Peter Boghossian & Kathleen Stock: Lesbians Don’t Have Penises

Kathleen Stock is a British philosopher, author, and gender critical feminist who recently left mainstream academia. She resigned her professorship at Sussex University at the end of 2021 due to ideological censorship and death threats from trans activists. Like Peter Boghossian, Kathleen is a Founding Faculty Fellow at the University of Austin, Texas (UATX). Peter and Kathleen were both participating faculty in UATX’s Forbidden Courses program this summer and met for a conversation.

Kathleen talks about the strange new world LGBTQ+ activists have created for gay men and lesbians, particularly defining gay identity as “same-gender attracted.” Kathleen, herself a lesbian, is concerned about the confusing messages young lesbians receive from gender ideologues—like the notion that “lesbians can have penises.”

Peter and Kathleen also discuss preferred pronouns, cultish qualities in trans activism, the new Virgin Mary (any pregnant trans man), the callow misuse of philosophy, the effect of morally fashionable beliefs on philosophers, ruined academic disciplines, Wittgenstein, women’s competitive nature, the Substitution Hypothesis, the ethics of gender transition, backward reasoning, and hope for the next generation.

Kathleen Stock’s latest book is Material Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism. She is a columnist for UnHerd and recently launched The Lesbian Project with Julie Bindel. You can follow Kathleen on Twitter.