Classification Of Gender

Post Suggestions for Tumblr Week

http://www.philpercs.com/2015/11/against-the-sexgender-distinction.html Against the Sex-Gender Distinction, by Rachel Williams

https://thingofthings.wordpress.com/2015/01/28/cis-by-default/ Cis by Default, by Ozy Frantz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmKix-75dsg On Gender, by Vi Hart

http://freethoughtblogs.com/nataliereed/2013/03/09/born-this-way-reprise-the-new-essentialism/ Born This Way (Reprise), by Natalie Reed

http://blog.iblamethepatriarchy.com/2008/03/23/its-all-about-me/ It’s All About Me, by Twisty Faster (This may need a warning for the level nastiness it displays toward its target. I am suggesting it because I want to document that this kind of supposedly feminist awfulness exists, and to better understand what it is. Ignore if it’s too awful to inflict on others.)

http://pervocracy.blogspot.com/2010/07/acknowledging-gender.html Acknowledging Gender, by Cliff Pervocracy

http://www.metafilter.com/151267/Wheres-My-Cut-On-Unpaid-Emotional-Labor Metafilter thread on unpaid emotional labor (many authors)

…..

For future internet readings:

https://atrivialknot.wordpress.com/2016/03/07/models-of-gender-that-arent-based-on-self-identity/

General Reading List

Moved to http://xeny.net/SexAndGenderReadingList

List of Ideas That Went Into the Paper

  1. sex-differentiated or sex-category-associated physiology (corresponds to Hasslanger’s ‘color’ - is explicitly excluded from gender, as it’s roughly the raw material of ‘sex’ classification)

  2. gendered performances: wearing lipstick, lifting heavy objects, etc. (corresponds roughly to ‘culture’)

  3. social gender categories: man, woman, etc. (corresponds to races)

  4. association of categories with performances (corresponds very roughly to ‘racial stereotypes’)

  5. association of physiology with categories (?associated with ‘cissexism’, surgery-centric trans narratives)

  6. association of physiology with performances (corresponds very roughly to ‘racial stereotypes’)

  7. (called ‘gender identity’) self-identification with or personal preference for participation/membership in any of

  1. Physiology (associated quasi-/pseudo-clinical term: “(body) dysphoria”. may also be what Julia Serano calls ‘subconscious sex’?)
  2. Categories (possibly associated (internet?) term: “social dysphoria”)
  3. Performances

other relevant terms spotted: “gender identity”, “gender presentation”, “gender performance”, “gender”, “genders”…

not directly relevant but moderately insightful link re ‘gender identity’: http://freethoughtblogs.com/nataliereed/2013/03/09/born-this-way-reprise-the-new-essentialism/

representative internet use of ‘gender expression’ and ‘gender identity’: http://itspronouncedmetrosexual.com/2015/03/the-genderbread-person-v3/

requisite example of others on the activist internet hating on the above for various good and bad reasons: http://sjwiki.org/wiki/Genderbread_person#.Vd-92-lxWS0

Big Question: What does Judith Butler call these things?

Gender-abolitionist discourse in the radical feminist tradition tends to deliberately conflate these. In particular, it seems to regard a lot of the stuff in (2) as stuff no informed free person would choose, meaning that there’s a fair amount of equivocation between abolishing (2) and abolishing (4) and/or (6). Likewise, there’s often an assumption that the categories (2) exist solely for nefarious purposes as a way to mediate the undesirable connection (6) by virtue of a (4)-to-(3)-to-(5) link (or at least this is how it reads to me). Radical feminists critiques of transgender discourse focus on (sometimes implicit, often ill-founded or bad faith) accusations that it endorses some combination of (4), (5), and (6), while transfeminist replies focus on arguments about how some of the (2) stuff isn’t always so bad (so much of it might persist without (4) and (6)). And on the personal legitimacy of of the self-identifications in (7).

It is tempting to speculate that in the absence of (4), (5), and (6), there would be nothing to support the persistence of the categories (3), which is a thing that is difficult to have a conversation about given the political climate related to the other stuff, but, on the activist internets, see here for some transfeminist activist internets discussion of legitimizing (2) and (7) in the absence of (4), (5), and (6), with the understanding that at that point (3) might fall away:

http://radtransfem.tumblr.com/post/96438124867/some-thoughts-on-gender-abolition

Also to do: work in comparison with Mikkola

[Very interesting indeed. Thanks. After reading the linked activist writing, I’m tempted to replace our official slogan with “But I fucking hate dudes”, but on balance I think “Death to British Imperialism everywhere!” is still better. Jason]


. And on the personal legitimacy of of the self-identifications in (7).

It is tempting to speculate that in the absence of (4), (5), and (6), there would be nothing to support the persistence of the categories (3), which is a thing that is difficult to have a conversation about given the political climate related to the other stuff, but, on the activist internets, see here for some transfeminist activist internets discussion of legitimizing (2) and (7) in the absence of (4), (5), and (6), with the understanding that at that point (3) might fall away:

http://radtransfem.tumblr.com/post/96438124867/some-thoughts-on-gender-abolition

Also to do: work in comparison with Mikkola

[Very interesting indeed. Thanks. After reading the linked activist writing, I’m tempted to replace our official slogan with “But I fucking hate dudes”, but on balance I think “Death to British Imperialism everywhere!” is still better. Jason]


Bourbaki