Boys and girls are different.
I describe what I observed.
Americans are sorting out how to deal with gender. It has been made a political wedge issue by the increased visibility of people in gender transition. GOP thought leaders have a position: Boys are boys; girls are girls. That positions people who are something in between as somehow freakish or criminal.
It is a powerful wedge issue because gender transition is new and it makes some people uncomfortable. Inter-racial marriage was also new and discomforting for many people 60 years ago. Attitudes changed as people saw inter-racial couples. I expect something similar will take place with gender transition, but for now the issue is still unsettling for many Americans, including Democrats.
Social constructionism is a theory of knowledge common in university settings of feminist and gender studies. The theory asserts that characteristics thought to be immutable and biological--including sex--are in fact largely products of human definition and interpretation. Orthodox thought in the universities leans in that direction and Democratic officeholders are reluctant to voice disagreement. Social constructionism contrasts with essentialism, which asserts that characteristics are significantly influenced by biology.
I had two personal experiences over Easter weekend. On Friday I attended the track meet I referenced last week. I paid particular attention to the 3,000 meter run for both young men and women. The photos are the lineups at the starting line.
I didn't see theory. I saw athletes. The young men are bigger, stronger, and faster than the young women. The winning young man ran it it 8 minutes, 51 seconds. The winning female ran it in just over 10 minutes.
On Sunday I attended an Easter picnic attended by a group of educated, prosperous people of liberal progressive attitudes. I chatted with a four-year-old son of one of the guests. I asked him if he wanted to hear a story. Yes!, he said.. I started the story saying that he was with his pre-school classmates when there was a loud knock on the classroom door. I said there was a great big monster named Snake at the door, and Snake looked mean. Here he interrupted me. "I ran to the door and kicked the monster right in the nose!"
That didn't surprise me. It was exactly how my son Dillon took over the direction of stories back when I told him stories when he was age four. Dillon wanted stories of confrontation. I attempted to de-weaponize my stories. I attempted to steer the stories toward peaceful resolutions. It was wasted effort. If I paused a moment when imagining some direction a story might take, Dillon would interrupt to declare he would grab some weapon, most memorably a chain saw. Had Dillon ever even seen a chain saw operate at age four? I don't think so.
A dozen years ago I told stories to a four-year-old daughter. She also interrupted to lead the stories when I hesitated. She was interested in relationships between characters. Who was the big sister, the little sister, who was kind, who was mean, what motivated the thug or monster or external threat? She wanted trickery to foil danger. She liked using sticky duct tape to restrain threats, not smash them in the nose.
I realize I am generalizing from a sample of three. My story experience isn't science. This isn't a controlled experiment. Still it has the powerful impact of lived experience of noticing what took place in front of me. Boys and girls wanted different stories. My inclination is to conclude I am not seeing social construction. I am seeing something essential. Males are different from females.
My observations this past weekend make me concerned that Democrats are blinded by an ideology that is contradicted by practical reality. Maybe differences among people are not primarily social constructions. At least, they don't seem such, as I reflect on my observations. It is bad politics to try to get people to deny what they observe with their own eyes.
“Absolutely zero.” Really? My experience with trans people is that they are very conscious of biology and gender, because it is an arena of struggle. Women worked hard to have their gender respected. I have some concern that a counter-revolution is underway, eroding their progress over the past century. Maybe I shouldn’t be concerned.
Biology certainly is biology, but that has absolutely zero relationship with how people identify themselves sexually. Get over yourselves. Walk in the shoes of others for a while