{"id":68064,"date":"2018-02-09T09:00:13","date_gmt":"2018-02-09T14:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=68064"},"modified":"2018-02-09T07:56:13","modified_gmt":"2018-02-09T12:56:13","slug":"quilette-the-real-gender-trouble-spencer-case-reviews-when-harry-became-sally-responding-to-the-transgender-moment-by-ryan-t-anderson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=68064","title":{"rendered":"(Quilette) The Real Gender Trouble&#8211;Spencer Case reviews  &#8216;When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment&#8217; by Ryan T. Anderson"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Although they don\u2019t usually acknowledge it, transgender activists make philosophical claims, which are susceptible to philosophical critique. Anderson dwells on these commitments most heavily in chapter 2, \u201cWhat Transgender Activists Say.\u201d He writes: \u201cPeople say that we live in a postmodern age that has rejected metaphysics. That\u2019s not quite true. We live in a postmodern age that promotes an alternative metaphysics.\u201d The assertion that \u201cA transgender boy\u00a0<em>is<\/em>\u00a0a boy, not merely a girl who\u00a0<em>identifies<\/em>\u00a0as a boy\u201d is a metaphysical claim, though transgender activists \u201cdress it up as a scientific or a medical claim\u201d to avoid philosophical debate and the suggestion of controversy.<\/p>\n<p>And the metaphysical claims are subject to change without warning or fanfare. In 2005, the pro-trans Human Rights Campaign referred to \u201cbirth sex\u201d and \u201cbiological sex\u201d as things that were distinct from, and capable of being in conflict with, gender identity. More recent rhetoric avoids mention of biological sex, substituting \u201csex\u00a0<em>assigned<\/em>\u00a0at birth.\u201d This leaves mysterious what people observe with ultrasounds and announce at \u201cgender reveal\u201d parties if the sex of the unborn child has yet to be assigned. Previously transgender activists acknowledged that at least one aspect of a person\u2019s sexual identity is the product of nature; the new language suggests it is all socially constructed. Present trends are toward ever more radical forms of subjectivism. Some now regard the \u201cassignment\u201d of sex at birth as a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theblaze.com\/video\/non-binary-trans-parent-assigning-gender-at-birth-is-a-human-rights-violation\">human rights violation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The differences between two graphics used by transgender activists illustrates the trend. The Genderbread Person v3.3 (2015), includes biological sex as an identity category. By contrast the Gender Unicorn (2017), puts \u201csex assigned at birth\u201d in the place of \u201cbiological sex\u201d and adds a third category to the male\/female dichotomy: other\/intersex. I wonder how many people are \u201cassigned\u201d anything other than male, female\u00a0<em>or intersex<\/em>\u00a0at birth. &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/quillette.com\/2018\/02\/07\/real-gender-trouble\/\">Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Although they don\u2019t usually acknowledge it, transgender activists make philosophical claims, which are susceptible to philosophical critique. Anderson dwells on these commitments most heavily in chapter 2, \u201cWhat Transgender Activists Say.\u201d He writes: \u201cPeople say that we live in a<span class=\"ellipsis\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=68064\">Read more &#8250;<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":794,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,92,168,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anthropology","category-books","category-ethics-moral-theology","category-theology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/794"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68064"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68066,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68064\/revisions\/68066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}