🧵The Archives of Sexual Behavior recently published a special section on the difficulties scholars are facing in teaching, clinical practice & research in the area of sex & gender. Open access links to the 4 articles (including mine) are below. 1/
I described some of the trouble I’ve had at Harvard in response to speaking about the binary nature of sex, & I make some recommendations about how universities might better handle these kinds of situations in the future. We are telling our stories because #academicfreedom, 2/
particularly around #thescienceofsex, is under threat, handicapping ability to produce & communicate knowledge, discuss/challenge & ideas. This matters for lots of reasons, but especially because understanding the nature of problems we face is a crucial step in solving them. 3/
Academic Freedom Is Social Justice: Sex, Gender, and Cancel Culture on Campus, by Carole Hooven link.springer.com/article/10.100… 4/
Gender Identity Ideology Conquers the World: Why Are Anthropologists Cheering? By Kathleen Lowrey 6/ link.springer.com/article/10.100…
The Cancer of Cancel Culture: Spreading “Correct” Scientific Ideologies Across North American Academia, by Jim Pfaus 7/ link.springer.com/article/10.100…
I checked these links before and they were open! So sorry—will fix it in the morning. 😴
I'm sorry these links don't work anymore! If you email the authors they should be able to send you a copy of their paper. Here's the open link to mine: rdcu.be/cZbUW
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
"the idea of maternal instinct as something innate, automatic and distinctly female is a myth, one that has stuck despite the best efforts of feminists to debunk it from the moment it entered public discourse." nytimes.com/2022/08/26/opi…
The reason that the idea of a "maternal instinct" has stuck is that it is true. The whole point of instincts is that they are "innate," meaning, the capacity is present from birth—natural or inborn. Ready to go given the "right" developmental stage, individual circumstances,
and social/ecological environment. "Innate" does not mean that a particular trait is inflexible, universal, or morally sanctioned by nature. And I'm not sure how "maternal" can mean anything other than "distinctly female."
Long 🧵
In his article entitled “Biological Science Rejects the Sex Binary, and That’s Good for Humanity,” Princeton anthropologist Agustin Fuentes informs us that “Science points to a more accurate and hopeful way to understand the biology of sex… sapiens.org/biology/biolog…
that is more conducive to respect and flourishing.” What is this new take on the biology of sex that should replace the “sex binary,” and how will it promote respect and flourishing? Neither question is clearly answered in his essay. What is clear is that Fuentes thinks
"the belief that biology creates two types of humans”—a “sex binary”—is not only wrong, but bad for humanity. Evidently, better beliefs about biology and the binary should be informed by an appreciation for the diversity of genitalia, hormones, and behaviors across male and