It goes on. The TERF wars continue to rage as the main game in Twitter-town when it comes to objective science and human classes talking past each other.
Firstly, Angela Saini writing “What is a Woman?” in Prospect Magazine. I’ve had problems with Saini before, being too conservative in minimising sex/gender and race differences – a lack of definitive objective evidence – to acknowledge their reality in the context of social constructions. She’s taken a lot of flak today and I’m not here to defend her, but to point out there are entangled issues not to be conflated. Even if “sex” is a scientifically binary property, the sex/gender “war” cannot be reduced to a binary fight. When it comes to rights – conflicting rights – social (cultural) aspects do matter, even if a binary opposite Post-Modern stance is just as bonkers as the radical scientistic stance.
Secondly, same war different battle, Rebecca Myers writing “Transgender weightlifter Laurel Hubbard in eye of the storm at Tokyo Olympics” in The Times. “Following the rules” comes under scrutiny. I say, where do rules come from anyway and what are they worth without good faith?
Andy Lewis (Quackometer.Net / @LeCanardNoir) posted a 36 Tweet “takedown” of Saini which I’ve not seen as a continuous text yet(*), but it is very interesting from the orthodox science perspective.
Starts here:
This is a pretty dire article in @Propect_uk where journalist Angela Saini falls headfirst into the postmodernist gender vat.
I think we need to look at as many errors as we can stand here…
” Le Canard Noir (@lecanardnoir) July 19, 2021
And ends here:
The deracination of sex, so clearly expressed in Saini’s work here, is a rhetorical trick, a deceit and sleight of hand, designed to make you look the other way. Keep your eyes on the ball. Which cup is it under? It’s under the gender cup. Accept it, or you are a bigot.
ends/
” Le Canard Noir (@lecanardnoir) July 19, 2021
Classic “pointing out the errors” kind of critical thinking, but it’s not necessary to accuse Saini of dastardly deceit. Deracinate is a strong word, but sex has biological roots and social context. Sex and associated gender rights are firmly planted in both. Rhetoric is surely involved, but it’s no pejorative trick, it’s a tricky part of reality. What’s needed is getting on the same page. A dialogue.
Andy Lewis has written on this before “The Ontology and Epistemology of Sex” at his Quackometer.Net. This is reassuringly close to my #GoodFences take that I’m pretty sure it’s possible to get on the same page.
[(*) Andy Lewis has written up his “Deracination” thread the same-day in his quackometer blog.]
I should add for context, this is the same day JKR responded in style to the ludicrous “pipe bomb” threat.
To be fair, when you can’t get a woman sacked, arrested or dropped by her publisher, and cancelling her only made her book sales go up, there’s really only one place to go. pic.twitter.com/MsNWXhWlyc
” J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) July 19, 2021
I’ll be back.
#GoodFences.