Gender Feminism And Transgender Activism A Scientific...

Gender Feminism and Transgender Activism: A Scientific Disillusion Debra W. Soh at Los Angeles Times argues that gender feminists and transgender activists are undermining science. Soh begins by claiming that gender feminists and transgender activists are different philosophical/ideological groups yet they both ignore science purporting to advance or advocate for equality (par. 1). Furthermore, the author distinguishes traditional equity feminists from gender feminists on the ground that the latter has not acknowledged the role of evolution in shaping the anatomy of the human brain. Rather, they believe that differences in sex are due to the socialization process that begins at birth. In other words, everyone is born a blank slate; the†¦show more content†¦From a personal point of view, Soh’s argument holds water. Gender feminists and transgender activists have misused and ignored biology as a way of substantiating their equality advocacy. Firstly, the process of socialization occurs after birth, primarily after somebody has already been created to be either male or female. The differences in male and female hormones explain it all. For instance, there are research findings which indicate that prenatal testosterone has â€Å"masculinizing† effects on the development of the brain. Moreover, scientific reports suggest that the exposure to testosterone changes the programming of neural stem cells that are responsible for sex differences and brain growth (Rudacille, 17). However, feminists have not acknowledged such facts; instead, they always point to studies which claim that there is hardly any difference between the male and the female brains. While this can be plainly termed as ignorance, it is indeed a misuse of scientific knowledge to advance the quest for equality. In fact, scientists have gone a considerable extent to prove that through higher-resolution neuro-imaging; a brain can be successfully classified as either male or female accurately 93% of the time (Soh par. 4). From a similar perspective, even if the male and female brains were identical structurally, there would still be significant evident functional differences that do not need