Mich "Biological vs Social Bodies: Does a Truce Hide in Plain Sight?"

Mardi intime de la Chaire Hoover par Mahua Agrawal (KULeuven & Chaire hoover)

Within the domain of gender justice, recent years have witnessed what is often termed 'a toxic debate'. The debate features, on the one side, gender-critical feminists (with their insistence on the importance of biological sex) and on the other side, gender-embracing feminists (with their emphasis on the concept of gender viewed as a socially constructed artefact). In simpler terms, this is a debate that sees sex (and sex-specific concerns) pitted against gender (and gender-based concerns). In my presentation, I aspire to offer – and explore the feasibility of – what I think is an obvious solution to the acrimonious debate. Succinctly, the proposed solution favours a neat and strict distinction between the two concepts of sex and gender, and involves defining the two concepts in a manner that results in a simultaneous accommodation of the concerns of both aforementioned, mutually opposed camps.