2022 - Bioessentialism Hurts Everyone - Poster Presentation

Bioessentialism as a societal paradigm, regarding the relationship between gender and sex organs, limits the broad and complex fundamentals of gender as a societal construct through discrimination toward people who do not identify with the gender assigned to them at birth. As societal understanding of gender concepts becomes deconstructed over time, a degradation of patriarchal norms has allowed for a bloom of gender understanding. Bioessentialism claims that gender is associated specifically and solely with the genitalia of an individual at birth, and that any deviation from a binary gendered system is scientifically unsound. Additionally, the moral value of gender in relation to sex is often brought into consideration through harmful legislation and discourse without the commentary of transgender or gender non-conforming communities. At large, psychologists agree that gender exists within a large and inclusive spectrum, and that every individual falls within such a spectrum. Reinforcing bioessentialism is equally harmful to individuals within and outside of a categorical gender minority queerphobia reinforces a harmful system of control, affecting a variety of social systems at large. Research regarding bioessentialism and its effects on society was gathered through firsthand accounts of trans individuals, a written critical analysis of the harms of bioessentialism, and audiovisual representations of the psychological deconstruction of gender. Bioessentiallism gives rise to harmful stereotypes that marginalize every individual who cannot conform: men who don't subscribe to the traditional ideas of masculinity, women who rise above their stations, and transgender and gender-non-conforming people.