Gender
Jan 04, 2005Are gender roles and differences fixed, once and for, all by biology? Or is gender socially constructed and culturally variable?
Should Sex-Identity Be on Birth Certificates?
07 July 2017
Why do we think it's so important to assign a sex and gender to a baby at birth? Does it really serve an important public policy or public health purpose, or does this practice more reflect our irrational need to classify people along these axes as quickly as possible?
There are lots of characteristics about babies that you can immediately tell about them. Why does sex make the cut? Moreover, why do we think it's then okay to impose a vast set of norms on that child that differ based on the gender culturally associated with that sex?
The following Aeon article by Heath Fogg Davis addresses a cluster of these issues. In particular, Davis focuses on the palpable harms faced by trans people resulting from listing sex-identity on birth certificates.
Check it out:
https://aeon.co/ideas/lets-delete-sex-identity-from-birth-certificates
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Related Shows
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Jan 04, 2005Are gender roles and differences fixed, once and for, all by biology? Or is gender socially constructed and culturally variable?
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Making a better world would be a great thing—but do we need philosophers to help us do that? Famously (or infamously), not all philosophers have been such great people. So are they the folks we... Read more
In her time—the 4th century CE—Hypatia was one of the most famous philosophers in Alexandria, and indeed in the ancient world. She studied and taught mathematics,... Read more
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