2004
Volume 46, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 0167-2444
  • E-ISSN: 2949-8651

Abstract

Abstract

Antigender ideologues argue that gender identity is a phantasy and that ‘sex’ is the rock bottom of who we are. Even some feminists take a ‘gender critical’ position. These thinkers oppose phantasy to reality and hold oversimplified ideas about the embodiment of gender. I argue for an understanding of gender in which imagination plays a role, but that does not have a simple referent: gender as narrative. My inspiration is Ricoeur’s recently published (2024) and his ideas about narrative identity (1992). Applying Ricoeur’s notion of productive imagination to gender, I argue that gender is bodily and implies the stories of others, and that it pertains to a person’s life story that may change over time. I end with asking why it are only transgender people that in therapy are asked to tell their gender story. If we would all tell that story, we would soon find out that every story differs.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.5117/FEP.2025.1.002.HALS
2025-04-01
2025-04-22
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Ainsworth, Claire, “Sex Redefined”, Nature518, 2015, 288–291. https://doi.org/10.1038/518288a
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Bachelard, Gaston, La poétique de la rêverie. Parijs: PUF, 1960.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Benedict XVI, Address of his holiness Pope Benedict XVI to the members of the diplomatic corps, 2011, https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/speeches/2011/january/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20110110_diplomatic-corps.html, geraadpleegd 4november2024.
  4. Berg, Mandula van den, en MennoSedee, “De ‘antigenderbeweging’ klinkt steeds luider in Nederland. ‘Hun waarden worden bedreigd. Dus worden ze uitgesprokener’”NRC, 5juni2023, https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2023/06/05/de-antigenderbeweging-is-steeds-luider-in-nederland-a4166360?t=1730713731, geraadpleegd 4november2024.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Butler, Judith, The Psychic Life of Power. Theories in Subjection. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Butler, Judith, Wie is er bang voor gender? Vertaling door MiekeMaassen, Margrietvan Heesch en Jannevan Beek. Utrecht: Ten Have, 2024.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Butler, Judith, en JulesGleeson, “We need to rethink the category of woman” [Interview], 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/sep/07/judith-butler-interview-gender, geraadpleegd 29december2023.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Bruner, Jerome, Making Stories: Law, Literature, Life. Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press, 2003.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Congregation for Catholic Education, “Male and Female He Created Them: Toward a Path of Dialogue on the Question of Gender Theory in Education”, 2019,https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_20190202_maschio-e-femmina_en.pdf, geraadpleegd 4november2024.
  10. Dijk, Romy van, EvaHofman, SamuelRuiter, JorisVeerbeek, “Tijd voor geweld tegen deze lui”, De Groene Amsterdammer, 6september2023, nr. 36. https://www.groene.nl/artikel/tijd-voor-geweld-tegen-deze-lui, geraadpleegd 4november2024.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Fausto-Sterling, Anne, Sex/Gender. Biology in a Social World. New York & London: Routledge, 2012.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Giddens, AnthonyModernity and Self-Identity. Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Halsema, Annemie, “The Self Is Embodied and Discursive: Tracing the Phenomenological Background of Ricoeur’s Narrative Identity”. In: ScottDavidson (red.) A Companion to Ricoeur’s ‘Fallible Man’. Lanham etc.: Lexington Books, 2019, 125-144.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Halsema, Annemie, “Transcending the Duality of Body and Language: Ricoeur’s Notion of Narrative Identity”. In: RogerSavage (red.) Ricoeur and the Lived Body, Lanham etc.: Lexington Books, 2020, 1-16.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Halsema, Annemie, “Biologisch, psychisch, sociaal? Het ontstaan van genderidentiteit”. Tijdschrift voor Gezondheidszorg en Ethiek32 (4), 2022, 91-95.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Halsema, Annemie, “Hermeneutiek van het lichaam”. Aangepaste en geredigeerde verse van de inaugurele rede ter acceptatie van de leerstoel Wijsgerige Antropologie en de grondslagen van het humanisme, aan de Universiteit Leiden, op maandag 12 december 2022, Tijdschrift voor Genderstudies26.2, 2023, 164-183, https://doi.org/10.5117/TVGN2023.2.004.HALS
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Hotine, Emily, “Biology, Society, and Sex: Deconstructing anti-trans rhetoric and trans-exclusionary radical feminism”. Journal of the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences2(3), 2021. https://journal.nds.ox.ac.uk/index.php/JNDS/article/view/176/79
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Joel, Daphne, “Genetic-gonadal-genitals sex (3G-sex) and the misconception of brain and gender, or, why 3G-males and 3G-females have intersex brain and intersex gender”. Biology of Sex Differences2012, 3:27. Open Access: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3584732/pdf/2042-6410-3-27.pdf
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Lennon, Kathleen en RachelAlsop, Gender Theory in Troubled Times. Cambridge & Metford: Polity Press, 2020.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Mak, Geertje, “Huishouden in Nieuw-Guinea: Een geschiedenis van geslacht op geslacht” (Oratiereeks, Nr. 579). Universiteit van Amsterdam, 2017, http://cf.bc.uva.nl/download/oraties/Oraties_2017/Mak_Geertje.pdf
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Mannheim, Karl, Ideologie und Utopie, Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann, 1929.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Pearce, Ruth, SonjaErikainen en BenVincent, “TERF Wars: An Introduction”. The Sociological Review Monographs68(4), 2020, 677–698.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Prosser, Jay, Second Skins: The Body Narratives of Transsexuality. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Prosser, Jay, “Exceptional Locations: transsexual travelogues”. In: K.More en S.Whittle (red.) Reclaiming Genders: Transsexual Grammars at the Fin de Siècle. Londen: Cassell, 1999, 83-117.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Ricoeur, Paul, Lectures on Ideology and Utopia. George H.Taylor (red.). New York: Columbia University Press, 1986.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Ricoeur, Paul, From Text to Action. Essays in Hermeneutics II, Vertaling KathleenBlamey en John B.Thompson. Londen: Continuum (Franse oorspronkelijke versie 1986), 1986.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Ricoeur, Paul, Time and Narrative,. Vol. I. Vertaling Kathleen Mc.Laughlin & DavidPellauer, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1983.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Ricoeur, Paul, Oneself as Another. Vertaling KathleenBlamey, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1992.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Ricoeur, Paul, Lectures on Imagination. George H.Taylor, Robert D.Sweeney, Jean-LucAlmaric, Patrick F.Crosby (red.). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2024.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Rowling, J.K., https://www.jkrowling.com/opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-her-reasons-for-speaking-out-on-sex-and-gender-issues/, 2020, geraadpleegd 8november2024.
  31. Sartre, Jean-Paul, L’imagination. Parijs: Librairie Felix Alcan, 1936.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Sartre, Jean-Paul, L’Imaginaire: Psychologie phénoménologique de l’imagination. Parijs: Gallimard, 1940.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Sedee, Menno, “‘Radicale feministen’ zien de Transgenderwet als de allergrootste bedreiging voor vrouwen”, NRC11-09-2022, https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2022/09/11/deze-feministen-zijn-tegen-de-nieuwe-transgenderwet-a4141526, geraadpleegd 2januari2024
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Schechtman, Marya (1996) The Constitution of Selves. Ithaca (NY): Cornell University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Stock, Kathleen, Material Girls. Why Reality Matters for Feminism. London: Fleet, 2021.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.5117/FEP.2025.1.002.HALS
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error