To be fair to the GC movement, there exists a growing contingent of GCs who reject the idea that intersex male people *or* trans women are women. You probably noticed this with the Imane Khelif controversy; even though Khelif was intersex and not transgender, a lot of GCs, including prominen…
To be fair to the GC movement, there exists a growing contingent of GCs who reject the idea that intersex male people *or* trans women are women. You probably noticed this with the Imane Khelif controversy; even though Khelif was intersex and not transgender, a lot of GCs, including prominent figures like J.K. Rowling, described Khelif as a man "battering" women. Semenya is frequently described similarly as a "male cheat". These folks might be clearly described as biological essentialists and not social constructivists about the group "women".
With that said, I do notice that GCs tend to focus on intersex athletes who present as highly masculine or butch women. For example, controversy has focused on Caster Semenya and Khelif and not Dutee Chand, despite the fact Dutee Chand likely has the same intersex disorder as Semenya and Khelif, and therefore likely has the same performance advantage. But Chand just looks a lot more feminine than Khelif or Semenya; she is petite, has long hair, wears makeup, has a feminine speaking voice, etc. It's not clear to me if the GCs who call Khelif a man would also call Chand a man; perhaps they would, but Chand is clearly a much less appealing target.
Thanks for the reply! (And Happy Thanksgiving!)
To be fair to the GC movement, there exists a growing contingent of GCs who reject the idea that intersex male people *or* trans women are women. You probably noticed this with the Imane Khelif controversy; even though Khelif was intersex and not transgender, a lot of GCs, including prominent figures like J.K. Rowling, described Khelif as a man "battering" women. Semenya is frequently described similarly as a "male cheat". These folks might be clearly described as biological essentialists and not social constructivists about the group "women".
With that said, I do notice that GCs tend to focus on intersex athletes who present as highly masculine or butch women. For example, controversy has focused on Caster Semenya and Khelif and not Dutee Chand, despite the fact Dutee Chand likely has the same intersex disorder as Semenya and Khelif, and therefore likely has the same performance advantage. But Chand just looks a lot more feminine than Khelif or Semenya; she is petite, has long hair, wears makeup, has a feminine speaking voice, etc. It's not clear to me if the GCs who call Khelif a man would also call Chand a man; perhaps they would, but Chand is clearly a much less appealing target.
A rather brilliant bit of analysis. 👍🙂 More or less, with a few caveats ... 😉🙂
But the balance of my response in a Note since Substack is still rather remarkably buggy:
https://substack.com/profile/21792752-steersman/note/c-79286870