A Short Refutation of Gender Anti-Realism and Deconstructionism

http://transhumantraditionalism.blogspot.com/2008/11/short-refutation-of-gender-anti-realism.html
Ryan Haecker
11/25/2008

Argument:

I didn't go into this in my initial comments because it's a fairly radical idea, but since you brought up the supposed limitations of comparisons of sexism and racism, I feel compelled to point out that gender is not a binary category. How do you define a woman? As someone who has the ability to reproduce? As you said in your paper,
technology has moved beyond reproduction in many ways (women can choose not to have children, etc).  Furthermore, where do infertile women fit into this schema? If there are women who choose not to have children and women who cannot have children, then this cannot be the definition of womanhood. The same can be said of men, if you substitute impotence for infertility. Do you define a woman as someone with a vagina? Where does this leave inter-sex individuals, who may have both a penis and vagina, neither a penis or vagina, or something in between? Do you define a woman as someone with an X chromosome?