Interview 2 OUGCRN: Gender critical research, psychology and health

Professor Jo Phoenix interviews Dr Laura McGrath about how she conceptualises ‘gender criticality’ in the context of her research (approx. 1m30s - 14m), about how this is relevant to research - in this instance in relation to ‘detransitioning’ and ‘detransitioners’ [approx. 14m - 33m] and finally about her work on the writings of Dr Money who first coined the concept ‘gender’ [33m - end]
Twitter: @OU_GCN

[@pseudonamed]

Thanks for having the ovaries to openly discuss these topics

[@hubertinepankhurst1161]

Great discussion, thank you Jo Phoenix for your courage and your integrity. I wish more people had the courage to speak up and not give in to a small, but very vocal and toxic lobby.

[@reganmusicnz]

Great discussion

[@roxee57]

When I, a Registered Nurse, started hearing all these claims about people having gendered identities, and remembered how, when I was a young feminist (I’m 63 now), I was fighting against imposed norms which were called gender norms back in the 70’s I wondered what was going on. It wasn’t too long before I wondered about the history of the term myself. Then I too discovered the work of the psychologist Money. Absolutely shocking. It’s amazing a sexist term invented in the 50’s became the term feminists used to fight imposed norms in the 60’s & 70’s, then became the term of an academic field to replace women’s studies in around the 80’s, then became a term associated with identity in the 90’s. If only we could turn the clock back and jettison the word and the various ways people have attached meaning to it, we could save ourselves from having to unravel the confusion that’s result. We’re persons. Persons are bodies which includes brains. Our species produce two types of persons for the purposes of sexual reproduction to produce even more persons. How each person feels about themselves, or who they are attracted to is, reveals a complexity of our species, but the underlying foundation remains the same and has a huge impact on capacities, limitations, and perceptions. I decided long ago to stop giving credence to the nonsense concept “race” by not using the word wherever possible. I have now done the same with “gender”.

[@tomsheer4029]

Ignoring the issues of race and gender is more harmful
They exist, we need to talk about it
Trans men are men
Trans women are women

[@whateverchannel22]

@@tomsheer4029 Trans men are trans men.
Trans women are trans women.

[@tomsheer4029]

@@whateverchannel22 ye okay?

[@InterstellarDreams]

33-year-old GC female, here. Former TRA. Which.. I grew up in the 90s. And went to uni. And actually took a few women's studies related classes! (I did a bachelor in English lit, at the time. Although I ended up dropping out of academia, and also eventually becoming a nurse, actually! I like geriatrics and psych, and work with a lot of VERY lovely demented + mentally ill elders.

[@InterstellarDreams]

@@whateverchannel22 Then I'm just going to add to that:
Trans women are men!
Trans men are women!
..So that it goes in a sort of steady progression, from COMPLETELY fucking wrong, to SORT OF getting it, to finally REALLY getting it. You're welcome. :D
Also, by the by..? After I had gone from TWAW / TMAM, to TWATW / TMATM, I went from that to full-on gender critical in.. NOT very long, if I remember correctly!! It was really just a pitstop on the way there. I've found, once you start to let go of the dogma, at least somewhat..? It gets SO much easier to just fully let go of it! Do recommend. It's liberating.

[@gamefly00730]

You need someone from the M.E. networks that watched the linguistic games that got used to change the disease definition, community used 'short hand' redefined. Studies done on cohorts that never had M.E. patients but was titled as ME/cfs. I dont know if it's playbook or just something that happens, it didn't look accidental.

[@connor5669]

Crazy that she focuses so long on John Money as though he is relevant at all to modern research

[@connor5669]

24:27 Transition is mostly the answer according to research and extremely low detransition rates, Laura.

[@connor5669]

She's interested in materiality but never once considers the material reality of trans women. She doesn't consider that the overlapping material conditions of cis and trans women may lead to similar psychological profiles.

[@connor5669]

29:30 Wow accounts on detransition reddit. Great job being a critical and discerning researcher, Laura lmao