Tuesday, September 11, 2018

A Proof For Humanism(?)

This randomly occurred to me the other day, not sure of its import. Starting with an easy one:
P1
  1. Anyone who identifies as a woman is a woman.
  2. Not everyone who identifies as a woman feels safe doing so publicly.
  3. From 1 and 2: Someone who publicly identifies as a woman could truly identify as a man.
I also think the following is uncontentious:
P2
  1. Anyone who identifies as a man is a man.
  2. Not everyone who identifies as a man feels safe doing so publicly.
  3. From 1 and 2: Someone who publicly identifies as a man could truly identify as a woman.
This generalization might be a little shaky, but let's run with it anyway:
P3
  1. Anyone who identifies as <Gender X> is <Gender X>.
  2. Not everyone who identifies as <Gender X> feels safe doing so publicly.
  3. From 1 and 2: Someone who publicly identifies as <Gender X> could truly identify as any gender.
From P1 and P2: 
  • Someone who self-identifies as a woman could be a man or a woman.
    • AND
  • Someone who self-identifies as a man could be a man or a woman.
    • THEREFORE
  • You can't tell whether someone is a man or a woman, regardless of how they self-identify.
If you accept P3 as a valid generalization, this becomes
  • You can't tell what gender someone is, regardless of how they self-identify.

Assuming you buy the line of reasoning above, you're left with something of a dilemma: How do you treat people if you can never truly know their gender? The solution which occurs to me is that you treat each person in a gender-blind fashion, as a person with their own intrinsic dignity. Which sounds a lot like the "humanism" side of the old "feminism vs. humanism" debate.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home

Blog Information Profile for gg00