Keynote Address: Unscripted — Introducing Intergender Dynamics and Reframing Gender-Type Prejudice by Richard Hogan, MD, PhD(2), DBA
🇨🇦 Richard Hogan PhD (Mathematics) · MD (Neuroscience) · PhD (Ethics) · DBA (HRD) Architect of IGD & IBT | Rewriting the language of gender justice Essays, theory, and verse from the post-binary frontier
Keynote Address: Unscripted—Introducing Intergender Dynamics and and Reframing Gender-Type Prejudice
Good morning.
It is an honor to stand before you today—not to echo what has already been said, but to challenge what we’ve long accepted. To offer not just a critique, but a new vocabulary. A new lens. A new way forward. I hope you are ‘not toned deaf’.
For decades, we have used the term misogyny to name and confront systemic prejudice against women. It has served us well in many ways. But today, I ask you—academics, legal scholars, educators, and clinicians—to consider this: What if the language we use to fight injustice is now limiting our ability to understand it?
We are living in a post-binary world. Gender is no longer a fixed category—it is a spectrum, a performance, a negotiation. And yet, our frameworks remain tethered to binary logic. Misogyny is one such tether. It is gender-specific. Directionally fixed. It presumes a hierarchy that no longer reflects the lived realities of our students, our patients, our communities.
So today, I introduce a new term: Intergender Dynamics , or IGD .
IGD refers to the patterned, reciprocal, and often asymmetrical interactions between individuals and groups across the gender spectrum. It is not just about identity—it is about relationship . It is about how we perform, police, and punish gender roles in our daily lives. It is about the emotional labor we assign, the authority we grant, the empathy we withhold.
And this is not just a sociological insight—it is a medical one.
Recent research in gender-affirming care has shown that transgender and gender-diverse individuals face significant barriers in accessing health services, often due to systemic bias and relational discomfort within clinical settings. Studies have also revealed that patients with dynamic or evolving gender identities experience distress not only from institutional exclusion, but from interpersonal dynamics—how they are spoken to, validated, or dismissed by providers.
In pediatric and adolescent medicine, clinicians are now trained to recognize how gender-role expectations affect mental health, emotional development, and access to care. The World Professional Association for Transgender Health and The Endocrine Society have emphasized the importance of relational sensitivity—not just diagnostic accuracy—in improving outcomes.
What does this tell us?
It tells us that IGD is not just a theoretical tool—it is a clinical imperative . If we want to reduce disparities, improve mental health, and foster trust in care, we must understand how gender prejudice operates not only in policy, but in conversation. In tone. In silence.
To complement IGD, I also propose Intergender Bias Theory (IBT) —a framework for analyzing the structural architecture of gender-type prejudice. IBT examines how laws, curricula, and institutional norms enforce rigid roles and marginalize deviation. Together, IGD and IBT offer a dual lens: one that captures both the macro-level scaffolding of bias and the micro-level choreography of interaction.
Let me be clear: retiring the term misogyny is not an act of denial. It is an act of evolution. It is a recognition that our language must grow with our understanding. That our frameworks must reflect the complexity of the world we now inhabit.
So I call on you:
- Academics , to revise your syllabi, your research, your theories.
- Legal scholars , to expand your statutes, your protections, your definitions.
- Educators , to teach emotional literacy, role deconstruction, and relational justice.
- Clinicians , to recognize IGD in patient care and to train for relational sensitivity.
Let us move from naming contempt to understanding connection. Let us shift from binary blame to systemic insight. Let us unscript ourselves—and write a new language of liberation.
This is not the end of a conversation. It is the beginning of a movement.
Thank you.
(snip-To read in Latin, French, Spanish, or Arab, click through to the Substack)
Scottie's Playtime 
We in the trans community recognized years ago that “misogyny” as a term was insufficient. It’s why we came up with the term “transmisogyny” to describe misogyny directed specifically as the trans community. But I admit, I like the new terms proposed here.
Thanks for sharing this Ali.
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OK. I wasn’t sure. I fully know the author means absolutely no harm with his ideas, but he is a man. I being female, misogyny is real to me, and I understand it is real to all women, and all women includes trans women. To me. So I have slight qualms about giving up a term that applies to so much. However, I don’t wish to deprive other members of my gender of terms that work better for them. As I said, all women, and trans women are women.
Non-binary people who are viewed as female by misgynists count, for me, though I would not take away their own identities by telling them that. I’m just an ally to almost everyone except hateful intolerant people. Though I would give them water if they were thirsty.
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Hi Ali, I really appreciate your thoughtful comment and your commitment to inclusive allyship. I hear how deeply misogyny resonates for you, and I agree it’s vital not to erase the power of that term for those it names and affects.
At the same time, I wonder if we might also consider how certain prejudices—especially those targeting trans men, non-binary folks, and even trans women from within the broader category of “women”—don’t quite fit under the umbrella of misogyny. For instance, when hostility comes from cis women toward trans people, or when trans men face gendered bias from any direction, the term “misogyny” doesn’t always stretch far enough. That’s where I think IGD and IBT might offer a useful framework—not to replace misogyny, but to complement it and help us name patterns that otherwise get lost or fragmented across too many niche terms.
I’ve also been thinking about how some forms of prejudice—like those faced by autistic and other neurodivergent people—don’t yet have widely recognised terms, despite causing real harm. A while back, I coined the word diversiphobia to describe fear of diversity in all its forms: neurodivergence, gender, ethnicity, religion, and the Rainbow community. It’s an attempt to name the discomfort or hostility that arises when people encounter difference, especially when that difference challenges dominant norms or expectations.
I say this not to challenge your experience, but to build on it. Like you, I want language that dignifies everyone affected by bias, and I think we’re all still learning how best to do that. Thanks again for opening this space for reflection.
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That was my intent. Too often I will lay a lot of violence against people-various people-at the door of their attackers’s misogyny or prejudice against perceived femininity. I need to keep my own mind open, too. And I thank those who help me do that! There does need to be a better term.
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