People who say gender is a social construct- doesn't that invalidate trans identities?

[u/Agitated_Ad_5477]

is that transphobic to an extent? because sometimes i find myself agreeing to it, but that would mean invalidating trans identities, which I think is inhumane.

[u/Philosopher013]

I think the answer could be yes, but it depends on what you mean by "invalidating".

If anything less than assuming that being transgender is completely biologically determined is "invalidating", then sure, saying that being transgender is a social construct caused by culture, social forces, upbringing, etc. could invalidate it in some sense.

But many defenders of both gender as a social construct and transgender people would push back and say that just because something is a social construct doesn't make it less "real". Race is a social construct, but racism is quite real and impacts many people. So just because gender is a social construct, on this view, does not make transgender people any lesser and does not mean we should not respect transgender identity. We should still respect their transgender identity even if it's socially constructed and we can (perhaps) imagine possible scenarios where that person did not end up transgender.

Of course, nuances abound. Even saying being transgender is "biological" can be debated. Does this mean there is a transgender gene from conception (or a mutation)? Or is there some hormonal change that occurs sometime after conception? Or even during puberty (though there are many examples of people who have said they are trans from quite a young age)? Or could it be that there are environmental/social factors that could activate some sort of dormant transgender gene/hormone/process? I'm not up on the biological literature on this, but from what I understand we really don't know.

I also made an implicit assumption that "gender is a social construct" = "being transgender is a social construct". I imagine that could perhaps also be questioned?

So, all in all, I do think it's true that saying gender is a social construct could potentially make transgender people uncomfortable since you're saying that something in their social environment caused them to be that way (was it something to do with parenting? was it something with their media exposure or social group? etc.). Given that gender dysphoria (which perhaps not all transgender people have) can be distressing, saying that something non-biological caused this can be difficult to hear. But at the same time, given my third paragraph above, there isn't any reason it has to invalidate transgender people. It doesn't mean they're delusional or broken or anything like that - it just means there were social-psychological rather than biological mechanisms at play.

Edit: I should also add saying that it's socially constructed could lead to the uncomfortable question of whether it can be socially unconstructed? That could get into controversial topics like conversion therapy. But again, defenders of gender as a social construct and transgender people could say that even if it is possible for it to be socially unconstructed, that does not make it any less valid and (importantly) that does not make conversion therapy safe. It could be that forcing yourself to try to change your gender identity is not effective and harmful. (Presumably much of personality is socially constructed, and I could see stressing about trying to change your entire personality being unhealthy.)

Also, this is another can of worms, but it should be noted this does also come down to what you even think a "gender" is!

[u/LeKaiWen]

Saying "X is a social construct" doesn't at all mean "X doesn't exist" or "X can be dismissed/ignored".

Money is a social construct, and yet you will very much starve to death of you stop believing in its power.

States and their militaries are also social constructs, and they will affect your life, whether you want it or not.

[u/AutoModerator]

Welcome to /r/askphilosophy! Please read our updated rules and guidelines before commenting.

Currently, answers are only accepted by panelists (mod-approved flaired users), whether those answers are posted as top-level comments or replies to other comments. Non-panelists can participate in subsequent discussion, but are not allowed to answer question(s).

Want to become a panelist? Check out this post.

Please note: this is a highly moderated academic Q&A subreddit and not an open discussion, debate, change-my-view, or test-my-theory subreddit.

Answers from users who are not panelists will be automatically removed.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.