Adding Some Curiosity to Common Sense
Common sense, as a cultural construct, is neither "truth" nor always sensible.
We often hear politicians, pundits, and our relatives at family gatherings use the idea of common sense to justify their position on a given topic. If something is common knowledge and/or just assumed to be basic truth of human nature or how the world works then substantially less effort is required to make one’s point. It’s a lazy way to debate, sometimes reflective of both a lack of curiosity and fear of having one’s world view (or current position of privilege and power) upended.
This is certainly how many Republicans across the country are using the idea of common sense to justify the transphobic, anti-LGBTQIA+, bigoted, and hateful legislation being worked on and passed in many state legislatures. In Kansas, our governor just vetoed HB 2238, the so-called fairness in women’s sports act, that would require “children as young as kindergarten age to participate in school activities based on the gender they were assigned at birth, [potentially exposing] them to genital inspections” in the process. Unfortunately it may not be the only anti-trans bill she ends up vetoing this session.
In response to the governor’s veto, Republican House Speaker Dan Hawkins stated that the bill is intended to “protect the rights of female athletes in the state by requiring that female student athletic teams only include members who are biologically female. This is common sense [italics added]. Republicans in the House will make every effort to override this veto.” The implication is that it is common knowledge, it is basic human nature, that biological sex is only the strict male/female binary, that gender equals biology, and that variations from this are the result of some type of mental illness or genetic defect. Such variations are abnormal, deviant, and dangerous to society.
Merriam-Webster defines common sense as “sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts.” Dictionary.com defines it as “sound practical judgment that is independent of specialized knowledge, training, or the like; normal native intelligence.” Both definitions each have a key phrase that I emphasized in italics. Common sense hinges on a simple perception of the facts, independent of specialized knowledge, training or the like. This simplification, whether it’s actually inherent to the topic under consideration or instead represents an oversimplification, is a factor in allowing it to be common knowledge among a larger group of people.
Checking both ways before crossing the street is viewed by many as common sense. So is wearing sunscreen at the beach or not checking your phone during a job interview. Quantum mechanics, however, is not common sense. It represents a body of very specialized knowledge that most of us don’t have direct access to. But while most people might accept this relative to the physical sciences, many knowledge domains regarding human biology and behavior overlap domains of common sense and are sometimes not given their due as forms of specialized knowledge. Gender and biological sex are two examples of this.
Common sense, as my mentor and friend Dr. Robert Leonard use to tell his students when he was a professor at the University of New Mexico, is but one type of sense making system humans use to understand the world around them and their place within it. Specific frameworks of common sense are tied to the societies and cultural groups they’re a part of. We’re enculturated in them as we grow up. They help us navigate the physical and social world around us.
The “universal” nature of the “truths” included within a common sense framework vary along a continuum. While avoiding eating random wild berries you know nothing about might be more of a universal truth, clothing choices for a job interview are more culturally specific. And beliefs about the abnormality of any behavior that isn’t cishet (both cisgender and heterosexual or heteroromantic) are in direct conflict with multiple sense making systems of specialized knowledge (not to mention the norms of other cultural traditions). As biology, medicine, psychology, sociology, and anthropology have demonstrated, sex and gender aren’t simple concepts. Gender fluidity, gender non-binary, transgender, intersex, and multiple types of sexual orientation are valid states of being (for multiple species), are very complex, and require specialized knowledge to fully grasp.
Using only common sense to navigate sex and gender is about as useful as it would have been to only use common sense to build the Mars rover Curiosity. In many ways sex and gender are more rocket science than rocket science itself.
Because common sense frameworks are culturally dependent, they change over time with the dominant frameworks generally reflecting the majority norms at a given point in time. As such, they can be in conflict with common sense frameworks from other “outside” cultural groups or internal minority groups. And as I’ve already stated, aspects of these dominant frameworks are commonly in conflict with science based sense making systems (though simplified versions of scientific facts often eventually make their way into common sense frameworks).
Common sense frameworks are really more about unifying society and cultural groups, providing individuals with some of the rules and behavioral choices needed to maintain the dominant frameworks in place. The primary function isn’t really about communicating universal truths. And challenging the “truths” of common sense systems can be disconcerting to those individuals fully invested within them as well as destabilizing to their larger groups. It’s often seen as a threat to the status quo. Our current social turmoil, with its hyper-partisanship, struggles against rising authoritarianism and white supremacy, fights over transgender and other social justice issues, and continued increasing wealth disparities, is both reflective of and contributes to the evolution of our common sense frameworks.
With all this in mind, the anti-trans and LGTBQIA+ legislation and rhetoric from Republican politicians can be seen as coming from a place of fear. Fear of change, of having one’s world view upended, and of having to renegotiate your relationship and status with the rest of the world. It’s also a crass use of that same fear among others to maintain yours and your group’s power and privilege. Common sense frameworks with simplified views of sex and gender, in conflict with specialized knowledge sense making systems, support that effort.
Intellectually I know that in addition to organized efforts to vote bigots out of office, positive change also requires empathy, one-on-one or small group conversations, and other meaningful interactions. We must be willing to have “uncomfortable and difficult conversations, pushing back against ignorance and misinformation” as we come across them in our day to day. But it’s not easy.
The rash of anti-trans bills seeking to legislate my son out of existence feels like a personal attack. Hearing the rhetoric on the Senate and House floors and knowing it leads to “chains of bigotry and violence” that directly impact my son and other trans youth makes me want to lash out in response even when I know this doesn’t really move the needle. How could I not feel that way when they knowingly put my child at risk of a violent attack? When that may even be what some of these individuals actually desire? Especially when these legislators feign offense for being called out on their bigoted, hateful actions that have real damaging impacts to trans youth.
One Kansas Republican house member, Representative Barb Wasinger, feigned such offense on the house floor for being called a bigot as a result of sponsoring and supporting the original version of HB 2238. As I’ve set a precedent for referencing dictionary definitions, let’s do so again for bigotry. Google’s Dictionary Box defines bigotry as “obstinate or unreasonable attachment to a belief, opinion, or faction, in particular prejudice against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular group.”
Now it’s true we can’t see into the heart and inner mind of Rep. Wasinger or the other Republicans who support such legislation. But we can evaluate their actions. Such legislations suggests that they are attached to a belief about sex and gender that is unreasonable relative to multiple specialized bodies of knowledge. And as a result they are taking actions that are prejudiced against the trans community and trans youth in particular. This would seem a textbook example of actions that are bigoted no matter how much they feign offense.
Drawing from a quote incorrectly attributed to Walt Whitman by a beloved fictional Kansas football coach turned English football coach, it might be beneficial if our common sense frameworks incorporated a few more aspects of curiosity and a few less judgmental aspects. What if it was common sense to recognize we may not have everything figured out and see that as a strength instead of a weakness? Or that something different may offer an opportunity to learn something new and beneficial as much as, if not more than, be an actual threat? How much more aligned would our common sense frameworks be with our various specialized knowledge sense making systems? How much more difficult would it be to appeal to common sense when trying to disenfranchise and dehumanize others?
I do know that being curious, trying to understand the complexities of what motivates people to attack transgender and other LGBTQIA+ individuals, and delving into the cultural underpinnings of our sense making systems helps mute the feelings I have to lash out in response to the hate and bigotry. Though as the parent of a transgender child it’s hard for me to claim I actually feel much empathy for these people, and it’s not uncommon for me to let a sarcastic retort fly on twitter. However, I do think the intellectual understanding gained can lend itself to more constructive actions (including efforts to vote the bigots out of office) that hopefully lead to a more inclusive, safer world for my son and other LGBTQIA+ individuals.
Trans rights are human rights [Dart hits the bulls eye]
And for those who don’t recognize the reference to darts or the curiosity and judgement quote…
Surprising that you've not had more feedback! The Ted Lasso clip was illustrative prrfection