i don't think we're realistic when we look at the other sex. There are people who have very intense longings to be of the other sex, like really intense longings. But i would say that nobody has access to what it's like to be a member of the opposite sex. That's just an unknowable. We can't any more than we know what it'slike to be a dolphin or a bat. So it's the problem of other wines. When? Ye. When exactly what is it like to being a bat? Exactly. I'm ok. You know, a man is more like me than a bat is like me, but in the ways that it will
Biological sex is no longer accepted as a basic fact of life. It is forbidden to admit that female people sometimes need protection and privacy from male ones. In an analysis that is at once expert, sympathetic and urgent, Helen Joyce offers an antidote to the chaos and cancelling.
Shermer and Joyce discuss: What is a woman? What is a man? • conflicting rights: trans vs. women • sex vs. gender; who you identify as vs. who you are attracted to • cross-sex identification • gender dysphoria • social contagions • gender affirming care • puberty blockers, testosterone, hormone treatment • detransitioning • top surgery, phalloplasty, vaginoplasty • preferred pronouns: compelled speech ≠ free speech • trans sports • exclusive spaces, and more…
Helen Joyce is a senior staff journalist at The Economist, where she has held several positions, including Britain editor, Finance editor and International editor. Before joining The Economist in 2005 she edited Plus, an online magazine about mathematics published by the University of Cambridge. She has a PhD in mathematics from University College London. On Twitter, she is @HJoyceGender.