Authors |
|
Abstract |
Talk of gender identity is at the core of heated current philosophical and political debates. Yet, it is unclear what it means to have one. I examine several ways of understanding this concept, in light of features that trans writers and activists seem to attribute to it: The concept should, ideally, make good trans people’s understanding of their own gender identities, the claim that people have privileged access to their gender identities and, perhaps the claim that we all have a gender identity. Further, to validate trans activists’ demands, an account of gender identity should admit that misgendering is a form of serious harm, and that it is permissible for states, and maybe other agents, to require information about people’s gender identities.
I conclude that none of the considered accounts meets more than a few of these criteria, on the assumption that the gender norms of femininity and masculinity are unjustified. But we can, and should, pursue the feminist project without “gender identity”. Feminism without gender identity doesn’t need to exclude trans people; it is possible to account for the specific harm of misgendering without believing that we have a claim to the recognition of our gender identities. And, instead of “gender identity”, it is more productive to rely on other gender concepts, such as gender norms, roles, and socialisation, to evaluate, separately, each of the trans people’s claims to inclusion into particular spaces.
|
Keywords | gender identity feminism |
Categories | (categorize this paper) |
Options |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Download options
References found in this work BETA
Gender and Race: (What) Are They? (What) Do We Want Them to Be?Sally Haslanger - 2000 - Noûs 34 (1):31–55.
Amelioration and Inclusion: Gender Identity and the Concept of Woman.Katharine Jenkins - 2016 - Ethics 126 (2):394-421.
Citations of this work BETA
No citations found.
Similar books and articles
Toward an Account of Gender Identity.Katharine Jenkins - 2018 - Ergo: An Open Access Journal of Philosophy 5.
Feminist and Trans Perspectives on Identity and the UK Gender Recognition Act’.Paddy McQueen - 2016 - British Journal of Politics and International Relations 18 (3):671-687.
Gender Identity and Exclusion: A Reply to Jenkins.Matthew Salett Andler - 2017 - Ethics 127 (4):883-895.
Towards a Distinction Between Gender Identity and Gender Orientation.Avery Newman - 2020 - Georgia State University Master's Theses 2020.
Sex and Gender Through an Analytic Eye: Butler on Freud and Gender Identity.Anna Gullickson '00 - unknown
Gender: To Deconstruct or Not to Deconstruct?Evangelia Aikaterini Glantzi - 2018 - Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy 29:45-49.
Resisting Definition: Gendering Through Interaction and Relational Selfhood.Alexis Shotwell & Trevor Sangrey - 2008 - Hypatia 24 (3):56 - 76.
Drag Kinging and the Transformation of Gender Identities.Eve Shapiro - 2007 - Gender and Society 21 (2):250-271.
Furries and the Limits of Species Identity Disorder: A Response to Gerbasi Et Al.Fiona Probyn-Rapsey - 2011 - Society and Animals 19 (3):294-301.
A Dispositional Account of Gender.Jennifer McKitrick - 2015 - Philosophical Studies 172 (10):2575-2589.
Vanishing Identities in Contemporary Lithuanian Art.Audronė ŽukauskaitĖ - 2006 - Filosofija. Sociologija 17 (3).
Analytics
Added to PP index
2021-06-20
Total views
924 ( #7,150 of 2,507,888 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
258 ( #1,909 of 2,507,888 )
2021-06-20
Total views
924 ( #7,150 of 2,507,888 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
258 ( #1,909 of 2,507,888 )
How can I increase my downloads?
Downloads