"Sex Not Gender Feminism": Some misunderstandings clarified
Misunderstanding #2: "Hormones and surgery can't change sex"

The purpose of this series is to confront and clarify some misunderstandings
of what is sometimes known as "sex not gender" feminism, or also
"gender-critical feminism."

One of the main claims of "sex not gender feminism" is that medical
transition for trans people through hormone therapy and surgery "cannot
change biological sex." This claim is a basis for regarding all trans women
as "male," if not indeed "men," outside the scope of a feminist movement for
"females." Likewise, trans men are simply "passing women," or at any rate
certainly "females." And nonbinary trans people, similarly, are simply
members of the sexes (and implied genders) to which they were assigned at
birth. "Sex not gender" feminists tell us these conclusions are a matter of
elementary biology, which trans people and allies need to study more
carefully.

In addition to these simplistic views of trans people deemed at birth to
have "standard" female or male bodies, "sex not gender" feminism views
intersex people as having "disorders" of sex development that make them
marginal cases, rather than differences of sex development which illustrate
the diversity of nature and contradict the harmful patriarchal myth of
immutable sex/gender binaries. For the moment, we should note that some
intersex people who are assigned to one binary sex at birth later seek
transition to the other binary sex or to a nonbinary identity, and might be
similarly impacted by the misconception we're now addressing. The more
general marginalization of intersex people by "sex not gender" feminism is a
major issue in its own right that will be addressed in this series.

The reality is that hormone treatments and surgery do, of course, change
primary and secondary sex characteristics. What these means of medical
transition cannot do, at least at the current state of the art, is to change
a person's chromosomes; or otherwise to permit a person born with a body
placed in one "standard" binary sex to arrive at a body of the other
"standard" binary sex.

Whether deliberately or by indirection, "sex not gender" feminism comes to
the classic conclusion of the patriarchy: that being a member of a given
sex, and more specifically of the female sex, is a matter of chromosomes and
reproductive capability. Let's see why this is a misguided result -- without
for one moment losing focus on the central role of reproductive rights as a
women's issue and a feminist issue.


Inclusive Radical Feminist Truth: 
We are more than our chromosomes, gonads, and gametes

If feminism were a movement for isolated gonads and gametes, rather than
human beings, then "sex not gender" feminism might have a point. In humans
and other mammals, large gametes (eggs or ova) and small gametes (sperm) are
decidedly dimorphic; and any given human can produce, at most, one variety
of gamete rather than both. In other words, a human may have for gonads
either ovaries (producing large gametes) or testes (producing small
gametes); or occasionally mixed gonads or ovotestes, but not functional
gonads that produce both types of gametes.

However, when it comes to sexing human bodies as female, male, or intersex,
this is a socially construed process. And many of the variables are
precisely those altered by medically transitioning.

Furthermore, for binary as well as nonbinary trans people, there are a range
of medical alternatives. In addition to hormone therapy without surgery, a
choice made by many binary and nonbinary trans people (and an imperative if
there are medical contra-indications to surgery), there are also options for
limited or modified surgeries which may maximize values other than
conformity to the sex binary.

Thus trans men may choose a metoidioplasty, which shifts genitalia toward a
more male configuration without seeking a "standard male" phallus. Trans
women may choose a vulvoplasty without full vaginoplasty. These limited
surgeries may for some trans people simply represent the best "cost vs.
benefit" option: a less invasive procedure, etc.

For some of us, they also represent a decision not to follow the
heteronormative standards that have often influenced society's treatment of
intersex people by coercive surgeries on infants and children (Intersex
Genital Mutilation or IGM) and otherwise, as summed up by intersex ally and
advocate Anne Fausto-Sterling: the assumption that "penetration without
pleasure" is better than "pleasure without penetration."
 

The grain of truth
"Hormones and surgery can't change one `standard' sex 
into the other `standard' sex" 

"Sex not gender feminism" makes a claim with a grain of truth which can be
liberating for trans and intersex people and our allies: the categories of
"female-bodied" and "male-bodied" are highly blurred.

The classic transsexual narrative pictures a person born with a "standard"
body of one binary sex transitioning neatly to a "standard" body of the
other binary sex. By reminding us that under current limits of medicine, a
"nonstandard" or "nonbinary" body is in fact the inevitable result, "sex not
gender" advocates lead us (however unintentionally) to deeper understanding
and alliance between nonbinary and binary trans people.

Sometimes nonbinary trans people are asked why they transition, and what
their goal is. The answer is often: "I'm seeking the best compromise, or the
most comfortable place on the sex/gender continuum, for me."

As it happens, those of us who identify as binary trans women or trans men
are in essentially the same boat as far as physical transition: our bodies,
as judged by conventional standards, arrive through medical transition at
various nonbinary conditions.
 
Of course, nonbinary trans people face the additional challenge of what
defines them: a nonbinary gender identity, and the many extra complications
this raises in a society assuming that everyone is either a woman or a man.

Intersex people (a significant minority of whom are also trans) face the
unique challenge of being born into a body deemed "nonbinary" or
"nonstandard," with immediate vulnerability to attempts by the patriarchy to
"correct" this situation, medically as well as socially, long before they
have any opportunity either to consent or to resist. Recognizing this vital
point permits trans and other people with nonintersex privilege to be good
allies, including those of us who have nonbinary bodies by choice rather
than by birth.

Whether someone's body is in conventional terms "nonbinary" by birth and/or
choice, it is the owner of that body who has the right to decide its
gendered meaning: female, male, or nonbinary.

This means struggling for full recognition of nonbinary gender status, as an
alternative for intersex people and trans people alike. It also means
recognizing that intersex people and trans people may identify as "female"
or "male," and have an equal right to that choice. Whether this ultimately
leads to "gender abolition" or "gender diversification," a truly radical
feminism can ask no less.

Margo Schulter
7 September 2015
Revised 9 October 2015