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Tomas Bogardus vs. transgender people

Tomas Bogardus is an American philosopher and anti-transgender activist. Bogardus frequently collaborates with other anti-trans philosophers and academics.

Background

Tomas Alan Morales “Tom” Bogardus was born in July of 1981. Bogardus earned a bachelor’s degree from UC San Diego in 2002, a master’s degree from Biola University in 2004, and a doctorate from University of Texas at Austin in 2011.

Postdoctoral Visiting Fellow, St. Norbert College, 2011—2012 . Assistant Professor, University of St. Thomas, 2012  Bogardus began teaching at Pepperdine University in 2013.

Bogardus married Tanja Rae Green Bogardus (born 1981); they have a child, Minna (born 2010).

Anti-trans activism

Bogardus has participated in several anti-trans events in person and has appeared in several debates and interviews on YouTube channels.

Via City Journal:

As the philosopher Tomas Bogardus pointed out in Quillette, our language used to maintain a sex-gender distinction that acknowledged sexual dimorphism. “Sex” referred to being biologically male or female, while “gender” stood in for qualities that we associate with the sexes —like wearing makeup for girls or playing sports for boys—that are not intrinsic, definitionally, to being male or female. These gender qualities are mostly “socially constructed,” though they may be biologically predisposed. Notably, gender was also used by feminists as a synonym for sex, while gender identity was used by sexologists to refer to a person’s perception of being male or female. “Queer theorists” would later argue that the entire sex-gender distinction was artificial and that both categories were socially constructed. In this way, the terms “man” and “woman” also came to be associated with gender, suggesting that a man or woman was a social role or position that one occupied.

According to Bogardus, the flaw in what he calls the social-role view of gender is that not every person who wants to be recognized socially as a man or woman is perceived as one. To rectify this, the social-role view of gender morphed into the self-identification view. In the process, the sex-gender distinction collapsed, and the survivor was gender, not sex. In this brave new world, men who identify as women are female, and women who identify as men are male.

In 2024, Bogardus signed the anti-trans WHO Decides petition critical of the World Health Organization. Also that year, Bogardus and Alex Byrne criticized a 2023 paper on gender identity by Florence Ashley in the Journal of Controversial Ideas.

References

Victoria, Steffi (March 4, 2024). Dr. Bogardus delivers a philosophical talk on sex and gender debates, sparking campus controversy. The Maine Campus https://mainecampus.com/category/news/2024/03/dr-bogardus-delivers-a-philosophical-talk-on-sex-and-gender-debates-sparking-campus-controversy/

Figliolia, Joseph (February 1, 2024). A Rainbow-Colored Cage: Transgender ideology is sustained by scholars’ unwillingness to challenge its contradictory premises. City Journal https://www.city-journal.org/article/a-rainbow-colored-cage

Ashley, Florence (2023). What Is It like to Have a Gender Identity? Mind, Vol. 132 . 528 Pages 1053–1073, https://doi.org/10.1093/mind/fzac071

Selected writings by Bogardus

Bogardus, Tomas; Byrne, Alex (2024). Ashley on Gender Identity. Journal of Controversial Ideas 2024, 4(1), 2; https://doi.org/10.35995/jci04010002

Bogardus, Tomas (March 13, 2019). Gender’s Journey from Sex to Psychology: A Brief History. Quillette https://quillette.com/2019/03/13/genders-journey-from-sex-to-psychology-a-brief-history/

Bogardus, Tomas (2022). Why the Trans Inclusion Problem cannot be Solved. Philosophia 50 (4):1639-1664. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-022-00525-9 pdf https://philarchive.org/archive/BOGWTT

Bogardus, Tomas (2020). Some Internal Problems with Revisionary Gender Concepts. Philosophia 48(1): 55-75. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-019-00107-2

Bogardus, Tomas (2020). Evaluating Arguments for the Sex/Gender Distinction. Philosophia 48(3): 873-892. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-019-00157-6

Bogardus, Tomas (November 4, 2022). What is Biological Sex? A Proper Function Account. Part of Sex, and the Politics of Sex: with Alex Byrne, Holly Lawford-Smith, and Eric Sampson [moderator]. 6th Annual Meeting of the Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Society. New Orleans. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qR2SPnmvwPY1azc82CdqfuR8nLnx39K0/view?pli=1

There is much confusion around the notion of biological sex, among philosophers and even among some biologists. In this paper, I will defend a proper function account of biological sex: to be male is to have a body with the function of producing sperm, and to be female is to have a body with the function of producing ova. This account will be supported by considerations of how the terms ‘male’ and ‘female’ are standardly used by biologists when describing organisms across the animal kingdom. I will then respond to various objections. First, I’ll respond to the idea that ‘biological sex’ is ambiguous, referring variously ‘markers’ or ‘variables’ of sex, like hormone levels, chromosomes, and primary and secondary sex characteristics. I’ll then respond to some challenges to the account having to do with intersex conditions, both real and hypothetical. Finally, I’ll close with some implications of this account for contemporary trans-inclusive gender ideology.

Bogardus, Tomas (February 2020). Can the Trans Inclusion Problem Be ‘Deflated’? Gender Critical Philosophy Workshop. video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCcd2t6XbU4

Media

Tomas B (December 21, 2024). Peace Be Upon They Them The Ethics of Pronouns. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoUW4UWKI6U

Rationality Rules (October 5, 2024). Discussing the Philosophy of Gender with Tomas Bogardus | Rational Roundtable Podcast. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQUk4vgOtU0

Capturing Christianity (August 7, 2024). Gender Expert Reveals TRUTH About Imane Khelif’s Gender. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYLCrDC8N-k

Capturing Christianity (June 4, 2024). Brilliant Lecture on S*x & Gender w/ Spicy Q&A | Dr. Tomas Bogardus. [University of Maine] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGYI4sWhAfI

Benjamin A. Boyce (April 9, 2023). The Sophistry of Gender | with Tomas Bogardus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKir8TWYfcg

notsoErudite (March 1, 2023). Interview with Professor Aqua | Truth, Knowledge, and Morality. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql4ciofuAr4

Destiny (July 5, 2022). Debating The “Aqua” Professor Vaush Made Crazy Arguments Against. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PuIIo5VEy0

Perspective Philosophy (July 4, 2022). Discussing The Vaush Debate and Gender with Dr Bogardus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Lld4p2ADGc

Vaush (June 10, 2022). TRANS WATER – Gender Debate Gets Scientific. YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1B6gqZ7Vto

Capturing Christianity (June 9, 2022). “What is a Woman?” Movie Review w/ Dr. Tomas Bogardus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGYubQPhvHk

Modern-Day Debate (June 8, 2022). Vaush Vs Dr. Tomas Bogardus | Are Trans-Women Women? | Debate Podcast. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHxHSD4qWEM

California Catholic Daily (April 21, 2021). Tomas and Tanja. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_YpL3baPtM

Tomas B (March 16, 2021). Can the Trans Inclusion Problem be “Deflated”? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCcd2t6XbU4

Resources

X/Twitter (x.com)

Google Sites (sites.google.com)

PhilPapers (philpeople.org)

Google Scholar (scholar.google.com)

  • Tomas Bogardus
  • scholar.google.com/citations?user=1DmeXPIAAAAJ&hl=en&authuser=0

Pepperdine University (seaver.pepperdine.edu)

  • Tomas Bogardus
  • seaver.pepperdine.edu/academics/faculty/tomas-bogardus

YouTube (youtube.com)

Instagram (instagram.com)