NYU Should Abolish Gender & Sexuality Courses?

Spectrum Street Epistemology

During a Spectrum Street Epistemology session with NYU students, we explored the question: "Should NYU abolish gender and sexuality courses?" A Gender Studies student strongly defended the program, stressing its importance in understanding identity, gender, sexuality, and childhood transitions.

The conversation took a turn with the question: "Can anyone identify as any gender, race, age, height, or sex?" Students agreed that race, age, height, and sex are fixed categories, but gender sparked disagreement. While biological categories found consensus, gender remained contentious.

The discussion culminated in a thought-provoking claim: Are gender and sex empirically testable? This challenged students to grapple with personal identity versus scientific measurement, echoing academic debates on sex and gender as social constructs versus biological realities.