The Linguistic Confusion Of Gender: Philosopher Alex Byrne on how we got into so much trouble

The Unspeakable Podcast

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Philosopher Alex Byrne spent most of his career innocently studying subjects like epistemology and metaphysics. But a few years ago, he became interested in — wait for it — gender, and he became a “dissident” scholar just for exploring foundational questions. His book Trouble with Gender, covers a lot of ground. But above all, it wrestles with the linguistic confusion of gender. What does the word even mean? What did the philosopher Judith Butler (whose 1990 book Gender Trouble kicked off decades of debate and cognitive distortions) mean when she said sex was different from gender? What about social scientists like Anne Fausto-Sterling, who came up with the idea that there are five sexes? In this interview, Alex discusses all of that and more, including how the UK acquired the nickname "TERF Island,” whether “auto-androphilia” is a real thing, why autogynephilia isn’t technically a fetish, and why Oxford University Press changed its mind about publishing the book. (Their loss!)

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Alex Byrne is a professor of philosophy at MIT and the author of Trouble With Gender which you can order here.

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