Why is it necessary to eliminate the gender category from the biomedical field? Towards the notion of bioprocesses in the postgenomic era

Abstract

The sex category usually refers to the idea of pre-social variables, i. e., detached from the environment. At the same time, they are interpreted as fundamental for a better understanding of disease prevalence, development and treatment. In this paper, I argue that such a characterization implies a series of biases that derive from a mechanistic reading of the processes of sexual differentiation, on the one hand, disease, on the other, and, confluently, of the sex-prevalence relationship. To this end, I will show that neither most of the variables considered of clinical relevance, nor their variabilities, are defined by the attributes we associate with the sex category. I will therefore propose that in the post-genomic era it is necessary to displace this category by the notion of bioprocesses. This displacement suggests that the plasticity that characterizes us from ontogeny leaves the sex-gender dichotomy without effect, since it is implausible to trace pre-social biological attributes, on which the notion of sex itself would finally become intelligible. Subsequently, I will recover the idea of practical classes to consider that, combining it with the notion of bioprocesses, biomedical variables must be situated and specific, adjusted to the study of interest. I will show that some of the implications of the displacement I propose involve diluting cisnormative values, which marginalize trans corporealities.