Katie Zhou

Is the dispute about whether trans women are women a merely verbal affair? I argue that it isn't. But I also argue that this is much harder to show than philosophers have previously thought. In fact, vindicating the substantiveness of the dispute requires us to recognize the social totality of gender concepts.

In recent years, avowal has become increasingly central to the trans practice of gender. In this paper, I argue such avowal-based practices represent an attempt to escape the limitations and vulnerabilities of our bodies. But I also argue that this strategy is costly. For in draining the body of any relation to gender, we risk depriving ourselves of what is most valuable about our lives with gender in the first place.