The Closing of the Centrist Mind
… Feminism in particular seems to raise Bawer’s ire; the chapter on Women’s Studies is the book’s longest. Bawer’s “refutation” of the view that gender differences or sexual orientation are socially constructed consists in a bare appeal to the fact that most people think otherwise. He makes no attempt to answer the arguments and evidence offered by the other side. But then it’s not even clear that Bawer understands what social construction means. He contrasts socially constructed phenomena, i.e., those whose existence or nature is constituted by social practices, with “real” phenomena, as though social constructions were unreal. Does he really think that money or marriage, say, are unreal, or that being red-green colorblind would be just as serious a disability in a society where traffic lights weren’t red and green? Moreover, and incredibly, he characterizes the questions “Is sexuality an orientation or a choice?” and “are homosexuals born or are they made?” as “different ways of putting the same thing,” as though environmental influences act upon us only via our consent. …
