13 Is Gender Socially Constructed? – Argues There are 3 Fatal Flaws in the “Gend
13 Is Gender Socially Constructed? – Argues There are 3 Fatal Flaws in the “Gender as a Social Construct” Position
Is Gender Socially Constructed? - Argues There are 3 Fatal Flaws in the “Gender as a Social Construct" Position
Adam Groza & Benjamin Arbour, 3 Fatal Flaws in the “Gender as a Social Construct” Position, https://erlc.com/resource-library/articles/3-fatal-flaws-in-the-gender-as-social-construct-position/
3 fatal flaws in the “gender as social construct” position
By: Adam Groza & Benjamin Arbour
https://erlc.com/resource-library/articles/3-fatal-flaws-in-the-gender-as-social-construct-position/
Typical Southern Baptists are barraged with the message that gender is a social construct, which means that gender is something subjective and not the result of nature, purpose, or design. They hear this message on television, in movies, in popular songs, in schools, and even in corporate training material. Southern Baptist churches need to educate their congregants to resist this argument and tear down these lies (2 Cor. 10:5).
Society is at a crossroads—either God institutes biological sex by which a person’s gender is established (male and female, see Gen. 5:2), or gender is a social construct and thus open to be revised, rejected, or assigned.
Fatal flaws
What are the fatal flaws to the idea that gender is a social construct, or, more specifically, what’s wrong with the way that transgenderism is promoted?
Start with how people tend to question their gender. The common story we’ve probably all heard goes something like this: “My child was born a biological male, and we named him Christopher, but from an early age, he only wanted to dress in pink and play with dolls. So we knew early on that our child was really a girl, and eventually, we allowed Chrissy to identify as female.”
Flaw number one
Can you spot the problem? If gender is a social construct, then playing with dolls and preferring pink instead of blue doesn’t count as evidence of some individuals having a different gender identity than their biological sex. Assuming what the transgender community would have us believe about gender as a social construct, dolls and pinkness aren’t essential components of femininity, nor do G.I. Joe’s and blueness represent essential marks of masculinity. Pointing to meaningless and “oppressive” social constructs as evidence of one’s real gender is incoherent.
How can someone claim to have an innate gender identity if gender is socially constructed?
Advocates of the social construct theory need to follow through on their own logic: If gender is a social construct, then preferences concerning societally constructed gender norms are irrelevant in determining one’s gender. So the next time people tell you that someone determines their gender by preferring pink over blue, or ballet over football, tell those people that assuming the very thing they claim to deny isn’t a good way to convince us that their position makes any sense. Perhaps we can re-state it t