Debates over sex and gender
in Philosophy ·
Feminism has always just sort of ridden the wave of whatever philosophical trend happens to be in vogue. Every time the zeitgeist shifts, the narrative gets retold. First it was existentialism, then Marxism, then psychoanalysis, then all that ethnic-mythological stuff about the Great Goddess, and so on. Now, I guess, we’ve reached this latest attempt at a sort of syncretism—a messy patchwork of discourse theory, performative speech acts, psychoanalysis, and social constructivism. It’s a bit of a second-rate Frankenstein’s monster, but somehow its radicalism managed to colonize the humanities departments. Judith Butler became the pop star of feminist philosophy; her *Gender Trouble* essentially became the "communist manifesto" of feminism—something nobody actually read, but which became a massive political project through various NGO channels. The whole "radical" idea was that the "woman problem" should be solved by essentially abolishing the woman, dematerializing the body into raw material for discourse. In this view, a woman is just a construct of power structures she needs to escape. Genders are supposed to be irritated until they’re unrecognizable, which is why they’ve grabbed gender dysphoria and waved it around like a flag. Svenja flaßpöhler, the editor-in-chief of the popular German magazine *Philosophy Magazine*, claims that she and her entire generation of female students were so hypnotized by Butler's *Gender Trouble* that she personally tried to enter lesbian relationships despite having zero lesbian inclinations, simply because she didn't want to submit to "heteronormative" pressure. It failed immediately, of course, because biology is apparently stronger than an ideological construct. Postmodern feminists like Butler argue that nothing about a person is inherently gendered—they even claim genitals are just "gendered." I’d argue the exact opposite: that genitals unconsciously gender the entire person. A human being is physiologically outlined by their sexual anatomy: on one side, you have a tense, directed fullness; on the other, a gaping but productive void. You have epithelium exposed here, something hidden in moisture there; an organ occupying space in one instance, and space occupying an organ in the other; one part is external, protruding, and aiming outward, while the other is internal. When blood flows to these organs, the penis achieves a certain "combat readiness"—it becomes firm, unyielding, and ready to penetrate. When blood flows to the vagina, it gains the opposite quality: a softness that absorbs the collateral damage of penetration. It serves as the receiver, opening up and becoming yielding, providing what one might call "petals" to invite a pollinator. This polar anatomy creates a polarity in the sexual act characterized by a lack of reciprocity. The participants don't fit together like puzzle pieces; rather, one simply enters the other. The male penis occupies someone else's space. It enters a foreign home without even taking off its boots, while the vagina prepares for the intrusion with secretions and elasticity. But Mr. Penis isn't satisfied with just occupying space; he finishes with a shot deep inside the woman. And quite a shot it is. If conception occurs, it completely disrupts the woman’s life, while the man elegantly exits the reproductive process. For him, the moment of sowing his contribution is the finish line, allowing him to withdraw and return to other activities. The woman is left in this extraordinary biological mode where she transforms almost like a werewolf to sustain new life. Her small, pear-shaped uterine muscle stretches to a hundred times its size without bursting; her pelvis shifts and expands, creaking like an old ship. The entire body swells with water and oils, blood thins, the milk factory starts production, and the endocrine and immune systems undergo a total overhaul. Even the psyche isn't spared; the production of hormones like oxytocin puts her into a trance-like state of total care for the fetus. One could say that a woman, during and after pregnancy—and even before—is biologically tuned toward the fetus through her hormonal cycles, the way she carries and nourishes the child, and the subsequent production of hormones and food.
Just as a woman is biologically left alone with her offspring, she is also sociologically isolated when it comes to organizing life—following that old, essentialist formula where the man is out in the world and the woman stays inside. This whole sense of female elasticity—whether we’re talking about intercourse or pregnancy—seems to be a defining characteristic. A woman's readiness (to surrender, to make herself available) isn't just seen in the submissive role during sex when her physical space is occupied, or during pregnancy when another life takes over her body; it's even present in her egg, which waits patiently in isolation for its sperm "Olympic champion" to travel that 400 mm track and fuse with it. You could argue that biology suggests women are inherently designed to provide space for others, while male biology points toward a sort of fascist with an imperial mission—someone who occupies external spaces and handles the rougher edges of existence. As a member of a pack, a male has to "penetrate" the territories of other packs to fight for resources, and as an individual, he has to "penetrate" members of his own group to access quality sexual resources and impress females with his victories. That way, the female gets the most dominant, most penetrating specimen—quality genes that promise the survival of her own lineage. The male is clearly a creature of will, and that will only finds purpose when it is "erect"—when it penetrates by overcoming resistance, whether internal or external. Abstractly speaking, these are always forces of will colliding; one side "hardens" or "protrudes" to triumph, while the other gives way—either by surrendering, essentially "signing the surrender papers" and becoming soft and yielding, or by retreating and ceding space to the aggressor. Historically, this has been true of humans in all their cultural expressions, even when raw biology was heavily masked by layers of culture, albeit in a more sublime way. Even in warfare, it isn't just about occupying a woman's space, but a man's too. For him, terms like being "exposed," "fucked," or "screwed" aren't just random vulgarities; they are linguistic truths born from intuitive analogy. The characterology of our anatomy is obvious in our language: it’s no coincidence we call people "rigid" when they won't bend, or "penetrating" when they are ready for collision; or "soft" when they let someone else's will manifest at their own expense. We call a man with a soft, defensive nature a "pussy," or "limp-dick." Conversely, we call someone with an offensive guard "cocky," or say they are trying to act like a "tough guy." The same aggressive drive exists sublimely in the act of seduction; a primal, healthy woman values persistence and penetrance (alongside some baseline attractiveness). This is the "erection"—the persistence that "opens" her up, causing her to become softer and more receptive, or to put it bluntly, to "wet" herself for the man's erect posture. Many decent men complain that those highly penetrative types have better luck with girls. Well, it’s probably your fault if you're "limp." A woman is arguably a better human being than a man; she is affirmative toward the other through care, social connection, and empathy, and she doesn't struggle with self-sacrifice—which is really just looking at oneself from the outside. While he wants to leave his mark out there, she wants the mark made within.
The man is a high-risk gambler; the woman is a safe investor. Men are inspired, or perhaps "erected," by situations that test their resolve, where huge sums are put on the line. Stock markets are basically men's clubs, especially where people use margin and leverage. Women, on the contrary, tend to experience indecision proportional to the size of the potential loss or the amount of skin in the game, particularly in situations requiring decisive action or responsibility. Take traffic, for example. Out of ten people signing up for driving courses intended to overcome driving trauma or to help those who can't bring themselves to hit the road after passing their test, nine of them are women.
Just as a woman is biologically left alone with her offspring, she is also sociologically isolated when it comes to organizing life—following that old, essentialist formula where the man is out in the world and the woman stays inside. This whole sense of female elasticity—whether we’re talking about intercourse or pregnancy—seems to be a defining characteristic. A woman's readiness (to surrender, to make herself available) isn't just seen in the submissive role during sex when her physical space is occupied, or during pregnancy when another life takes over her body; it's even present in her egg, which waits patiently in isolation for its sperm "Olympic champion" to travel that 400 mm track and fuse with it. You could argue that biology suggests women are inherently designed to provide space for others, while male biology points toward a sort of fascist with an imperial mission—someone who occupies external spaces and handles the rougher edges of existence. As a member of a pack, a male has to "penetrate" the territories of other packs to fight for resources, and as an individual, he has to "penetrate" members of his own group to access quality sexual resources and impress females with his victories. That way, the female gets the most dominant, most penetrating specimen—quality genes that promise the survival of her own lineage. The male is clearly a creature of will, and that will only finds purpose when it is "erect"—when it penetrates by overcoming resistance, whether internal or external. Abstractly speaking, these are always forces of will colliding; one side "hardens" or "protrudes" to triumph, while the other gives way—either by surrendering, essentially "signing the surrender papers" and becoming soft and yielding, or by retreating and ceding space to the aggressor. Historically, this has been true of humans in all their cultural expressions, even when raw biology was heavily masked by layers of culture, albeit in a more sublime way. Even in warfare, it isn't just about occupying a woman's space, but a man's too. For him, terms like being "exposed," "fucked," or "screwed" aren't just random vulgarities; they are linguistic truths born from intuitive analogy. The characterology of our anatomy is obvious in our language: it’s no coincidence we call people "rigid" when they won't bend, or "penetrating" when they are ready for collision; or "soft" when they let someone else's will manifest at their own expense. We call a man with a soft, defensive nature a "pussy," or "limp-dick." Conversely, we call someone with an offensive guard "cocky," or say they are trying to act like a "tough guy." The same aggressive drive exists sublimely in the act of seduction; a primal, healthy woman values persistence and penetrance (alongside some baseline attractiveness). This is the "erection"—the persistence that "opens" her up, causing her to become softer and more receptive, or to put it bluntly, to "wet" herself for the man's erect posture. Many decent men complain that those highly penetrative types have better luck with girls. Well, it’s probably your fault if you're "limp." A woman is arguably a better human being than a man; she is affirmative toward the other through care, social connection, and empathy, and she doesn't struggle with self-sacrifice—which is really just looking at oneself from the outside. While he wants to leave his mark out there, she wants the mark made within.
The man is a high-risk gambler; the woman is a safe investor. Men are inspired, or perhaps "erected," by situations that test their resolve, where huge sums are put on the line. Stock markets are basically men's clubs, especially where people use margin and leverage. Women, on the contrary, tend to experience indecision proportional to the size of the potential loss or the amount of skin in the game, particularly in situations requiring decisive action or responsibility. Take traffic, for example. Out of ten people signing up for driving courses intended to overcome driving trauma or to help those who can't bring themselves to hit the road after passing their test, nine of them are women.