“Online Annotation 1”,
“These norms create what sociologist Emile Durkheim called social facts: realities that exist beyond any individual but shape individual possibilities—like how racial identity affects life expectancy, or how gender influences career trajectories (not because of biological differences!) but because of how social systems organize access and opportunity.”
‘Biological’ sounds Objective and Factual (which is why people use it, especially so when talking about trans people), but it’s been co-opted to mean nothing specific (it’s entirely context-dependent, as sometimes it’s chromosomes, sometimes it’s genitals, sometimes it’s facial structure); thus, it’s too vague. We can assume that “biological” differences are rigid and separate the sexes completely. But I could take oestrogen and progesterone and grow a pair of breasts relatively quickly. The more accurate phrase here would be “differences of sex” or “physical differences”. ♦