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[–]BEB[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

I am meh about him, but I don't know much. I just have heard him spoken of with reverence, and also seem to remember that he was behind gender ideology before (I could be mistaken) so figured it was good that he was questioning at all.

Also, he retweeted that sweet young female activist who's under attack by trans activists for talking about female anatomy - so perhaps that's something?

[–]supersmokio6420 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

As someone who's read a couple of his books and listened to many talks he's done over the years, its highly unlikely he's ever been behind gender ideology, I can't think of anything he's ever said to suggest he supports it and it seems really out of character. I've never heard of an evolutionary biologist who buys it.

[–]BEB[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

One would think, but I just seem to remember him saying or tweeting something in support of gender ideology and it surprised me and made me kind of dislike him.

I was actually supposed to have a conversation with him about 14 or so years ago, but that got canceled, so I didn't do the research I would have done otherwise. As a result, I know just about nothing about him beyond that he's some kind of fierce rationalist?

[–]supersmokio6420 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I've just seen that he tweeted this in 2015.

Is trans woman a woman? Purely semantic. If you define by chromosomes, no. If by self-identification, yes. I call her "she" out of courtesy.

He gives what I'd call a scientist's answer; he doesn't commit to a definite yes or no because 'woman' hasn't been defined in the question.

Saying he uses 'she' out of courtesy suggests he doesn't personally think they really are, and he gets attacked for that choice of words.

[–]BEB[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I feel like I read something more pro-trans from Dawkins more recently than 2015.