Challenging the gender binary: Empirically unravelling the limitation of the male-female categories

Introduction

The ultimate goal of this project is to free science and society from the unfounded dogma of sex categories as all-encompassing dichotomies. It aims to promote a world in which the male-female categories are restricted to the domains in which they have been shown to play a central role (e.g., reproductive medicine), rather than a-priori assumed to do so (e.g., mind and brain).

The Gender Binary

According to the modern normative view of sex and gender (the ‘gender binary’), each of the two biological sexes (male/female) is associated with:

1. A typical, coherent gender identity (man/woman)
2. Sexual attraction towards the ‘other’ sex
3. A set of psychological and behavioral characteristics (masculinity/femininity)
4. The neural substrates on which these rely (‘male’/‘female’ brains)

Challenging the Binary View

In the past decade, I led a scientific research project challenging the binary view of human brains. Using diverse analytical tools, we discovered that brains are not ‘female’ or ‘male’ but rather comprised of unique ‘mosaics’ of female-typical and male-typical features.

Proposed Research Project

On the basis of the mosaic framework, the multi-level analysis tools we developed, and my expertise in psychology, the proposed research project will:

• Use self-reports and indirect measures to collect rich data from large and diverse samples
• Focus on the four psychological components of the gender binary:
  • Psychological characteristics
  • Gender identity
  • Attitudes towards the sexed body
  • Sexuality
• Explore their interrelations to discover how they are best described when freed from the dogmatic binary framework

Focus on Typical Populations

Focusing also on the experiences of presumably ‘typical’ populations (i.e., cisgender, heterosexual individuals), we will map variability in domains assumed to be homogenous. This approach will advance thinking about nonconformity as a matter of diversity rather than pathology.

Broader Implications

More broadly, the proposed research project will undermine the ancient categorization of humans into men and women and the unjust gendered social order this categorization helps maintain.