Please join us on Friday, September 15th for our Philosophy Department Colloquium with Professor Kevin Richardson.
 
The event will start at 3pm in room 402 of Cohen Hall, with a reception to follow.
 
Talk Title: Gender Critical Feminism: Making Feminism Great Again
Talk Abstract: "Gender critical feminism (GCF) is a political and intellectual movement that takes biological sex to be central to feminism. The evangelists of GCF — an organized assemblage of philosophers, academics, activists, and organizations — insist on two claims: (i) trans women are not, as a metaphysical fact, women, and (ii) trans women should not be socially or legally recognized as women. By making these claims, GCFers have found themselves at the center of numerous academic controversies. The goal of this presentation is to critically examine the broader role of GCF — its ideology, proponents, and policies — in constructing and maintaining the gender binary. The gender binary is the set of social norms that tells us that there are only two genders (man, woman), that these genders are biologically defined, and that everyone possesses exactly one of them. While gender critical feminists purport to be critical of gender norms, I highlight the concrete ways that GCF theorists theoretically and practically support the legislation of binary gender norms. While GCFers see themselves as heirs of the radical feminist tradition, I contend that their feminism is ultimately a conservative one."