1. Transhumanism and Gender Studies:
The Dream of a Postgender Society
Jean-David Ponci,
PhD in Philosophy of Biology

2. CONTENTS
What is at stake ?
What do Gender Studies Say ?
Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia
What is Postgenderims
Technologies Enabling Postgender
Society
The dream of a postgender society
Conclusion

3. WHAT IS AT STAKE ?
Is sexuality is something essential to human nature or
something accidental ?
Humans have been deeply circumscribed and
determined by our accidental binary gender
assignments (Geary, 2006; Ridley, 2003). The gender
binary has shaped the human condition, causing us to
see the world through basic binary categories from
our metaphysics to our linguistics. The biological bases
of the gendered cognition, gender identity and sexual
preference impose limits on our capacity for
communication and intersubjective understanding
and empathy.
Postgenderism: Beyond the Gender Binary By George Dvorsky and
James Hughes, PhD Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
Williams 229B, 300 Summit St. Hartford CT 06106 USA

4. WHAT DO GENDER STUDIES SAY ?
Gender (social expression of our sexuality) has more to do
with culture than with nature
- Gender binary is something relative
- Suggest that significant part of population is not
exclusively heterosexual
- Sex spectrum
Goal : reach a gender neutral society

5. WHAT SAY GENDER STUDIES
300 Summit St. Hartford300 Summit St. Hartford300 Summit St. Hartford

6. CONGENITAL ADRENAL HYPERPLASIA
Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) are any of
several autosomal recessive diseases
Most of these conditions involve excessive or deficient
production of sex steroids and can alter development
of primary or secondary sex characteristics in some
affected infants, children, or adults.

8. WHAT IS POSTGENDERISM ?
We should have the possibility to erode the differences
between the sexes and to be free from the consequences
of sexuality. But means are different.
Gender studies : social struggle and education (children
books, contraception…)
Postgenderism : medicine and technology

9. Since the 1970s, however, the influence of genetics,
hormones and a biologically gendered brain on gendered
beliefs, abilities and behavior has been increasingly,
grudgingly acknowledged. […]
Socialization does not explain all the differences between
male and female cognition, emotion and behavior. (p. 5)
WHAT IS POSTGENDERISM ?

10. If you cannot reach gender neutrality changing the society,
you can reach it changing the biology.
Postgenderism is a logical consequence of gender studies
and is its continuation
WHAT IS POSTGENDERISM ?
Belief : it is healthiest to be in the androgynous range
- Highest self-esteem, more emotional intelligence

11. TECHNOLOGIES ENABLING POSTGENDER SOCIETY
Artificial wombs
“The heart of women's oppression is her childbearing
and child-rearing roles… To assure the elimination of
sexual classes requires the revolt of the underclass
(women) and seizure of control of reproduction:... so
the end goal of the feminist revolution must be unlike
that of the first feminist movement, not just the
elimination of male privilege but of the sex distinction
itself; genital differences between human beings
would no longer matter”. (Firestone, 1970: 12)

12. TECHNOLOGIES ENABLING POSTGENDER SOCIETY
Artificial wombs

13. TECHNOLOGIES ENABLING POSTGENDER SOCIETY
Drugs to control sexual behavior
Drugs for sexual freedom from heterosexuality and monogamy
-“But the final liberation from dyadic, gendered, heteronormative
relationships will likely come about through use of drugs that suppress
pair-bonding impulses. Research with voles has found that genes
regulating the neurotransmitter vasopression determine whether male
voles will be monogamous or polygamous.” (Hugues and Dvorsky, p.
9)
To love only your spouse
-Eventually we will be able to directly stimulate the parts of the brain
that desire specific partners or kinds of experiences. We will be able
to wire ourselves to only desire sex with the opposite sex, only with our
spouse, to only desire specific sex acts, and to desire it according to
an agreed upon frequency. p.12
,

14. TECHNOLOGIES ENABLING POSTGENDER SOCIETY
Genetic engineering for changing your sex
-“Once we have perfected tissue cloning and genetic
engineering - within the next two decades - we will be
able to craft new, fully functional breasts and sexual
organs for transsexuals” p. 10

15. TECHNOLOGIES ENABLING POSTGENDER SOCIETY
Robot for sexual needs
-“People who are too busy, shy, or unappealing, or whose
preferences are too elaborate or taboo to reveal to a
living person, may turn to robot sex as an alternative
(Levy, 2007)” p. 11,

16. TECHNOLOGIES ENABLING POSTGENDER SOCIETY
Robot for sexual needs
-“People who are too busy, shy, or unappealing, or whose
preferences are too elaborate or taboo to reveal to a
living person, may turn to robot sex as an alternative
(Levy, 2007)” p. 11,

17. TECHNOLOGIES ENABLING POSTGENDER SOCIETY
Drugs for correcting the defect of the gendered brains
-Efforts to treat female depression and male aggression,
autism and ADD would give us ways to make the brain
more androgynous. p.11

18. THE DREAM
A society without discrimination
against women or LGBT
Free to live our sexuality:
-Assuring fidelity in the couple
-With robots
-Without pregnancy
-Changing my sex
Less tensions between
masculine or feminine way of
life
A society with discrimination
against handicapped persons
Lose of the richness of the
complementarity between the
sexes
SOME OBJECTIONS ?
Free to live our sexuality:
-Fidelity is fruit of my love and of my
will not the effect of drugs
-Reducing sex to genital pleasure
without a project
-Maternity and paternity is the way
for human to grow personally
-Changing my sex without changing
the brain

19. QUOTATION FROM “LE DEUXIÈME SEXE”, SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR
From the economic point of view, her situation
(of the prostitute) is symmetrical to the married
woman’s. “Between those who sell themselves
through prostitution and those who sell
themselves through marriage, the only difference
resides in the price and length of the contract,”
says Marro. P.680

20. CONCLUSION
Postgenderism is not transhumanism. Man is done to go
beyond his natural capacity, because he makes tools

21. CONCLUSION
Postgenderism is not transhumanism, but dehumanism.
If we lose the capacity to give life, to take care of life and if
we entrust the life of our children to machines, we will be like
robots.

22. REFERENCES
- Postgenderism: Beyond the Gender Binary By George
Dvorsky and James Hughes, PhD Institute for Ethics
and Emerging Technologies Williams 229B, 300
Summit St. Hartford CT 06106 USA Horm Behav. 2001
Sep;40(2):99-104.
- Sex differences in children's free drawings: a study
on girls with congenital adrenal hyperplasia.
Iijima M1
, Arisaka O, Minamoto F, Arai Y.
- The Gender Equality Paradox
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5LRdW8xw70
- Breaking: Scientists Create An Artificial Womb,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxn6msihFjc