The document discusses the new neuroconstructivist perspective of brain development, which emphasizes the interaction between genes, brain, and environment in development. It then discusses how society classifies infants based on their genital configuration and assigns them a sex/gender, which can be detrimental to intersex, female-classified, and transgender individuals. The social construct of gender based on biological sex is a source of distress for transgender people. While biological sex exists, gender is a social construct created by and for cisgender people that can oppress transgender individuals if it does not accommodate their gender identity.

5. “The new neuroconstructivist
perspective of brain development
emphasises the sheer exhilarating
tangle of a continuous interaction
among genes, brain and
environment.”
Cordelia Fine, Delusions of Gender, 2010,
p.177

12. Baby has penis,
vagina or intersex
genital configuration
Society: we
need to classify
this child!
(with surgery to fit
the binary
categories if
necessary)
Children are assigned
a “sex” (which is really
a “gender”) and are
expected to live with
this

13. This system of classification is detrimental to
three groups of people:

14. This system of classification is detrimental to
three groups of people:
Intersex people

15. This system of classification is detrimental to
three groups of people:
Intersex people
Those classified as women

16. This system of classification is detrimental to
three groups of people:
Intersex people
Those classified as women
Transgender people

18. Penises and vaginas are indeed biological
facts

19. Penises and vaginas are indeed biological
facts
Giving a child a legal status and a set of labels
that correspond to their penis or vagina is a
social construct

20. Penises and vaginas are indeed biological
facts
Giving a child a legal status and a set of labels
that correspond to their penis or vagina is a
social construct
This construct is comfortable for many, but for
transgender people it is a source of profound
distress

21. Expecting a trans person to be socially and
legally defined by the genitals they were born
with is oppressive.

22. Expecting a trans person to be socially and
legally defined by the genitals they were born
with is oppressive.
Whether this classification is named “sex” or
“gender” does not change how oppressive it is

23. This is biology

24. Sex and gender are systems created by, and
for the convenience of, cis people.

25. Sex and gender are systems created by, and
for the convenience of, cis people.
These are constructed words and systems, not
biological facts

26. Sex and gender are systems created by, and
for the convenience of, cis people.
These are constructed words and systems, not
biological facts
If the dominant system benefits cis people but
damages trans people, then it is oppressive to
trans people

27. Sex and gender are systems created by, and
for the convenience of, cis people.
These are constructed words and systems, not
biological facts
If the dominant system benefits cis people but
damages trans people, then it is oppressive to
trans people
Trans people may use that dominant language
but subvert it

28. Cis feminism: wants
to abolish “gender”
but preserve sex
assignment

29. Cis feminism: wants
to abolish “gender”
but preserve sex
assignment
Trans feminism:
recognises that sex
assignment is a part of
the oppressive system of
gender

31. “work with transsexuals, and studies of formation
of gender identity in children provide basic
information which challenges the notion that
there are two discrete biological sexes. That
information threatens to transform the traditional
biology of sex difference into the radical biology
of sex similarity. That is not to say there is one
sex, but that there are many. The evidence which
is germane here is simple. The words “male” and
“female,” “man” and “woman,” are used only
because as yet there are no others. . .”
Andrea Dworkin, Woman Hating, 1974