• fosforus
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    11 months ago

    So it would be more accurate to say “in infants, doctors define sex by looking at genitals, in adults, by looking at a variety of characteristics.

    Sure. How often would you say that definition is 100% accurate? I’m guessing 99% of the cases, perhaps even 99.9%. We don’t generally let <1% probabilities define language.

    And while inches might be more useful to you, centimeters may be more useful to them.

    Inches are regressive bullshit, and nobody needs them. They literally cause deaths and hundreds of millions worth of damage. Metric system should be enforced ruthlessly.

    So (even though I exaggerated for effect) I think your analogue isn’t perhaps working as well as you intended.

    I would really suggest that you read “Bodies that matter, on the discursive limits of Sex” from Judith Butler. She literally has a PhD in philosophy and has devoted her life to analysis of the way we as a society conceptualize sex.

    I’ve recommended people here read basic economics books here after they’ve been praising communism, and they call me an asshole for doing it. I suppose I should be the bigger person and go ahead and read Butler’s book with an open mind, even though her schools of thought (namely, 3rd wave feminism, critical/queer theory) are highly suspicious to me. I hereby promise to do it in the next 6 months.