NWSA Panel: Andrea James (part 2)

Panelist Andrea James presents her paper "Fair comment, foul play: Populist responses to J. Michael Bailey's exploitative 'controversies.'" From the panel "The Bailey Brouhaha" at the National Women's Studies Association 2008 Conference. http://www.tsroadmap.com/nwsa

Category:

Education

Tags:

• transsexual
• transgender

[darliegoddess]

Andrea, this is truly the most fascinating oration , facebook time. Please do more.

[Aluenvey]

The good news is, I just got through watching a video recently, were chromosomes doesn't necessarily determine someones gender. There is a condition called intosexed syndrome, with makes a persons body unable to process the corresponding hormone of their current gender. So technically they are they opposite gender. I must say,it seems to make since that it applies to transgenders, in the chromosomes doesnt make the person.^^

[1Vella]

this was a great video, i cant wait till i have transitioned and i can help out and become more of an activist :)

[andreajeanjames]

True - I should have clarified that generally speaking, cultural feminists, not all second-wave "radfems," hold the essentialist view common among evolutionary psychologists. Third-wave feminism is a response to both.

[bucketoflead]

Whether the hypothetical mechanisms behind that are evolutionary in nature, who knows. Gender variance is too common and pervasive to be seriously considered maladaptive, that's almost for sure. And a biological (brain-based) explanation doesn't have to imply pathological or fixed just because we don't currently understand. Anyway, I'm rambling and I feel a bit like an ungrateful brat :) Thank you for your response and all the great work you do.

[bucketoflead]

Hm, I guess I really just had an exceptional experience and was exposed to the non-reductionist and research-supported material without the naturalistic fallacy that seems to hang over the field. In the end, some good food for good thought. Not all radfems are "critiquing transgenderism" with biological essentialism - quite a few take a 100% socialization=destiny tack, which attempts to deny what some experience as "subconscious sex" as Serano put it.

[andreajeanjames]

Nearly all (if not all) evolutionary psychology is speculative "just so stories": after-the-fact fallacies. Lots of nice people believe in it, but it's still a pretty questionable field. See Richardson's 'Evolutionary Psychology as Maladapted Psychology' for a good overview. I agree that we get it from all sides, but what "radfems" and EPs share is a belief that biology is destiny.

[bucketoflead]

btw, I'm saying this as someone whose evolutionary psych professor has been the most encouraging and supportive about her transition :)

[bucketoflead]

just a note - there ARE evolutionary psychologists who acknowledge social construction. the idea that social constructionism and biology are inherently opposed to one another probably hurts trans people a great deal; the "radfems" can say we aren't women/men because woman is socially constructed through socialization while we have people like BBL on the other side.