Episode 106: R. A. Briggs discusses gender
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What is the episode’s introduction and who is the host?
Hey, Matt Techman here from Elucidations. Before we get going, I just thought I'd put in a quick plug for PIPA. We've been doing our hosting with them since 2016. It's been a fantastic experience. So if you have a podcast, you might check them out. They have great analytics, the service is free, and they make it easy to migrate. So if you're curious, visit their website at pippa.io. All right, thanks.
Hello and welcome to Elucidations, a philosophy podcast ordinarily recorded at the University of Chicago, but which today is being brought to you from Palo Alto. With me is R.A. Briggs, professor of philosophy at Stanford University, and they are here to discuss gender. R.A. Briggs, welcome back to Elucidations.
Thanks. It's great to be back.
So you might think that gender is like pretty straightforward. You might think that like, what's the big mystery here? I mean, just to take my own example, I was taught by my parents growing up that there were two genders, man and woman or boy and girl. And that, you know, boys have this kind of body and girls have that kind of body. And that's how you tell who falls into what.
Why does the podcast sponsor PIPA and what does it offer podcasters?
These days, it seems like some people are arguing there's more to the story than just that. What else is there?
Yeah, so there's quite a lot and there's a lot in your question that I want to sort of pull apart. So one thing you said is that you were taught that boys have one kind of physiology and girls have another kind of physiology. And a philosophical distinction that is common in feminist philosophy and pretty old is between sex on the one hand, which is the physiology, and gender on the other hand, which is the social role. So when you classify people as men and women or boys and girls sort of in your day-to-day life, You're often looking at cues other than the physiological cues you got told are associated with being male or female. So being male or female is sort of usually the words people use for the sex category.
So that has to do with what your reproductive biology is like and being a man or a woman. is sort of what people use for the gender categories, which have to do with what your social role is like. And so sex and gender are sort of different because they play, first of all, different explanatory roles. So if I want to know why somebody got pregnant, appealing to their sex characteristics is a good explanation. If I want to know why somebody got discriminated against at their job. Their sex characteristics might not be like the first thing to point to. So there's the distinction between sex on the one hand and gender on the other hand. And I should add that like quite a lot gets lumped into the gender category that maybe could be pulled apart farther.
So like later in this interview, I'm going to be talking about work with my colleague, B.R. George. And B.R. George also has like interesting discussions of sort of different things that can go under the gender category. So we've got the sex gender distinction. Also, you mentioned the idea that there are only two gender categories. boys and girls, men and women. And these days, there are people who sort of consider themselves neither or consider themselves to be fluidly moving between those gender categories. And certainly there are people. So I think another thing about the way people commonly think about gender is that you start off with one, and you get put in that category when you're a baby, and then you stay in it your whole life.
And there are lots of people who sort of move between gender categories. So those are some complications to the picture that you gave me.
How do R. A. Briggs and Matt define the difference between sex and gender?
OK, good. So sex, according to this terminology, is instead of biological features, having something roughly to do with a person's reproductive capacities. And gender is something like the phrase that sometimes pops up is the social meaning of sex or it's like the social significance or in any event, it's some set of social roles. Yeah. Like the expectation that if you're this gender, then you can go on maternity leave. And if you're that gender, you can use this bathroom and things like that.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the episode’s introduction and who is the host?
0:00–1:27
2
Why does the podcast sponsor PIPA and what does it offer podcasters?
1:27–3:44
3
How do R. A. Briggs and Matt define the difference between sex and gender?
3:44–9:49
4
What complications arise from the traditional binary view of gender?
9:49–37:21
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Elucidations
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