ColonizationDiary of a salty, homophobic genderspecial.

submitted by artetolife from thestranger.com

sorted by:
top
newinsightfulfun
you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–]motss-pb 17 insightful - 1 fun17 insightful - 0 fun18 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Bioessentialism. Isn't this the belief that we are, in essence, our physical biological bodies and nothing more than that? If so, I agree with the bioessentialists. To believe that we have some kind of essence beyond our physical bodies is to believe in the idea of a soul. While people are free to believe in imaginary gendered souls (i.e. gender essentialism), forcing that moronic belief on others is religious zealotry.

[–]Bright_paintingLoad, lesbian biologist 12 insightful - 1 fun12 insightful - 0 fun13 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

You are almost right but not quite. Bioessentialism is the theory that the behaviour/traits of an individual is determined by their genes/biology. According to this theory, the environment is completely irrelevant for how the individual will choose to act. There is still much we are unsure about, but what we do know today is that both the genetic makeup AND the environment play a part.

[–]motss-pb 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

So the author is giving a misleading definition of bioessentialism and it actually means the same thing as gender essentialism. What is the correct term for the gender critical position? Sex essentialism?

[–]Bright_paintingLoad, lesbian biologist 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I am sorry but to be honest I'm not quite sure. All I know is that the author is quite off in her definition of bioessentialism. It's not so much of assigning worth to biological reality, and more of expecting a certain behaviour from a certain individual. (A prime example is to expecting women to "act like women" just because they were born female and vice versa with men.)