The Reality and Artificiality of Our Bodies
with Julia Serano and Talia Mae Bettcher
In this episode, we’re chatting Feminism and the Body with two incredible authors and academics - Talia Mae Bettcher and Julia Serano.
We chat about various texts that shaped or influenced how they think about the body, which you can find linked at the bottom of this page, or in our overall Reading List. It was a fascinating conversation, covering amongst many ideas the perceptions and readings of our bodies, the cultural specificity of boundaries and how they tend to affect women and how femininity is considered ‘artificial’ in a similar way to transness.
Talia Mae Betcher - she/her
Talia Mae Bettcher
Talia is an expert on feminist philosophy, transgender studies and philosophy of personhood. Her work integrates critical reflection with tangible and incredibly meaningful action. She’s a professor at California State University; her philosophical work aim to capture realities experienced by real people, and have political and practical consequences.
One of her notable works is Full-Frontal Morality: The Naked Truth about Gender, which we speak about in the podcast.
Her upcoming book Intimacy and Illusion: An Essay in Trans Philosophy is something we can’t wait to read.
Julia Serano - she/her
Julia Serano
Julia is a writer, performer, activist, musician and biologist, she is best known for her book Whipping Girl, a collection of personal essays that debunk myths and misconceptions that people have about trans women, femininity, and the subjects of gender and sexism.
She has a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from Columbia University, having spent 17 years as a researcher at UC Berkeley in the fields of genetics, evolution and developmental biology.
Her upcoming book is titled Sexed Up: How Society Sexualises us and how we can Fight Back - keep your eyes peeled for it!
Texts Discussed
Julia Serano, 2007, Whipping Girl
Whipping Girl is Julia Serano’s first full-length book - a collection of personal essays that debunk many of the myths and misconceptions that people have about trans women, femininity, and the subjects of gender and sexism more generally.
Julia Serano, 2013, Excluded
In her second book, Serano writes about exclusion within movements. While feminist and queer/LGBTQIA+ movements are designed to challenge sexism, they often simultaneously police gender and sexuality—sometimes just as fiercely as the straight-male-centric mainstream does.
Maria Lugones, 1987, Playfulness, “World-travelling” and Loving Perception
This is an essay published in the journal Hypatia. A paper about cross-cultural and cross-racial loving that emphasises the need to understand and affirm the plurality in and amongst women as central to feminist ontology and epistemology.
Ontology: the philosophy of being or existence
Epistemology: the philosophy of knowledge
Riki Ann Wilchins, 1997, Read My Lips: Sexual Subversion and the End of Gender
Riki Wilchins is the cofounder of the Transexual Menace and Executive Director of GenderPAC. In this book she writes about personal experience and theory, focusing on gender inclusion and exclusion.
Talia Mae Bettcher, 2012, Full-Frontal Morality: The Naked Truth about Gender
This essay, published in the journal Hypatia, discusses the claim that sex is moral in nature (always morally good, or bad, or something in between). Betcher discusses how our sexed, naked bodies are part of this claim.
Ann Cahill, 2014, The Difference Sameness Makes: Objectification, Sex Work, and Queerness
In this essay, publihsed in Hypatia, Cahill discusses ethical frameworks for heterosexual and queer sex work.
This paper requires access to the journal we’re afraid!