Nature & Nurture #155: Dr. Helen Joyce - Making Sense of the Transgender Debate

Dr. Helen Joyce is a journalist, mathematician, women’s right advocate, and author of Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality. In this episode, we talk about Helen’s background in mathematics and transition into journalism, and eventually the so-called gender culture war. We discuss sex differences in personality, why gender nonconformity is normal, and why the transgender debate has turned into such a contentious and politicized topic. We trace this story back to both the complex biology of sex differentiation, and postmodern philosophical problems surrounding identity, and how these decision points become difficult to enshrine into law. We discuss what social and legal norms should be surrounding protected gendered spaces, freedom of speech and pronoun use, intersex populations, libertarianism, and whether adults should be free to choose medical sex reassignment. Helen offers sound and practical advice for individuals wanting to navigate these contentious waters with an open mind, and do right by people when trying to both remain respectful to individuals struggling with gender dysphoria and not invalidate the truths of biological sex. Thumbnail photo credit goes to Helen Joyce: https://www.thehelenjoyce.com/about/ Timestamps: 00:00 - Introduction 00:29 - Helen's journey from ballet to mathematics 05:29 - From mathematics to journalism 09:48 - What was it like working in male-dominated fields? 14:57 - Are gender-nonconforming people overrepresented in the gender culture war? 18:14 - Culture of victimization and the mental health crisis 22:14 - Class, parenting, and narcissistic children 29:08 - Children need boundaries 31:50 - Postmodernism, transhumanism, and evolutionary mismatch 34:04 - Should women want children? 37:14 - Feminism, transgender rights, and libertarianism 41:36 - Cross-dressing, kink, and stigma 44:18 - At what point does the law have a say in gender? 46:23 - The brain drain of the gender culture wars 49:15 - The metaphysical importance of truth 50:57 - Gametes and the biological definition of sex 52:50 - Intersex conditions 57:04 - The double standard for trans women and trans men 1:02:32 - What about transsexuals who have been surgically reassigned? 1:06:35 - Pronouns and politeness 1:09:28 - The harms of puberty blockers 1:12:12 - Sexuality and the impossibility of true sex reassignment 1:14:01 - How do we dissociate the people who truly experience gender dysphoria from the bad actors? 1:18:48 - ROGD and the nonbinary phenomenon 1:25:07 - Gender-protected spaces 1:31:14 - How doctors lie to people with gender dysphoria 1:35:09 - Helen's advice for listeners caught in the gender war