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Hi Gregg,
I am currently engaged in the work of helping to lead a school community through the troublesome terrain of understanding social justice, anti-racism, LGBTQ issues, etc. I just wrote and launched our school web page on DEI - some of you may be interested to see my attempt to articulate a vision for DEI that is grounded in love and points beyond the divisions and polarsions of culture war, in the context of PK-12 school leadership and communication. See our Vision Statement and Resources.
I have been mostly focused on race, and have not found as many resources that I can share related to gender and trans confusion. Do you or anyone on this list know of resources/articles you'd recommend for a lay/parent/teacher audience that cuts through confusion and orients toward sensemaking on these issues?
I could link the article you just shared, but it is still a little less than integrated. And I've seen your blog about gender roles. I am considering including that, but it may be too academic for this audience. I'd love for someone to write something analogous to my friend Ryan's essay on Diaphanous Anti-Racism, but for gender. Does it exist? Anyone willing to write it?
Brad
p.s. Gregg: sorry to have been out of touch and hope you are well! :-)
########################################################Hi Folks,
Some of you might find this article interesting, as it summarizes the “biological” differences between men and women in cognition and emotional tendencies:
https://medium.com/science-and-philosophy/the-different-minds-of-men-and-women-2ed767f2a789
This is a decent summary of the empirical literature. However, it is crucial that we keep in mind that the metaphysics/ontology of the mental and nature of human persons is all wrong.
“Biology” corresponds to the Life dimension of existence. It is the layer of genes, cells, organ systems and multi-celled organisms.
In contrast, there is a “Culture Person” dimension of existence that operates via social construction of shared systems of justification. Thus, folks born into the US today are socialized about gender very different than 100 years ago, and folks born in Canada today are socialized to gender roles differently than those in Pakistan.
However, this is ALSO the Animal-Primate-Mental dimension of existence. The idea that we can divide the behaviors and psyches of human persons into the dichotomy of nature/nurture, instinct versus experience, biology (sex) versus social learning (gender) IS COMPLETELY MISGUIDED. Take a look at the CAST diagram here:
There are three broad vectors that frame this issue:
The Life-Biological Context as genes into cells into organ systems
The Animal-Mental Developmental Context, which is basically the patterns of behavioral investment mediated by recursive relevance realization across the lifespan development
The Culture-Person-Societal Context as the large-scale beliefs and values that create contexts of justification and legitimize roles.
We will NEVER Understand something like gender/sex differences (and their MASSIVE SIMILARITIES, BTW), if we try to dichotomize the ontology into two domains when it actually and clearly consists of three!
Best,
Gregg
___________________________________________
Gregg Henriques, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Graduate Psychology
216 Johnston Hall
MSC 7401
James Madison University
Harrisonburg, VA 22807
(540) 568-7857 (phone)
(540) 568-4747 (fax)
Be that which enhances dignity and well-being with integrity.Check out the Unified Theory Of Knowledge homepage at:
https://www.unifiedtheoryofknowledge.org/
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