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Theoretical Frameworks of Sex and Gender��Psychology and Epistemology

Hilary Thurston

PhD Candidate

Dept. of Gender, Feminist and Women’s Studies

York University

My name is Hilary Thurston, I am a PhD Candidate in Gender, feminist and women’s studies at York University and I am also Prof. Thurston’s sister and co-collaborator. We are currently writing a book that will be published by Fernwood Publishing in 2026, which is based on the article in Science for the People Magazine that we wrote in 2023.

I understand you’ve learned about the biopsychology of sex and various frameworks for understanding gender in this course already. My specialization is in critical, feminist and queer frameworks, so today we will discuss formulations of sex and gender through these epistemological perspectives.

Firstly, epistemology refers to the theory of knowledge, so when we are talking about the relationship between psychology and epistemology, we’re talking about how psychology informs what we know, or, what we believe we know. Moreover, we are taking a metatheoretical approach in discussing the field of psychology and how it contributes to understandings about sex and gender.

So we’re thinking through a meta analysis: not only looking at how we think, but how theories about how we think are situated socially and culturally.

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Background - Thinking about knowledge production, defining terms, self-reflection exercise

Knowledge is Power - frameworks and concepts that trouble hegemonic knowledge production

Article discussion - neurohormonal theory, history of psychology of sex and gender

Psychoanalysis and Feminist Thought- bio-essentialism v. social constructivism, gender performativity

Discussion

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WHAT IS THE TRUTH?

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The Power of a Single Story

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What is Your Single Story?

Self-Reflection:

1) Write a small paragraph or list that describes yourself – be as honest as possible - paint a picture of who you understand yourself to be using any words that you think are fitting.

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What is Your Single Story?

Self-Reflection:

1) Write a small paragraph or list that describes yourself – be as honest as possible - paint a picture of who you understand yourself to be using any words that you think are fitting.

2) Think of a fictional character (TV, book, movie) that you can’t stand - someone who makes you angry, or annoyed or frustrated. List as many characteristics of that character as you can think of.

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What is Your Single Story?

Self-Reflection:

1) Write a small paragraph or list that describes yourself – be as honest as possible - paint a picture of who you understand yourself to be using any words that you think are fitting.

2) Think of a fictional character (TV, book, movie) that you can’t stand - someone who makes you angry, or annoyed or frustrated. List as many characteristics of that character as you can think of.

3) Review your list, but instead of thinking about the character you’ve just described, imagine that you are describing yourself. Are any of the words you chose applicable to your own self-image? Do any of those descriptors describe your behaviour? If not all of the time, are there times you can think of when you could have been described that way?

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What is Your Single Story?

Self-Reflection:

1) Write a small paragraph or list that describes yourself – be as honest as possible - paint a picture of who you understand yourself to be using any words that you think are fitting.

2) Think of a fictional character (TV, book, movie) that you can’t stand - someone who makes you angry, or annoyed or frustrated. List as many characteristics of that character as you can think of.

3) Review your list, but instead of thinking about the character you’ve just described, imagine that you are describing yourself. Are any of the words you chose applicable to your own self-image? Do any of those descriptors describe your behaviour? If not all of the time, are there times you can think of when you could have been described that way?

4) Think about a time when you could have been described like the character you chose. Compare this version of yourself to your original self story.

Is there shame around the characteristics that don’t make it into your self story?

This is an exercise in identifying psychic projection - the characteristics that you find abhorrent in someone else, even a fictional character, are laden with disdain and shame - following the theory of projection, the strong feelings you have for the character indicate a subconscious distancing between yourself and the characteristics that you’ve learned are shameful, unacceptable / they are traits that will afford your rejection.

As a social species, we rely on social acceptance for survival - so it makes sense that we will reject the parts of ourselves that threaten that sense of belonging.

Comparing these narratives shows us what might be missing from our self story, and it also highlights how emotions influence the stories we tell ourselves

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How Do You Know What You Know?

Key Terms

Objectivity
Subjectivity
Epistemology
Ontology
Micro
Macro

The goal today is to think about our frameworks of knowledge – how do you know what you know? What is true and how can we tell?

Objectivity – truth with a capital T; positivism; empiricism�Subjectivity – truth depends on your position/ perspective/ experience

Epistemology – ways of knowing (modes, methods, frameworks)

Ontology – ways of being

Bridging the micro and the macro

Micro – interpersonal, personal, speaking to our personal truths, the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, our own psychic life and its influence on how we orient to others and the world

Macro – social, cultural and political ideologies, hegemonic truth regimes, in other words, knowledge production through science, psychology, critical theory – what is considered true on a systemic, institutional and collective level?

In the following videos, consider what each is saying about truth in terms of objectivity, subjectivity, epistemology and ontology - how is knowledge related to power - how is it framed in terms of one’s social position: gender, race, class etc?

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THE STORYTELLERS OF OUR SOCIETY

Joon Chang

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WHOSE LABOUR COUNTS?

Vandana Shiva

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INTERSECTIONALITY

Kimberle Crenshaw (feminist legal theorist)

Introduced in the 1980s in response to an unprecedented employment discrimination case

Used in feminist philosophy and critical theory to account for experiential knowledge produced at the intersections of social positions, specifically in the context of systemic oppression

Image of Kimberle Crenshaw, retrieved from: https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/5/20/18542843/intersectionality-conservatism-law-race-gender-discrimination

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SUBJUGATED KNOWLEDGE

Patricia Hill Collins (feminist theorist)

Subjugated refers to being pushed down or marginalized

Black women have historically turned to “music, literature, daily conversations, and everyday behavior” as a result of being excluded from “white male-controlled social institutions.”

Image of Patricia Hill Collins retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qnr9VK_o-3k

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SITUATED KNOWLEDGE

Image retrieved from: https://www.mapsinternational.co.uk/huge-primary-upside-down-world-wall-map-environmental-paper.html

Image of Donna Haraway, retrieved from https://www.full-stop.net/2012/12/06/features/meaganhelen/intellectual-infection-a-conversation-between-helen-stuhr-rommereim-and-meagan-day-with-donna-haraway-in-absentia/

Donna Haraway (feminist philosopher)

“Why should we be cowed by scientists’ descriptions of their activity and accomplishments; they and their patrons have stakes in throwing sand in our eyes” (Haraway 2013b).

In knowledge production, there are often assumptions about whose perspectives are considered mainstream and which sources are deemed authoritative and reliable. This draws an inside-outside boundary, privileging those on the “inside” and overlooking “outside” perspectives. In her discussion of situated knowledges, Donna Haraway challenges this, arguing that there should be no such assumptions (Haraway 2013b). Even in science, where scientists are typically seen as an impartial authority, Haraway questions: “Why should we be cowed by scientists’ descriptions of their activity and accomplishments; they and their patrons have stakes in throwing sand in our eyes” (Haraway 2013b). This prompts us to critically reflect on not just what we know, but from whose perspectives we have come to know it — a question often overlooked because we often assume that we come to know information objectively. Yet, backgrounds such as personal, cultural, and economic relations (e.g., funding) play roles in the production of knowledge, leading to partial perspectives.

Discussion question: In what way is the world atlas a form of situated knowledge? How might the information differ if the atlas were produced from another perspective? Why do you suppose that it was drawn the way it was?

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THE EPISTEMOLOGICAL POLITICS OF GENDER: �THE NEUROSEXIST’S GUIDE TO WEAPONIZED INCOMPETENCE

Neurohormonal Theory

has been used to uphold existing political ideas about sexual and gender orientations, expressions and identities
Bio-essentialist logics (as opposed to Social Constructivist)

Dr. Thurston’s research has examined the history of psychological and neurological theories about sex and gender. In her work, she learned that the majority of contemporary thought on gender in the brain is based on a theory called the Neurohormonal Theory. She also discovered that there are significant limitations and inaccuracies in this theoretical framework in the way that it has been used to uphold existing political ideas about sexual and gender orientations, expressions and identities.

From my perspective in critical, queer and feminist theory, neurohormonal theory reproduces bio-essentialist logics, which have been widely debunked in favour of social constructivist thought, which emerged in the second half of the last century, serving to trouble our existing frameworks for determining what is true (more on that later).

My own research examines the history of critical perspectives on knowledge production that have interrogated the biases upon which many of our social and cultural beliefs are founded. Methodologies and theories in the positivist tradition of empirical data collection and analysis have historically reflected privileged social positions and experiences over those of oppressed and marginalized groups simply because those who were privileged to have their voice heard were the ones doing the research.

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Weaponized Incompetence

From its use in psychotherapy, weaponized incompetence describes a behavioral pattern where one leverages their lack of skill or knowledge in a task to avoid accountability and place responsibility of the task onto another.

Thesis

The continued use of neurohormonal theory in spite of the emergence of evidence that discredits it belies a weaponized incompetence in the contemporary production of knowledge about gender and sexuality

THE EPISTEMOLOGICAL POLITICS OF GENDER: �THE NEUROSEXIST’S GUIDE TO WEAPONIZED INCOMPETENCE

Weaponized incompetence – From its use in psychotherapy, weaponized incompetence describes a behavioral pattern where one leverages their lack of skill or knowledge in a task to avoid accountability and place responsibility of the task onto another.

Thesis: The continued use of neurohormonal theory in spite of the emergence of evidence that discredits it belies a weaponized incompetence in the contemporary production of knowledge about gender and sexuality

Why would scientists refute the evidence that disputes neurohormonal theory?

The article suggests that the psychology of sex and gender has resisted adapting to new conceptual frameworks because of (conscious or unconscious) social, cultural and political biases reflected in the privileged social positions of dominant researchers. The field of psychology reflects the privilege (situated knowledge) of those who comprise it.

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CONSIDER…

How can we expect science to resist our oppression if our ideals of objectivity define knowledge in cisgender, white, masculinist terms?

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Throughout the 20^th century, neuroscientists and psychologists have aimed to find out the objective truth about gender by looking at the physiological make up of the brain.

In their allegiance to objectivity, scientists did not necessarily consider the social or cultural ideas that informed their thinking, because to do so would have been thought to undermine the credibility of their ideas and findings

In the article you were assigned for this week, both Dr. Thurston’s and my own subject areas intersect to shine a light on the ways in which gender has been theorized historically. Throughout the 20^th century, neuroscientists and psychologists have aimed to find out the objective truth about gender by looking at the physiological make up of the brain.

While this approach seems logical, the research was informed by the social, political and cultural ideas about gender that were widely accepted at the time, but the emphasis on finding the objective truth meant that scientists did not necessarily consider the social or cultural ideas that informed their thinking.

In their allegiance to objectivity, scientists neglected these factors that informed their thinking because to do so would have been thought to undermine the credibility of their findings

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Our current ideas about gender and sexuality are rooted in biased thinking and contextually specific ideologies

In the development of the western scientific understanding of gender, powerful social ideas can be observed as influencing neuroscientific and psychological theories

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GENDER AND MORALITY

Being a good person was connected to religious ideals about gender and sexuality throughout the Victorian era (19^th century)

Prior to sexology, women were thought to be unaffected by lust, and made to uphold the Victorian standards of morality

The existence of lesbians was entirely inconceivable (Cott 1978, Smith-Rosenberg 1975)

An example of shifting notions of sexuality: the predominance of Colonial Christian ethics meant that religious morality had a powerful influence on how people understood themselves. Being a good person was connected to religious ideals about gender and sexuality throughout the Victorian era (19^th century) and up to this day. As a man, it was considered immoral (criminal) to express your sexual desires outside of marriage. Women were not considered to be sexual at all until the psychology of sexuality became an area of study in Western science – it was called Sexology (Havelock Ellis, Krafft-Ebing, Freud, Edward Carpenter).

Prior to sexology, women were thought to be unaffected by lust, and made to uphold the Victorian standards of morality such that the idea of lesbians was entirely inconceivable.

Insert: keeping in mind that whiteness and class status was associated with morality during this time, so wealthy, white women were thought to be unaffected by lust, but women of colour and working women were not necessarily. (they were not even necessarily considered “women” because gender was so imbricated with race and class positions)

White, wealthy women who loved other women were called “Romantic friends” (the word lesbian did not exist until the 20^th century), and even lesbians did not identify their intimate sexual experiences as sexual in nature because of this powerful narrative. The widely accepted idea about gender was that women were of a higher spiritual order because they were not as ‘animalistic’ as men, working women or women of colour in terms of sexual expression.

How is this idea still felt in our society today?

We still feel the influence of this way of thinking when lesbians are asked how they have sex – for some, it is hard to imagine sex without a man involved because the mainstream understanding of sexual activity still centres the desires of heterosexual men.

These spiritual ideas about gender and morality informed the framing of research hypotheses and the conclusions drawn from data analysis because there were real social repercussions to making a claim that made you look like an immoral researcher – criminalization, ostracization by your colleagues and community, marginalization, job loss.

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GENDER AND MORALITY

Religious ideas about gender and morality informed the framing of research hypotheses and the conclusions drawn from data analysis

Seduction Theory v. Drive Theory

An interesting example in the history of psychology is that of the shift from Freud’s Seduction Theory to Drive theory.

1890s – seduction theory introduced to explain women’s hysteria (MH catch all dx to describe women’s issues) Seduction theory was proposed by Freud to explain the correlation of hysterical symptoms and experiences of sexual abuse that his clients disproportionately reported. It is alleged that he received negative feedback on this theory because it threatened the reputations of the powerful men who were sending their daughters for therapy. Freud pivoted to another theory he called Drive Theory that suggested the women were mis-remembering the abuse because they had unconscious fantasies of being abused. Drive theory was adapted to theorize the development of the psyche and paired well with the theory of the unconscious (Freuds claim to fame), so seduction theory was thrown out altogether. Drive theory endured throughout the 20^th century in psychological research and clinical practice.

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AGAIN…

How can we expect science to resist our oppression if our ideals of objectivity define knowledge in cisgender, white, masculinist terms?

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Theories of Sex/Gender

Is one born or does one become a woman?

Bio-essentialism

Social Constructivism

Simone de Beauvoir

Psychoanalysis aims to explain psychological development through the foundational concept that humans have innate, unconscious instincts (drives) that are affected through processes of socialization. Freud contended that mental problems arise when repressed, infantile desires find maladaptive forms of expression in later life. Some readings of Freudian theory suggest that it relies on bio-essentialist reasoning, while others argue that it reveals the mechanisms of socialization by which human development is influenced.

Bio-essentialism: contends that sex and gender are correlated in nature - that one’s physiology determines their gendered characteristics - this framework has been widely debunked in sociology because of the amount of evidence to the contrary - there are many people who do not fit into this theory of binary gender - gender is, in reality, experienced on a spectrum, and any gendered characteristic can be experienced by any body.

Social Constructivism: contends that gendered understandings are socialized, that the idea of binary gender/sex correlation is a social development, or construct. Gender, as we know it, has been framed in bio-essentialist theory, so it seems like common sense to see binary gender as normal and natural.

That’s why it takes some critical thinking, considering historical, cultural and political contexts to deconstruct these “common sense” ways of knowing

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NATURE V. NURTURE

Simone de Beauvoir

“The tremendous advance accomplished by psychoanalysis over psychophysiology lies in the view that no factor becomes involved in the psychic life without having taken on human significance; it is not the body-object described by biologists that actually exists, but the body as lived in by the subject. Woman is a female to the extent that she feels herself as such…It is not nature that defines woman; it is she who defines herself by dealing with nature on her own account in her emotional life.’ (1949, p. 65)

The tremendous advance accomplished by psychoanalysis over psychophysiology lies in the view that no factor becomes involved in the psychic life without having taken on human significance; it is not the body-object described by biologists that actually exists, but the body as lived in by the subject. Woman is a female to the extent that she feels herself as such…It is not nature that defines woman; it is she who defines herself by dealing with nature on her own account in her emotional life. (Simone de Beauvoir 1949, p. 65)

On the subject of psychoanalysis, feminist thinkers have been concerned with assertions about what it means to be a ‘normal’ or ‘healthy’ woman. In general, feminists take issue with the idea that women are naturally inferior to men, and that when women act outside the psychoanalytic standards of ‘healthy’ femininity, they are pathologized as mentally ill, as in the case of hysteria. Some feminists have viewed psychoanalysis as an important framework through which to understand how gender and sexual difference are constructed in the unconscious, while others have condemned psychoanalysis as a tool of the patriarchy that enforces oppressive relations between the sexes.

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WAVES OF FEMINISM

First Wave - suffrage, psychoanalytic inquiry into cause of sexual differences, search for essential womanhood

Second Wave- reform, womanhood as a category of shared social experience and a site of oppression

Third Wave- intersectionality, black feminist thought, de-centering white voices

Between 1960-1990, debates about psychoanalysis and feminism were raised around the tenets of the second wave of feminism. Second wave feminism was marked by a push for reform through the recognition of womanhood as a category of social experience and a site of oppression. The idea that women shared common experiences of oppression under patriarchal domination underscored feminist theoretical positions during this time. This idea lent itself to the goals of the feminist movement to raise awareness about the issues experienced by women as a group (economic inequality, reproductive rights, the role of the woman in the family), and to lend credence to the need for social and political changes to address these issues. Asserting the rights of women to lead autonomous lives, make individual choices for themselves and their families and pursue their interests was of central importance to second wave feminists. Sexual difference has been a central theme in feminist discourse, and psychoanalytic theories explaining sexual difference have been a site of feminist analysis and contestation.

Is one born or does one become a woman?

Prior to the second wave, the psychoanalytic inquiry into the causes of sexual difference provoked the search for essential womanhood. Early female psychoanalysts like Karen Horney and Helene Deutsch theorized womanhood as essentially different from but equal to manhood. Early psychoanalytic feminist theories were later found to be incommensurable with social constructivist approaches to feminism because essentialist ideas about gender could not be sustained to uphold feminist ideals as they shifted to account for the differences between women along the lines of race, class, gender identity and sexuality.

Differences from men - differences between women

Set stage for the third wave - intersectionality, black feminist thought and de-centering white voices

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TERF-ism

Biological essentialism x “Feminism”

Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminism (TERF) is a branch of radical feminism that equates womanhood with biological sex

This line of thinking originated in the anti-porn activism of the radical feminist movement of the 1970s

Sex Wars (1980s) - anti-porn, anti-sex perspectives were disputed by feminists who wished to claim and explore their sexualities on their own terms

The Essential Woman Today - does bioessentialism still influence feminist thought?

We still see essentialist reasoning about sexual difference employed in the name of feminism. Most notably, bio-essentialism informs recent discourse about trans rights. Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminism (TERF) is a branch of radical feminism that equates womanhood with biological sex, and maintains this conviction to discriminate against trans women, incite violence against trans women, and exclude trans women from women’s spaces.

Proponents of TERF-ism espouse the belief that women are a group with a singular shared experience of womanhood based on the patriarchal violence experienced by people with vaginas. This line of thinking originated in the anti-porn activism of the radical feminist movement of the 1970s (Andrea Dworkin, Catherine MacKinnon). In the 1980s, anti-porn, anti-sex perspectives were disputed by feminists who wished to claim and explore their sexualities, and felt that policing feminist sexuality was another form of oppression. This moment in feminist history is called “The Sex Wars”

Third wave feminist discourse and theories like intersectionality present the idea that bodily or physical similarities may not always be experienced in the same ways socially and culturally.

TERF-ism is not really feminism in the sense that feminism is a movement that seeks to empower and liberate gendered subjects who are marginalized by patriarchy, which includes trans women. Feminism no longer isolates gender analysis to gender alone - it recognizes that gender oppression connects with racism, classism, homophobia, transphobia etc.

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THE ESSENTIAL WOMAN

Patriarchal violence is imbricated with heterosexist, white supremacist, colonial and capitalist violence, and womanhood has many expressions at intersections of race, class, gender and sexuality.

Colonial capitalist patriarchy created and enforced the gender binary along bio-essentialist lines.

To weaponize a binary understanding of gender against women who are different from you is to collude with these oppressive forces.

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GENDER PERFORMATIVITY

Is the gender binary biologically true?

What is at stake for me in accepting that it is not?

Sit with the uncertainty and process it so that you don’t project it onto people who are more marginalized than you

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GENDER PERFORMATIVITY

Judith Butler’s Theory of Gender Performativity: gender is a discursive script through which people become gendered subjects.
we are born into gendered scripts to the extent that they become deeply entangled with our identities and shape our embodiment.
Gender as a socially constructed, albeit largely unconscious, performance.

Answering the question: what if my gender feels natural to me? If gender is constructed, does that mean we have control over our genders?

Judith Butler is a queer, feminist philosopher whose early work engages the question of subjection in the context of the relationship between discourse, gender and sexuality. Her theory of gender performativity takes up the question of the subject’s relationship to discursive power by positing the idea that gender is a discursive script through which people become gendered subjects. We are not only subjected to the social concept of binary gender as we develop, but we are born into these gendered scripts to the extent that they become deeply entangled with our identities and materialities, and shape our embodiment. This theory positions gender as a socially constructed, albeit largely unconscious, performance. In the theory of gender performativity, Butler contends that one becomes a woman through discourse and its social and psychic reiteration, which differs from Beauvoir, who argues that one becomes a woman through her choices.

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DISCUSS

Ideas like those of Butler and Beauvoir prompt us to question the extent to which our identities are authentic, natural and autonomous.

Is there any part of your identity that is not informed by culture?

How can we overcome or dismantle the oppressive structures that influence our identities if our identities are born of these very structures?

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LECTURE SURVEY

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeXfZOmrrUQE0h06GTozCVx2BysDtmaaB61nchny9Hy8EfxDQ/viewform?usp=dialog

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SETTLER COLONIALISM AND THE MANIPULATION OF LANGUAGE

Samah, Aotearoa Liberation League

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Karen Horney

Juliet Mitchell