychological equality in biologically different groups. It smacks of a mind-body duality that doesn’t exist: The brain is a physical organ like any other; psychology is a biological function—culture and society shape it, but so does biology.
Therefore there’s no physical law requiring its average characteristics to be completely the same between males and females. That would be privileging the theory we would prefer to be true as egalitarians.
There are historical ideologies that seem to repeatedly be wrong for essentially the same reasons.
Mind-body dualism.
Essentialist “scientific” theories to explain then existing social norms.
Which is more powerful in this case? Hopefully we can find out.
As for gender identity dysphoria, I don’t doubt there is a phenomena out there. But for it to support your position seems to require that the DSM-IV cut the world at its joints. I think we agree that this is a laughable assertion.
In particular, I distrust the current descriptions because I suspect that the distinction between gender and sex is not being sufficiently respected by those making the diagnostic definitions. Lots of mental illness is defined explicitly or implicitly in terms of fit into current social norms.
As for gender identity dysphoria, I don’t doubt there is a phenomena out there. But for it to support your position seems to require that the DSM-IV cut the world at its joints. I think we agree that this is a laughable assertion.
This is a package-deal fallacy — the DSM can get a lot of things wrong about gender dysphoria without weakening AK’s position.
I know that gender != sex, but people are societally assigned the gender corresponding to their biological sex (or more accurately the gender corresponding to their genitalia). So if gender is a wholly social construct, there would probably not exist such a thing as gender identity dysphoria.
I don’t trust the particular answers of Ev. Psych either, but I also mistrust any claim of psychological equality in biologically different groups. It smacks of a mind-body duality that doesn’t exist: The brain is a physical organ like any other; psychology is a biological function—culture and society shape it, but so does biology.
Therefore there’s no physical law requiring its average characteristics to be completely the same between males and females. That would be privileging the theory we would prefer to be true as egalitarians.
There are historical ideologies that seem to repeatedly be wrong for essentially the same reasons.
Mind-body dualism.
Essentialist “scientific” theories to explain then existing social norms.
Which is more powerful in this case? Hopefully we can find out.
As for gender identity dysphoria, I don’t doubt there is a phenomena out there. But for it to support your position seems to require that the DSM-IV cut the world at its joints. I think we agree that this is a laughable assertion.
In particular, I distrust the current descriptions because I suspect that the distinction between gender and sex is not being sufficiently respected by those making the diagnostic definitions. Lots of mental illness is defined explicitly or implicitly in terms of fit into current social norms.
This is a package-deal fallacy — the DSM can get a lot of things wrong about gender dysphoria without weakening AK’s position.