Clear communication on sex and gender identity in medical contexts can be challenging. Clinicians may note variation in understandings of these terms, or policies that appear to downplay the relevance of biological sex. This talk explores practical and ethical implications of conflicting language around sex and gender identity in medicine, with focus on potential healthcare consequences, especially for women’s health.
407
2/18/2022
An intriguing property of social theory is its potential, when put into practice, to alter the world to resemble more closely the model posited by theory. This self-fulfilling character has been shown for theories in disciplines that emulate natural sciences, like economics and psychiatry. I argue that queer theory too has the power to remake the world in its own image, using the case of prison policy in England. The notion that sex is merely the performance of gender helped to shift the criteria for incarcerating males in women’s prisons: from genital surgery to legal status, and then to gender identity. The implementation of queer theory enables us to unpack two distinct meanings of gender performance: dramaturgical, where the individual gives off the appearance of femininity or masculinity through body modification, clothing, and gesture, and illocutionary, the individual’s verbal claim to be man or women. This case demonstrates the impact of queer theory on institutional policy.
589
12/7/2021
Over the past 15 years, there have been striking changes in the numbers and characteristics of individuals seeking care for gender dysphoria. In this presentation, Dr. Lisa Littman will review the basics of gender dysphoria, describe recent trends in patient demographics and clinical approaches to gender dysphoria, and explore the potential role of psychosocial factors in the development of gender dysphoria through a series of three studies.
Dr Lisa Littman is currently the President of the Institute for Comprehensive Gender Dysphoria Research (ICGDR) and has previously held academic positions at the Brown University School of Public Health and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
1017
10/8/2021
The Women’s Liberation Movement of the 1970s and 1980s in the UK saw a surge in women’s publishing that generated a networked feminist communications circuit in the form of newsletters and magazines. These periodicals functioned as essential forums through which to develop and disagree on their political positions. The letters and editorials reveal that the internal debates and disagreements with which second wave feminists were grappling still remain contentious today.
Bec Wonders is a feminist researcher in the field of feminist conflict, the Women’s Liberation Movement and feminist publishing networks at the Glasgow School of Art. She earned a Masters in Publishing at Simon Fraser University and co-founded the Vancouver Women’s Library. Currently, Bec runs Frauenkultur: an online archive of second wave feminist writing. Bec is also a freelance illustrator and printmaker. Her work can be found at www.becwonders.com
246
4/29/2021
The U.S. Equality Act, which amends civil rights statutes to explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, passed the House in February 2020 with unanimous Democratic support. In current form, the bill would institute sweeping changes that would prioritize in-the-moment gender self-ID over sex for ‘sex-based provisions’, no exceptions. I situate the act in its sociopolitical and historical context, discussing the current status of LGBT+ protections in the USA as well as the historical development of the Equality Act, first proposed in 1974 (albeit in much different form). I describe the specifics of bill passed in the House, including the prior rejection of Republican amendments to the bill to allow some sex-based provisions, and the conflict between sex-based and gender-identity-based rights. I conclude by discussing alternatives to the act that would provide federal non-discrimination protections to LGBT people without undermining sex-base
956
3/21/2021
Women were ignored in the first wave of research on social mobility – in postwar Britain – and their experiences and mobility have been underplayed or misrepresented since then. This presentation examines reasons for this and illuminates some of their experiences and what these can tell us about British society, sex and class, since the early twentieth century.
218
2/8/2021
We welcome Sophie Scott, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and Director of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience who will lead the seminar for the Autumn Term meeting of the UCL Women’s Liberation Special Interest Group.
“In this talk I will outline some of the theories and studies behind the brain sex theory of differences between male and female brains. The aim is to critically evaluate what differences there are between male/female brains and behaviour, and what any of this might mean in terms of arguments about women’s liberation.”
414
1/29/2021