Doing Justice

Next week, we'll discuss what came to be known as the "John/Joan" case, i.e., the story of David Reimer, who, as an infant, was subjected to sex reassignment surgery. I'd like everyone to read this article, originally published in Rolling Stone; and I'd like the debate teams to also read the "Doing Justice to Someone" chapter from Judith Butler's Undoing Gender, which is on Blackboard, in the "Content" folder.

In class, instead of staging a head-to-head debate, I'd like for each team to propose a research/action agenda, based on the readings. When developing your agendas, the teams should seek to address these questions:

• What urgent social justice issue (or issues) does the Reimer case raise for you?
• How can we formulate that issue as a theoretical or philosophical question? What are some possible lines of argument we might pursue in answering that question? How does this question relate to other theoretical/philosophical questions we've discussed this term and last? And how can we push our thought further, through research?
• How might we address the social justice issue here practically, i.e., how might we take meaningful action? Who are some other groups or individuals acting on this issue, and what are they doing?  What would you propose activists like ourselves do to make still more meaningful change?