sex abolition & friends
i have already made a video on this topic, but i feel like i didnt explain my points well enough and i wanna respond to some replies people have told me.
what is sex?
sex is an abtraction over multiple primary and secondary sex traits that can be observed in nature independently from eachother. it is also a "class" (as in stems off class society) that categorizes people into "male" or "female". all abstractions are social constructs, even if they are based on physical/material aspects. sex is very loosely defined as it is a grouping of many aspects that dont always appear with eachother, so theres no objective way to define it. from my physicalist point of view, people of "male sex" and "female sex" are different in the same way every human is different.
secondary sexual characteristics vary the most between people. many non-disordered people lack some of them or show their opposite sexes characteristics; sex is not a rigid set of aspects of the human body. intersex people can display primary sexual characteristics of their opposite sex too like ovaries/testes while having most of their other sexual characteristics being masculine/feminine, thus making them in a way a disordered "male/female-sexed person" (like in cais, cah or de la chappelle syndrome) in the two-sexed model. sex in intersex people isnt that specifically defined either because there isnt a concrete definition on what sex actually is, as it is a social construct. people with gonadal agenesis dont develop gonads entirely, resulting in a lack of both testes and ovaries. swyer syndrome causes something similar where "streak gonads" are developed. in congenital anorchia the testes end up fading away entirely.
trans people can change many of their sexual characteristics, ultimatively changing their sex in a way. when does a trans person start having the sex assigned to their gender? there is not a concrete "tipping point" because sex is a subjective thing, like gender, that everyone views differently. it isnt something static, as you can change the parts of the sex groupings.
another social construct id compare sex to in a way is race. people claim both to be "objective scientifical truths" and both are based on the characteristics of the human body, but both are also oppresive social constructs that should ultimatively be abolished. unlike race which is completely imaginary, sex does have an important aspect to it (which i will be talking about more later) but both should be compared to eachother.
arguments from Feminist Perspectives on Sex and Gender § 3.2
the concept of "sex" itself has changed through time. the binaryness of sex is a fairly recent concept, as the ancient greeks didnt interpret sex as that but instead had a "one-sex model" where both were members of the same sex category. female genitals were seen as male genitals but directed inside the body and there wasnt a terminological dinstinction between ovaries and testes. it was not until the late 1700s that the concept of sex as a binary was constructed and sex wasnt seen as a "one-sex spectrum" anymore.
fausto-sterling argues that the two-sex model isnt straightforward (1993b; 2000a; 2000b). 1.7% of the population fail to fall into the standard sex categories (fausto-sterling 2000a, 20). she has analyzed at least three further classes: "herms" who possess one testis and one ovary, "merms" with testes and aspects of male genitals but no ovaries, and "ferms" with ovaries and aspects of female genitals but no testes (fausto-seven outside intersex people, terling 1993b, 21). (in 2000a, fausto-sterling notes that the labels were tongue-in-cheek.) these analysis show that intersex people also dont fall into a male or female sex binary.
ásta (2018) argues that sex is a conferred social property that attempts to track (abstract) physical characteristics. the format for conferred properties is:
conferred property: what property is conferred
who: who the subjects are
what: what attitude, state, or action of he subjects matter
when: under what conditions the conferral takes place
base property: what the subjects are attempting to track (conciously or not), if anything
for sex, it would be:
conferred property: being female/male who: legal authorities, drawing on the expert opinion of doctors and other medical personnel what: "the recording of sex in official documents ... the judgment of the doctors (and others) as to what sex role might be the most fitting, given the biological characteristics present" when: at birth or after surgery/hormonal treatment base property: "the aim is to track as many sex-stereotypical characteristics as possible, and doctors perform surgery in cases where that might help bring the physical characteristics more in like with the stereotype of male and female"
this provides a debunking analysis of sex. it may seem to be a natural property, but on the conferrallist analysis its better understood as a conferred property. ásta argues that gender is a conferred property aswell.
why abolish sex?
as i mentioned before, sex closely resembles gender as they are both class societal social constructs that are intertwined with eachother. sex based oppression is very much real and is inherent to the system of sex itself. the categorification of sexual characteristics is a side effect in a way of class society, and to abolish class society, we must abolish all related oppressive systems. radical feminists do not want to abolish class society as their ultimative goal is replacing gender with an extreme version of sex to segregate based on. it is happening actively in the form of "female sexed-only" spaces like bathrooms in many countries with transphobic legislation. segregating based on an abstraction that isnt objective is very wrong, segregation in general shouldnt happen.
arguments from Feminist Perspectives on Sex and Gender § 3.2
sex and gender based oppression and societal standards actively impact secondary sexual characteristics, making them more "uniform". women in some societies were fed less because of their sex and gender, leading to a smaller size. (jaggar 1983, 37) men are expected and given more opportunities to work out, leading to a more muscular size and higher strength. those aspects of sex are explicitly affected by the patriarchy and would even out more when abolished. (fausto-sterling 1993a, 218)
what instead?
i have seen intersex people talking about their sex as a disorder before, so i wanna comment on this carefully. i think sex as a classification should be completely abolished, and be replaced with a newer form more like the greek model. i think intersexuality itself should be destigmatized (if thats the right word for it) but keep diagnosises existant because of the dangers some intersex people face. i also thought about a system where "male" and "female" become anonymous groupings of endosex and intersex as a deviation that doesnt fit in the standard groupings, but i am not so sure if that model is as ideal as the previous i mentioned. i am not the most educated person on intersex though, so if anyone else had other thoughts one could mention it would be appreciated.
endnotes
thank u if u reached this! this is my first time writing a text this long ever :D i am very proud with myself on what i achieved. i will be making a video based on this text eventually. i also wanna thank amanda (@africansc4mmer) and @vladislava.137 on tiktok for helping me explore these ideas ^_^