LordWesquire's Shortform
Apr 24, 20251
LordWesquire
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The Blork Test: Clarifying the Binary in the Essentialism vs. Constructivism Debate
In modern discussions around sex, gender, and identity, one of the most persistent philosophical debates is that of essentialism vs. constructivism. Essentialists argue that categories like male and female are biologically grounded and immutable. Constructivists argue that these categories are social inventions, shaped by context and culture.
The debate often becomes muddled when variation in expression is interpreted as a flaw in the category itself. Enter: the Blork Analogy.
The Blork Analogy
Imagine a fictional species called blorks. The color of a blork is binary: they are either black or white. In this population, 49.5% of blorks are entirely black, and 49.5% are entirely... (read 526 more words →)
I agree. Intersex people are like the 1% of blorks. If one of them was mostly white with only a little black and wanted to identify as a white blork, that is a completely different situation than a 100% black blork using that as a justification for being able to identify as a white blork as well.