Sex-Gender in Life-Science Research: Conceptual Renegotiations and an Enactivist Vision

Alex Thinius, in “Sex-Gender in Life-Science Research: Conceptual Renegotiations and an Enactivist Vision,” discusses how researchers are increasingly acknowledging the urgency that the concept of “sex” be redefined. In contrast to concepts of sex-gender differences as stable and dichotomous, in current research on sex-gender, there is a growing consensus that sex is far more nuanced, variable, and interacting with gender in complex ways. The article aims to open up a research horizon for pluralist and dynamic concepts of sex by looking at a family of theories that mediate between gender theories and the life sciences, potentially integrating complex systems theory and critical phenomenology: enactivism. While endorsing the strength of this constructive integration, the author stresses that there is still great unexplored potential for reconceptualizing the sexes beyond grounding it on a sex/gender or male/female binary.