#047 Critical Gender Theory
Before we dive into the rabbit hole, let's define some terms:
Gender from Webster's 1828 Dictionary:
1. Properly, kind; sort.
2. A sex, male or female. Hence,
Gender from Merriam Webster 2022:
: sex sense 1a the feminine gender
b : the behavioral, cultural, or psychological traits typically associated with one sex
With those two definitions stated and the shift in definition noted, let's look at 2 the tenets of Critical Gender Theory
Gender Is A Social Construct
Gender Is Performed
1. Gender is a Social Construct:
Biology screams against this in many ways. As a general rule, your biology dictates which sex you identify with and has always done so. ~98% of people globally identify with their born God-given gender as statistics show. (https://www.statista.com/statistics/1269778/gender-identity-worldwide-country/)
So, let's not deal with the sociology just yet but those outliers who actually have genetic abnormalities. Many conservatives will say: “Biology states that if you have an Y Chromosome, you will develop into a male.” This is normally the case, although a bit reductive. But let's look at the exception. About 15,000 people in the United States have some mixture of XXY, XYY, and other conditions that create an androgenous response or infertility from the person's DNA. Some of these have counter-normative or intuitive formation of primary and secondary sex characteristics. However, this accounts for less than 1% of 1% of the population and most if not all of these folks present relatively clearly as male or female. (https://isna.org/faq/y_chromosome/)
Now, aside from genetic abnormality, which still presents as one sex or the other, X and Y Chromosomes are pretty good indicators of what and who this person will be. The mainline argument is not that there are anomalies, but that biological differences are things that can be tweaked to suit our own whims and fantasies. This is simply not true and destructive. Let's look at the ultimate experiment that proves that Gender is not only a biological fact, but pretending otherwise is dangerous at best.
2. Gender is performed
The story of David Reimer should provide some insight into the veracity of this idea. But before we get to David's story, we should deal with the man behind David Reimer's suffering and Modern Gender Theory: John Money. You can find his praise filled bio at the Kinsey Institute's Website: (https://kinseyinstitute.org/about/profiles/john-money.php). Those who know that name know that Aflfred Kinsey was a sex “researcher” who collablorated with the ilk of Nazi officer Dr. Fritz von Balluseck who would rape his victims and record data. Fritz and other pedophiles and rapists were not only documented by Kinsey, but encouraged to continue their research. With this information Kinsey published ghoulish charts that documented the “Speed of Pre-Adolecent Orgasm” with numerous data points down to 5 month olds in Kinsey's book Sexual Behaviour and the Human Male. John Money was not only a colleague of Kinsey, but also a defender of pedophilia as seen in his work. “If I were to see the case of a boy aged ten or eleven who's intensely erotically attracted toward a man in his twenties or thirties, if the relationship is totally mutual, and the bonding is genuinely totally mutual [...] then I would not call it pathological in any way.” Said John Money in a 1991 interview with the Journal of Paedophilia.
Reimer was one of the many victims of John Money and his idea that Gender was performative and constructed by societal expectations. David was one of two twins, born Bruce. Bruce as an infant was castrated by an experimental circumcision. His brother Brian remained whole. Mr. and Mrs. Reimer were directed to John Money for their injured son's treatment, unaware of Money's character or exploitative nature. Money recommended that Bruce be completely sex reassigned to female and treated as such. By two years old, the deed had been done and Bruce was renamed Brenda. Brenda loathed his life and all of the toys and affects of girlhood, longing to act as a boy. Also, John Money had recurring sessions with Brenda and Brian where Money forced the children to commit sex acts upon eachother, for Money's and his Colleage's benefit. In Brenda's teen years, he was on the verge of suicide when his parents finally broke down and told Brenda the truth of his biology. Brenda immediately opted to transition and become known as David. He went through reconstructive surgery, undergoing mastectomies and surgery to simulate what had been surgically removed as a child. Alas, all of the damage done to both Brian and David/Bruce was too much for them to handle and they both committed suicide within two years of each other. John Money's experiment, however, has had its impact as his theories had already become mainstream before they were proven so very wrong by the lives of these two innocent boys that he had destroyed.
https://slate.com/technology/2004/06/why-did-david-reimer-commit-suicide.html
So, why are Christianity and Critical Gender Theory incompatible? Well, the Biblical view of Complementarianism states that there is a binary for gender. We see that in Genesis.
Critical Gender Theory relies on the Marxist system of oppressors and oppressed with differing standards for morality within each group. This flies in the face of God's Justice. One more thing, if Critical Theory views the powerful as oppressors, where does this put God?
Malachi 2:15
And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
What was marriage for? Reproduction. Sure there are those who cannot have children and their marriage is still of inestimable value. We live in a fallen world, and God is wonderful at making lemonade out of lemons. However, reproduction is the primary purpose of marriage.
Genesis 1:27
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
So here we have the creation of a binary.
Genesis 19:4-5
“But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter:And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.”
This is the first reference of homosexual behavior. It doesn't end well for those practicing it.
Leviticus 18:22
“Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.”
Deviation from God's picture of Christ and the Church is an abomination. It is dysfunction that eats away at the very basic fabric of who we are as Image Bearers of God.
Deuteronomy 23:17-18
“There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel. Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the LORD thy God for any vow: for even both these are abomination unto the LORD thy God.” (Dog referring to the word Kadesh or one who acts in a dog like manner.)
There has always been a spiritual aspect to sexuality. Research is now showing that there are chemical interactions in the brain that permanently bond you to each sexual partner with which you interact.https://www.sagu.edu/thoughthub/the-physiological-bonds-that-happen-during-sex/
Judges 19:22
“Now as they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door, and spake to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him.”
Just in case the first account doesn't convince you, the second should make you take note. Sodom and Gammorah were wiped off the map for this. In Judges 19, we see men of the tribe of Benjamin commit the same sin. Benjamin as a tribe was nearly wiped out of Israel.
Romans 1:26-28
“For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;”
This should send shutters through the soul of the Christian. We should also have an intense empathy for those traveling this road of destruction. We should be reaching out to those in sin, just as our Father reached out to us when we were in such straits.
1 Corinthians 6:9
“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,”
The Greek word for effeminate means those of an uncertain affinity. This does not mean androgenous people, but those who chose to live in a way outside of the way that God created them, specifically men choosing to be effeminate.
1 Timothy 1:10
“For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;”
Again, primarily focused on men with men, Romans 1 deals with women too, but the idea is that there is a binary order and falling outside of that order is in rebellion to our Heavenly Father.
All of this to say that the Critical Theory of Gender has been roundly proven destructive by stories like David Reimer's. Its affects are incredibly destructive, and those who suffer from dysmorphia concerning their body or dysphoria concerning God's order don't need this toxic ideology that was cooked in the same incubator as John Money, Nazi Doctors, and the Marxist Frankfurt School. They need Christ. Let us arm ourselves with Truth to free those who would be freed in a loving, but non-compromising way.