This very non-representative episode of Heterodorx is the recording of the formal, timed debate between Alice Dreger and Colin Wright, which was held live Monday December 7 2022. They set out to resolve the claim, “Biological sex is real, immutable, and binary.” Did they succeed? Listen and decide for yourself!
Dreger-Wright debate on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2aKX8Mcz9Q&ab_channel=CorinnaCohn
This was a fascinating and frustrating debate to listen to.
A few observations – Dreger’s arguments made it clear that she has no substantive rebuttal to Wright’s claim other than to point to the existence of intersex individuals. I’m a bit shocked to see such a clearly intelligent person rely on such an obvious logical fallacy. I was also surprised to hear how heavily she leaned on pathos, anecdote and cliche to articulate her position. To conjure the moral authority of MLK in her closing remarks straddles the border between a bad argument and an intellectually dishonest argument in my opinion. Dreger’s attempt to reframe Wright’s claim as an ethical rather than scientific assertion was deeply disappointing.