Trans women are real women

A critical realist intersectional response to Pilgrim

Dados Bibliográficos

ID21159901
AutoresJason Summersell (independent scholar, autor correspondente)
Ano2018
Volume17
Fascículo3
Páginas329-336
Data de publicação2018-05-27
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Critical Realism (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1476-7430 • E-ISSN: 1572-5138
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14767430.2018.1493884
OpenAlexW2885480023
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas8
Referências citadas13

In this paper, I explain why I disagree with David Pilgrim’s claim that critical realists should deny any ‘natal male’ claim to womanhood. Specifically, Pilgrim and I have different definitions of the transitive and intransitive dimensions of reality. In my version – which I believe is in the spirit of the Bhaskarian version – the transitive dimension embraces everything that is currently being affected by human praxis. This allows for an intersectional view of gender in which it is perfectly possible for the same human, in different contexts, to be an ontological woman (e.g. for the purposes of their everyday life), an ontological trans woman (for the purposes of a transgender support group); and an ontological person with a prostate gland, some might say a man (e.g. for the purposes of a medical examination). In the same way, it is perfectly possible for a room to contain 17 people for the purposes of setting out tea cups, but 18 people for the purposes of providing lecture hand-outs. For the purposes of everyday life, and even, I argue, for the fight against sexism, trans women have the same claim to being women as cis women

Aesthetics · Asceticism · Epistemology · Everyday life · Pilgrim · Praxis · Sociology · Theology · Transitive relation · Feminist Epistemology and Gender Studies · Gender Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy · Philosophy