User:Jiselle04/Gender-critical feminism

SEX AND GENDER

Gender-critical feminists equate "women" with what they consider to be a "female sex class", and view historical and contemporary oppression of women as being rooted in their being female, while "gender" is a system of social norms which functions to oppress women on the basis of their sex.^[1][2][3] They believe sex is biological and cannot be changed,^[4] and that biological sex should be a protected characteristic under equality legislation.^[5] Furthermore, gender critics emphasise the view that sex is binary,^[6] as opposed to a continuous spectrum, and that the two sexes have an objective, material basis as opposed to being socially constructed.^[7]

• In many ways gender stereotypes have changed over the years. With that being said women and men have taken on different roles not only being stuck to one, the world has become more accepting and open in what makes a women a "women" or what makes a man a "man". This fluidity between genders have allowed both genders to not only explore new sides of themselves but break out of those gender stereotypes as a more evident example being women becoming more present in male dominated areas. That does not mean that gender stereotypes have gone away completely, I just feed as though they have transformed into different variations of themselves. Within the article The times are changing...or Are they Not? A Comparison of Gender Stereotypes, 1983-2014 by Haines, E. L., Deaux, K., & Lofaro, N. We are able to see various statistics that are used in order to show the increase in representation and breaking of stereotypes that have happened throughout the years. "In sports, the passage of Title IX in 1972 led to a rapid acceleration of women participating in athletics at both the high school and the college levels. For example, girls accounted for only 7% of high school athletes in 1971–1972; that number is now more than 40% " (National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education, 2012). With this quote we are able to backup the fact that we have come a long way with stereotypes, but that does not mean that it is completely gone. As mentioned above in the paragraph "while "gender" is a system of social norms which functions to oppress women on the basis of their sex" (Paragraph 5). It shows us how many will focus on the sex of a person and will base certain aspects from that.

SEX BASED RIGHTS

Human rights scholar Sandra Duffy described the concept of "sex-based rights" as "a fiction with the pretense of legality," noting that the word "sex" in international human rights law does not share the implications of the word "sex" in gender-critical discourse and is widely agreed to also refer to gender.^[8] Catharine A. MacKinnon noted that "the recognition [that discrimination against trans people is discrimination on the basis of sex, that is gender, the social meaning of sex] does not, contrary to allegations of anti-trans self-identified feminists, endanger women or feminism, including what some in this group call 'women's sex-based rights.' To begin with, women—in the United States anyway—do not have 'sex-based rights' in the affirmative sense some in this group seem to think."^[9]

• So many people face discrimination in their day to day life, with that being said in more recent years there has been a bigger shift on focusing on giving more rights to the LGBTQ+ community. Even then we see that so many fight a battle against them. Seeing this as something that is wrong and shouldn't be happening. In the article Discrimination and Barriers to Well-Being: The State of the LGBTQI+ Community in 2022 by Caroline Medina, and Lindsay Mahowald it showed us how they started to make this a new focus. "The Biden-Harris administration, since the beginning of its tenure, has taken numerous actions across executive agencies to bolster nondiscrimination protections in federal regulations" (Medina and Mahowald 3). The following quote is able to show how this topic has become more important not something that can just be brushed away, being able to slowly but surely stop the discrimination of people.

SINGLE SEX EDUCATION

In 1996, Germaine Greer (at the time a fellow at Newnham College, Cambridge) unsuccessfully opposed the appointment to a fellowship of her transgender colleague Rachael Padman.^[10][11][12] Greer argued that because Padman had been assigned male at birth, she should not be admitted to Newnham, a women's college. Greer later resigned from Newnham.^{[13][14][15][16]}

• Sex education has come a long way, from not only the methods in which can protect us, but also how it is talked about now in comparison to before. Before it was something stigmatized as bad, a sin for some, it was not talked about at all or if it was the only methods of protection that were given is to just not do it at all. Noted that in Seventy years of sex education in Health Education Journal: a critical review. Health Education Journal by Padmini Iyer and Peter Aggleton that "between 1950 and 1959 (Appendix 1), even though it is noted elsewhere that sex education (and lessons on the human reproductive system in particular) became more popular in schools during this period" (Reiss, 2005). It is shown that back then it started to become a topic that was starting to be talked about more but also taught to students. But even then it was seen that many believed it was better to just not talk about it that way the kids would not need to know about it. But to others that made things worse as so many kids were not getting taught the valuables on how to stay safe. We see a history of fighting back and forth on how sex education should be handled as shown "There is an assumption that more harm than good would come from not talking to young people about sex. This marked contrast to protectionist stances against sex education expressed later in the century, which persist to the present day." (Iyer and Aggleton ). The quote emphasizes that point of this long ongoing argument on what is right and what is wrong when talking about sex education.

CONVERSION THERAPY

The Trevor Project and International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association have stated "gender critical therapy" is another name for conversion therapy.^[17][18] Heron Greenesmith has reported on gender critical boards sharing lists of therapists whose end goal is the rejection of trans identity for parents of trans youth.^[19] The gender-critical group Genspect promotes what they call "gender exploratory therapy", arguing transgender identities stem from unprocessed trauma, childhood abuse, internalized homophobia or misogyny, sexual fetishism, and autism.^[20]

• It is seen how even with the many evident affects that conversion therapy has had on individuals that are apart of LGBTQ+ community, it is still something that is happening. As seen above it has just changed its name but the purpose of gender critical therapy is the same as conversion therapy. The same psychological impact is brought onto them for something that cannot be changed. As notes in the articles Conversion therapy is harmful to LGBTQ people and costs society as a whole, study says by Jen Christensen, CNN the quote "Parent thinks it is unfortunate that some people might care only about the financial consequences of this issue, particularly when the practice is so damaging to a person’s mental and physical well-being – the suicide rate alone is “astronomically high” – but he said it is a legitimate question to try to understand." (Christensen, 2022). We are able to see how some may only focus on the price of something but not everything as a whole, there is this need of focus on the psychological damage that it causes to the individual in so many ways, that the suicide rate has increased dramatically. It should not be about the money but about the well being of these people, who should not have to endure such treatment for being who they are.