Dr. Benjamin Buckley (Clayton State) presents for the Mike Ryan Lecture Series hosted by the Philosophy Student Association.
KENNESAW, Ga. (Mar 21, 2017) — Where Does Gender Come From?: Social Constructivism Versus the Trans Experience
Those who hold what Jacob Hale calls the “Natural Attitude” toward gender believe that sex and gender are biologically and psychologically connected; that one is born with a gender just as one is born with a sex, and the two always match. Those who hold the social constructivist view of gender believe that we are born only with a sex – a biological set of features that distinguish males from females – and gender is imbued on us through society based on what biological features we have. Many (though not all) transgender people claim that they felt to be a different gender from the one in which they were raised, and some have felt this way from a very early age. People on both sides of the gender debate view transgender folks as deluded, because their reported lived experience is incompatible with both theories of gender. Is there a theory of gender that validates, rather than denies, lived trans experience? What would such a theory look like? In this talk I’ll investigate the contradictions between social constructivism in particular and the trans experience, and suggest avenues for constructing a theory of gender that has room for trans experience.
