In the West, feminist ideology took the ideas of postmodernism and gender studies courses and the humanities made it their task to dismantle, disrupt and deconstruct what it meant to be a “man” or a “woman” itself, in order to change society, which they this ideology views as being a an oppressive “patriarchy” of “cis”, white, hetero, males.
In the 1990s, Judith Butler became the dominant figure in feminist criticism, with the call that “We need to rethink the category of woman”.1 In Gender Trouble Butler quotes other postmodernist feminists “Strictly speaking, ‘women’ cannot be said to exist” – Julia Kristeva, “Woman does not have a sex” – Luce Irigaray.
Judith Butler took the idea that all behaviour is constructed, called “gender”, and imposed by a patriarchy, one step further to suggest that the categories of “man” and “woman” themselves are “genders”, socially constructed expectations of how males and females are supposed to behave, which can be “performed” by males or females, contributing to the gender identity ideology we see today:
“If gender is the cultural meanings that the sexed body assumes, then a gender cannot be said to follow from a sex in any one way. Taken to its logical limit, the sex/gender distinction suggests a radical discontinuity between sexed bodies and culturally constructed genders… it does not follow that the construction of “men” will accrue exclusively to the bodies of males or that “women” will interpret only female bodies.”2
However the feminist project to deconstruct what it meant to be a “man” and a “woman” in order to dismantle the “patriarchy”, was not a new one.
In the 1970s, the feminist Andrea Dworkin argued, using the nascent research by Dr John Money on transsexualism, that “man” and “women” themselves are social constructs, and that humans are “multi-sexed”, citing Money’s “six aspects of sex identity”: genetic, hormonal, gonadal, internal sexuality, external sexuality, psychosexual development.3
Dworkin continued that as there can be a “total contradiction” of any of these, this justifies seeing humans as a “multi-sexed” species, which has its “sexuality spread amongst a vast fluid continuum where the elements called male and female are not discrete”.4 In Dworkin’s better world, humans would be free from labels such as sex and live androgynously, and the phenomenon of “transsexuality” would cease to exist:
Either the transsexual will be able to expand his/her sexuality into a fluid androgyny, or, as roles disappear, the phenomenon of transsexuality will disappear and that energy will be transformed into new modes of sexual identity and behavior.5
Dworkin’s idea that the “psychosexual development” should take as much precedence to whether one is classed as a “man” or a “woman” is the same as the view of “gender identity” identity today, where “gender identity” is seen as being just as valid a component of sex as chromosomes, or a phenotype.
The feminist project to deconstruct the meaning of sex perpetuated discourse in university gender studies courses.
In the UK, projects such as “The Future of Legal Gender” at King’s College London attracted £724,000 of funding for a 4 year research project, provided a 48-page final report called “Abolishing legal sex status: The challenge and consequences of gender-related law reform”.6
From theory to practice
In order to shape and create this new deconstructed, sexless society, this “deconstructed” version of sex, which is ever more conflated with the concept of “gender”, was then targeted towards children. In a now-deleted video from the BBC children are confused with a range of new “gender identity” categories:
Do you know there are so many gender identities, so we know we’ve got male and female, but there are over 100, if not more, gender identities. So we know that some people might feel like they’re two different genders; so people might think they’re bi-gender, but then you’ve got some people who might call themselves gender-queer, who are just like “I don’t really want to be anything in particular, I’m just going to be me.7
The social media account Libs of TikTok shares many videos of socially conscious, teachers inducing confusion regarding sex categories in children,8 believing that in doing so, they are shaping a better society, by dismantling the “cis, white, hetero, patriarchy”.
The deconstruction of sex, and the promotion of “gender identity” and “trans” started in university gender studies departments and was carried as a new “intersection” riding on the wave of feminist and other social justice movements.9
The Women’s March celebrated “Happy #TransAwarenessWeek! Trans women are women! Trans men are men! Non-binary people are whoever they say they are! This isn’t complicated!”,10 from the National Organisation for Women “Trans women are women. Trans women are women. Our fight for feminism must include trans women”,11 “Sisters Uncut will ALWAYS be inclusive of and led by trans women. We support our sisters!”12 The idea of sex was even be cast as a Western colonialist idea “Gender identity: How colonialism killed my culture’s gender fluidity”.13 “Black Lives Matter” became “Black Trans Lives Matter”.14
The “trans” versus “cis” dichotomy and the belief in “gender identity” was also adopted as part of an intersection in the #MeToo movement, which advocated that exceptions could be made with the principle of innocent-until-proven-guilty, when it came to correcting the wrongs committed against perceived oppressed groups:
… It's why some cis people don't believe it's possible to not identify with the sex you were assigned at birth. Make no mistake: It is a privilege to not experience those kind of challenges. You may not have experienced these things in your life, but, dammit, they exist. (“Why believe women means believing women without exceptions”).15
If one didn’t believe in any of these new shibboleths of the social justice movements, such as if sex is really “assigned” at birth, or if the “gender pay gap” is a result of men conspiring together as a “patriarchy” or that society was fundamentally racist, then this cast you as an oppressor.
“Gender” as an average of sex-based behaviour
It is perhaps understandable that apparently progressive Western society is sensitive to the idea that there are averages in sex-based behaviour between men and women, as historically, such research was used to justify discrimination against women.16
There are some “fringe lunatics”, to quote Dr. Debra Soh, who “cite sex differences [in behaviour] as evidence that women can’t be scientists…”.17 However, as these differences exist, this would suggest that not every sex imbalance was the result of an oppressive patriarchy.
James Damore was fired for questioning in what became known as the “Google Memo” whether or not the imbalance of men and women at Google was the result of patriarchal oppression, or actually the result of a tendency for men and women to be more interested in things, and people, respectively. He attracted a media frenzy, and was smeared as a sexist, a misogynist and by default part of the oppressor group.18
It should however, be possible, for society to recognise that averages of sex-based behaviour exist, while making sure that everyone is free to choose the path they want to in life, free from discrimination. The definition of “gender” could be put forward as sex-based behaviour, where both nature and socialisation play a role:
Whether a trait is deemed “masculine” or “feminine” is culturally defined, but whether a person gravitates towards traits that are considered masculine of feminine is driven by biology. For example, in the Western world, a shaved head is viewed as masculine, and the majority of people sporting a shaved head are men. For women who choose to shave their head as an expression of who they are, they are likely more masculine than the average woman, and will probably be more male-typical in other areas of their life, too.19
Soh writes that whether or not someone gravitates towards masculine or feminine traits, is determined by pre-natal testosterone exposure.20 Recently, this fact has been relevant to scientists studying how endocrine-disrupting plastic, plastics that contain phthalates, have been affecting the behaviour of children:
Sexually dimorphic play is controversial. Some people say it’s all socially determined. And it undoubtedly does have social determinants, but it also has physiological determinants. And we showed that in two studies. We asked mothers of young children to tell us how their children play. It’s pretty simple: How often do they play with guns? Play with dolls? Play dress-up? Play with tea sets, etc. And it turns out that when boys are exposed to the same chemicals that affect AGD [distance between the anus and the beginning of the genital], they play in a less male-typical manner.21
Damore based his opinion in research, but was fired because he disagreed with feminist ideology and its “deconstructed” view of sex, which considers that any difference in behaviour between men and women as social constructs, and indeed the concepts of “man” and “woman” themselves as social constructs.
Although many feminists cheered on his cancellation, they were later to find that the revolution would not stop at Damore, when they were cancelled in turn for questioning the narrative of “gender identity”.
This concept of gender can also be put forward as one cause behind why someone may want to live socially as the other sex. The next part in this series examines the causes of male transsexualism.
“Judith Butler: ‘We need to rethink the category of woman’” Gleeson, J. The Guardian 7 September 2021.
Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity
Dworkin, A. Women-hating (Penguin, 1974). pp. 182-3
Women-hating pp. 182-3
Women-hating pp. 186-7.
“How to Stage a Study: The Transgender Lobby in British Academia” Vigo, J. 30 July 2019.
“BBC ‘100 genders’ removed” The Christian Institute 8 February 2021
“National Organization for Women” 20 November 2022.
“Sisters Uncut” 13 September 2017.
“Gender identity: ‘How colonialism killed my culture’s gender fluidity’” BBC World Service 31 July 2022.
“Black Trans Lives Matter protest: ‘Why we're marching’” BBC 27 June 2020 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-53192703
Why believe women means believing women without exception Bustle Hollander, J. November 21, 2017
Soh, Debra. Ph. D. The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths About Sex and Identity in Our Society (Threshold Editions, 2020) p. 61
The End of Gender p. 65
“Google’s sexist memo has provided the alt-right with a new martyr”, Jones, Owen. The Guardian 8 August 2017.
The End of Gender p. 43.
The End of Gender p. 43.
“Toxic chemicals threaten humanity’s ability to reproduce” Lerner, S. The Intercept 24 January 2021.