What the hell does ‘biological essentialist’ mean?

If you’re a feminist who uses the internet, it’s likely you’ve come across the expression biological essentialism. It’s a term often thrown at women who are gender abolitionists, women who are against the enforcement of gender roles, or anyone who acknowledges sex-based oppression. Being called a biological essentialist is often confusing, especially for a feminist who believes that women are worth more than just misogynistic and regressive gendered stereotypes. So what exactly do liberal feminists mean when they use this term?

What does it mean?

Oxford Reference defines biological essentialism as ‘the belief that ‘human nature’, an individual’s personality, or some specific quality is an innate and natural ‘essence’ rather than a product of circumstances, upbringing, and culture.’

Biological Essentialism is the belief that certain traits and behaviours are innate in humans, rather than the product of socialisation or upbringing. Another term which is often used synonymously with this is biological determinism, which is the belief that most human characteristics are genetic. Essentialist beliefs ignore historical and social context, and often give rise to prejudices such as racism or sexism. The essentialist view of sex is often used to justify the oppression of women and instances of this can be traced as far back as Ancient Greece, when Aristotle wrote:

‘The relation of male to female is by nature a relation of superior to inferior and ruler to ruled’.

A common biological essentialist belief may believe that all women are over-emotional, born to be wives and mothers and suited to domestic duties, and that all men are strong, rational, and born to be leaders. The idea that these gendered stereotypes are intrinsically tied to our genetic make-up disregards the centuries of oppression and inequality women have faced at the hands of the patriarchy, and also disregards the experiences of many men and women in society who don’t fit into these rigid boxes. It is a viewpoint that is typical of men’s right activists and other misogynists with traditional conservative or religious views, who use their belief in the superiority of so-called ‘masculine traits’ to justify their male supremacist attitudes.

How is it misused?

As feminists, we believe that gender is socially constructed, and that these gender roles are forced upon us growing up through patriarchal socialisation rather than through our genetics.

We believe there is no one way to look like a woman, act like a woman, or think like a woman; that the only thing every woman has in common is her sex. We believe that gender is just another tool used to control us, another facet of the sex-based oppression all women experience. Throughout the history of Radical Feminism, women have very strongly rebelled against female gender roles: through the rejection of beauty standards or marriage, and in some cases through the creation of female separatist communities.

The mislabelling of radical feminists as biological essentialists demonstrates the total lack of understanding of radical feminism amongst liberal feminists and trans rights activists. This makes evident the erasure of sex-based oppression and the importance of perpetuating gender roles in third-wave feminist discourse.

In spite of third-wave feminists parroting slogans about breaking gender roles, they are still very much attached to the concept of gender. They may believe that men can wear dresses and that women can be leaders, but much of their activism still revolves around defending patriarchal ideas which encourage participation in harmful gender roles and submission to men. 

Just one example of this is the sex-positivity movement, which teaches young women how to let their partner choke them ‘safely’ during sex. Another example is the liberal feminist obsession with defending the beauty industry, and the belief that harmful beauty practices such as plastic surgery can be a feminist decision as long as it is the woman’s ‘choice’.

Another way liberal feminists perpetuate gender roles is through their belief that everyone has an internal sense of gender identity. Reducing womanhood to an identity which one can easily choose to opt in or out of based on their feelings or interests is an idea which is innately tied to the very gender roles they claim to be fighting against. It also totally ignores the shared experience of being female.

The accusations of biological essentialism lie in this liberal feminist tendency to conflate gender with sex, or in many cases totally disregard sex in discussions about gender, so much so that it has almost become taboo to mention the role that sex plays in misogyny.

In her book Gender Trouble, the queer theorist Judith Butler claimed that the distinction between gender and that biological sex is redundant. The influence of this school of thought is evident everywhere in contemporary liberal feminism, seen in their ‘trans women are real women’ mantra, their support for the destruction of female sports, or in the online harassment of a feminist activist for daring to refer to the victims of female genital mutilation as ‘women and girls’.

The line ‘you’re reducing women to their genitals’ is something many reading this will have heard before. This accusation is ridiculous. Acknowledging that sex exists, and that the oppression we face as women is sex-based is not ‘reducing women to their genitals’.

However, isn’t hinging womanhood on a vague notion of gender identity rather than the material reality of biological sex reducing womanhood to a set of traits and stereotypes?  The very traits and stereotypes which oppress us, the ones which radical feminists have been rebelling against for decades?

The liberal feminist obsession with ‘choice’ has made them oblivious to the harm that gender inflicts on women and has allowed them to turn a blind eye to the real sex-based oppression that women face worldwide. In turn, they have allowed womanhood and the female experience to become a mere costume based on regressive patriarchal stereotypes.

I encourage liberal feminists to ask themselves: who are the real essentialists here? 

Gabi

Gabi is a radical feminist from Ireland.