Gender Theory: A Destructive Anthropology – Part I

All forms of Leftism hold a false and destructive philosophical anthropology. That's why you can't reason with them. They have a false idea of what man is.

From Catholic Stand

By Antonio Galindo

The whole history of philosophy began with man questioning the nature of his existence, the reason for it, and the meaning behind it. Man, finding himself in the midst of an immense universe, was immersed in wonder, and the fruit of that wonder became the beginning of philosophy. As Socrates said in his work, Thaetetus, “Wonder is the only beginning of philosophy” (155c-d).

Wonder about what? Man’s wonder about the whole universe, but above all, wonder about himself. The questions, Who am I?, and What is the meaning of my existence? are the two fundamental questions that man has asked himself throughout the history of humanity. Both questions are connected because in order to know the meaning of your existence, you first need to know who you are.

The method used to know the truth of things has always been by first looking at reality because reality proposes itself to our intellects. Man discovers truth through reality because truth is the mediating force (called adaequatio) between our intellects and reality. In other words, truth makes our minds “adequate” to perceive reality.

Thus, man has also come to knowledge of himself through the truths that are present in his nature. Only if we follow this methodology we can truly come to know what human beings are and what their last end is. Any philosophical system that does not follow this methodology is false and cannot lead man to discover the truths about himself because it does not affirm any truth.

Such is the case with Gender Theory, which rejects the truths of human nature present in reality, making the body a mere instrumental object which we can manipulate as we please and not a part of our identity.

The True Nature of Man

In the first part of this essay we will present some characteristics of Gender Theory. Then, we will show how Gender Theory, by denying the union that exists between body and soul, impedes man’s ultimate fulfillment, which is the contemplation of God.

To do so, first, we will explain three things about the human person: that in man exists a metaphysical reality that makes him totally different than all other species of the world; that the union between body and soul is indivisible; and that they work together to form our identity. This will show us that our bodies are not a possession as such but are part of our human nature and are an integral element of personal identity given to us by God.

Only when we have seen that human nature as a whole includes body and soul can we finally pass to a perception of the last end of man. The importance of knowing the nature of man is central in order to understand the end toward which our nature is aiming. As Aristotle says in the Physics, “All nature always acts for an end” (Book II). The recovery of the true meaning of man’s last end is very important in order to rediscover and restore a truthful anthropology that affirms, promotes, and defends the dignity of man and that will finally lead man towards true happiness.

Gender Theory

Gender Theory (GT) is an ideology based on a relativist view of the human person. It is a new form of Manicheanism in which body and soul are diametrically opposed. This opposition is mainly emphasized in the human being’s sexual dimension.

Sexuality in GT is not anymore a given element of nature but a personal choice that we can change over time. Thus, the body loses significance in constituting our identity and is just an object that we possess and manipulate as we please.

According to GT, the biological sex assigned at birth does not determine our sexuality, our gender is what defines our sexual identity. A transgender website called Gender Unicorn states that sex assignment is “the assignment and classification of people as male, female, intersex, or another sex based on a combination of anatomy, hormones, chromosomes,” while gender is our psychological sense of self, “our internal sense of being male, female, neither of these, both, or another gender(s),” which can change over time. In GT, biological sex and gender are not the same, and they are not necessarily linked to each other.

This separation of body and soul comes from a process of denaturalization which denies human nature and promotes the redefinition of our nature regardless of the existential truths of human nature such as the indivisible union between body and soul. This new anthropology is influenced by Sartre’s idea that l’existence précède l’essence (”existence precedes essence”), which means that man exists without a nature and then man himself, through his actions, will define his own nature. Thus, you can decide your gender regardless of your biological sex and you can express your gender identity through clothing, hairstyle, voice, body shape, etc.

GT believes that sex, as we have known it throughout history, is nothing more than a social construct that has been oppressing us, not letting us express our real identity, which is the cause of our unhappiness. Our happiness lies then in liberating ourselves from this social oppression allowing us to express our gender identity freely without any kind of social discrimination. The creation of a society freed from gender roles is what will finally bring happiness to man.

As we can see, this anthropology is proposed independently from the objective truths present in reality. Separating our sexual identity from our biological sex, Gender Theory promotes the idea that we must “reincarnate” our real “I”.

Truthful Anthropology

The ever-increasing speed of technological and scientific development has significantly influenced our way of thinking, and we have come to a point in which we only believe in scientific truths that are achievable by empirical verification. As a consequence of this, we have fallen into a materialistic view of man which denies his spiritual reality and thus reduces man to a mere material being, as is the case with Gender Theory. Hence, we need to prove that man is not only a material being but a compositum of body and soul.

[End of Part I; Part II will explain how the union between soul and body is indivisible and both of them contribute to the sexual identity of man.]