Debra Soh
{{Short description|Canadian sex researcher}}
{{Use Canadian English|date=February 2020}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Debra Soh
| image = Debra Soh on Reason TV.jpg
| caption = Soh on Reason TV in 2020
| birth_date =
| birth_place =
| nationality = Canadian
| education = Ryerson University (BSc)
York University (MSc, PhD)
| thesis_title = Functional and Structural Neuroimaging of Paraphilic Hypersexuality in Men
| doctoral_advisor = Keith Schneider{{cite web|url=https://www.psych.udel.edu/Documents%20Bios%20CVs/Schneider-Keith-CV.pdf|title=Keith A. Schneider CV|accessdate=2019-09-11}}
| known_for = {{hlist | Science columnist | political commentator}}
| website = {{URL|drdebrasoh.com}}
}}
Debra W. Soh is a Canadian columnist, author, and former academic sex researcher.{{cite news |last=Herzog |first=Katie |title=Wrongspeak Is a Safe Space for Dangerous Ideas |url=https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2018/05/31/26879132/wrong-speak-is-a-safe-space-for-dangerous-ideas |work=The Stranger |date=May 31, 2018 |location=Seattle, Wa.}}
Soh received her Ph.D. from York University in Toronto. She has extensively researched paraphilias, suggesting they are neurological conditions rather than learned behaviors. Soh has written articles for various publications, and she once hosted Quillette's Wrongspeak podcast with Jonathan Kay. She identifies as a former feminist who became disillusioned with the term.
Soh has criticized childhood gender transitions, arguing for waiting until a child reaches cognitive maturity. She has also written against anti-conversion therapy laws that include both sexual orientation and gender identity. In 2020, she published her first book, "The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths about Sex and Identity in Our Society".
Education and research
Soh holds a Ph.D. degree in psychology from York University in Toronto.{{Cite book|last=Soh|first=Debra |title=The end of gender: debunking the myths about sex and identity in our society |date=2020 |isbn=978-1-9821-3251-4 |publisher=Threshold Editions |edition=First |location=New York |oclc=1154855706}}{{Cite web |date=April 2019 |title=York University Faculty of Health Media Report April 2019 |url=https://health.info.yorku.ca/files/2019/05/FacultyofHealth_MediaReport_Apr2019.pdf |access-date=2023-07-19}} Her dissertation was titled Functional and Structural Neuroimaging of Paraphilic Hypersexuality in Men, and her committee included Keith Schneider of York University and James Cantor of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.{{cite web |url=http://psychology.gradstudies.yorku.ca/news/past-oral-defences/ |title=Past Oral Defences |publisher=Graduate Program in Psychology, York University |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181101095705/http://psychology.gradstudies.yorku.ca/news/past-oral-defences/ |archive-date=November 1, 2018 |url-status=live}} During her graduate studies, Soh received the Michael Smith Foreign Research Award from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and York's Provost Dissertation Scholarship.
While at York, she studied paraphilias. Her research indicates that these are neurological conditions rather than learned behaviours.{{Cite news|url=https://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/sex/news/a52596/sex-in-brain/|title=Why It's So Hard to Figure Out How Our Brains Process Sex: From excessive masturbation to gender equality|last=Rense|first=Sarah|date=January 26, 2017|work=Esquire|access-date=November 8, 2018}}
Career
Soh has written articles for Quillette, The Globe and Mail, New York magazine, Playboy, Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal.{{Cite news |url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/standard-deviations/201709/sex-researcher-turned-journalist-challenges-sexual-dogmas |title=Sex Researcher Turned Journalist Challenges Sexual Dogmas: Sexologist Debra Soh's work challenges sexual dogmas and political correctness |last=Aaron |first=Michael |date=September 25, 2017 |work=Psychology Today}}{{cite news |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-transgender-battle-line-childhood-1451952794 | title=The Transgender Battle Line: Childhood |last=Soh |first=Debra |date=4 January 2016 |work=The Wall Street Journal}} She began hosting Quillette
A 2016 Cosmopolitan article highlighted some of Soh's former research findings and their implications for determining which men are likely to commit rape.{{Cite news|url=https://www.cosmopolitan.com/sex-love/news/a56050/warning-signs-hell-be-dangerous-in-bed/|title=5 Warning Signs He'll Be Dangerous in Bed: This is a good case against dating 'bad boys.'|last=Smothers|first=Hannah|date=March 31, 2016|work=Cosmopolitan|access-date=November 8, 2018}} A 2015 article she wrote for Salon.com spoke of how she studied a pedophile named Jacob who had come to her office after being arrested for luring what he thought was a 10-year-old minor but was actually an undercover police officer, recommended Germany's Prevention Project Dunkelfeld as a solution, and gave sympathy to Todd Nickerson, who wrote two articles for the same magazine about his experiences as a non-offending pedophile, stating "The backlash that Todd Nickerson faced upon publicly writing about his personal struggle with pedophilia is a reminder that we, as a society, have far to go in challenging the way we think about this emotionally charged subject. But our current approach is not working."{{cite news |last=Soh |first=Debra W. |date=October 27, 2015 |title=The pedophile I could not help: He was not a monster or a molester. The system destroyed him anyway |url=https://www.salon.com/2015/10/27/the_pedophile_i_could_not_help_he_was_not_a_monster_or_a_molester_the_system_destroyed_him_anyway/ |url-status=live |work=Salon |location=Los Angeles |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220324114059/https://www.salon.com/2015/10/27/the_pedophile_i_could_not_help_he_was_not_a_monster_or_a_molester_the_system_destroyed_him_anyway/ |archive-date=March 24, 2022 |access-date=March 29, 2022}}
In a 2015 editorial, Soh criticized the prevalence of childhood gender transitions, advising parents and doctors to wait "until a child has reached cognitive maturity."{{Cite news |url=https://psmag.com/social-justice/why-transgender-kids-should-wait-to-transition |title=Why Transgender Kids Should Wait to Transition |last=Soh |first=Debra |date=Sep 1, 2015 |work=Pacific Standard}} Soh's essay, which referenced gender non-conforming aspects of her own childhood, argued that "a social transition back to one's original gender role can be an emotionally difficult experience." David A. French characterized this as "an understatement."{{cite web|url=https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/common-sense-part-ii-not-every-sex-researcher-thinks-young-kids-should-transition/|title=Not every sex researcher thinks young kids should 'transition'|first=David|last=French|work=National Review|date=2015-09-02|accessdate=2019-09-11}} Soh has also written against anti-conversion therapy laws that include both sexual orientation and gender identity, believing that such laws conflate the two and prevent legitimate therapeutic counselling for individuals with gender dysphoria.{{Cite news |url=https://www.newsday.com/opinion/commentary/why-bans-on-conversion-therapy-are-misguided-1.13742599 |title=Why bans on conversion therapy are misguided |last=Soh |first=Debra |date=Jun 17, 2017 |work=Newsday}} Fellow Canadian academics Florence Ashley and Alexandre Baril disputed Soh's interpretation of these studies.{{cite news|url=https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/why-rapid-onset-gender-dysphoria-is-bad-science|title=Why 'rapid onset gender dysphoria' is bad science|first1=Florence|last1=Ashley|first2=Alexandre|last2=Baril|work=The National Post|date=2018-03-23|accessdate=2019-09-12}} Psychologists Kristina Olson and Lily Durwood called Soh's research "alarmist".{{cite journal | url=https://slate.com/human-interest/2016/01/what-alarmist-articles-about-transgender-children-get-wrong.html | title=What Alarmist Articles About Transgender Children Get Wrong | journal=Slate | date=14 January 2016 | last1=Olson | first1=Kristina | last2=Durwood | first2=Lily }}
Soh opposed the 2015 decision to close Toronto's gender identity clinic, which was known for beginning treatment after or during puberty in most cases.{{cite web|url=http://www.slate.fr/story/167366/sciences-recherche-etudes-jeunes-trans-militantisme|title=Transition des jeunes trans*, quand science et militants divergent|first=Claire|last=Levenson|work=Slate|date=2018-10-15|accessdate=2019-09-12}}{{Failed verification|date=October 2024|reason=Article does not mention Soh in relation to the clinic.}} A previous inquiry had put the clinic's chief physician, Kenneth Zucker, at odds with other gender dysphoria specialists who provide support for patients who have not yet gone through puberty.{{cite web|url=https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/02/14/closing-of-camh-clinic-fans-controversy-over-gender-questioning-children.html|title=Closing of CAMH clinic fans controversy over gender-questioning children|first=Christopher|last=Reynolds|work=The Toronto Star|date=2016-02-14|accessdate=2019-09-12}}{{Failed verification|date=October 2024|reason=Article does not mention Kenneth Zucker.}} Psychiatrist Jack Turban criticized Soh, stating that hormones are prescribed during puberty according to the Endocrine Society guidelines, adding that "As Soh notes in her article, gender identity is fixed at this time."{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/opinion/readersreact/la-ol-le-gender-identity-culture-20170216-story.html|title=No, it isn't 'undermining science' to say gender identity is influenced by culture|author1-link=Jack Turban|first=Jack|last=Turban|work=Los Angeles Times|date=2017-02-16|accessdate=2019-09-12}} The following year, Soh wrote an editorial which criticized CBC News for cancelling its airing of a British documentary that featured Zucker.{{cite web|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/transgender-kids-documentary-1.4453667|title=CBC's decision against airing Transgender Kids doc should leave everyone unsettled|first=Debra|last=Soh|work=CBC News|date=2017-12-18|accessdate=2020-08-07}}
In 2016, Soh spent a weekend documenting the furry fandom in order to dispel myths about the subculture being primarily sexual in nature.{{cite web|url=https://torontosun.com/2016/03/19/no-sex-in-suits-and-other-facts-about-furries/wcm/139f4b34-0e18-4d21-ad40-b3de654971d7|title=No sex in suits and other facts about Furries|first=Kevin|last=Connor|work=The Toronto Sun|date=2016-03-19|accessdate=2019-09-12}} The following year she publicly defended James Damore's "Google's Ideological Echo Chamber" letter, popularly referred to as the Google memo.{{cite web | url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/08/08/googler-fired-diversity-memo-had-point-researchers-agree/548518001/ | title=Googler fired for diversity memo had legit points on gender | website=USA Today }}
In 2018, Soh was described as a member of the "intellectual dark web" by New York Times opinion editor Bari Weiss.{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/08/opinion/intellectual-dark-web.html |title=Meet the Renegades of the Intellectual Dark Web |last=Weiss |first=Bari |date=May 8, 2018 |work=The New York Times |archive-url=https://archive.today/20180520125047/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/08/opinion/intellectual-dark-web.html | archive-date=May 20, 2018|url-status=live}}
Soh left Wrongspeak at the end of 2018.{{Citation needed|date=November 2022}}
In April 2019, Soh supported a lawsuit by Nova Scotia resident Lorne Grabher against the Registrar of Motor Vehicles. The suit was filed to reinstate a licence plate bearing Grabher's last name whose similarity to the phrase "grab her" had made it the subject of a complaint. Soh testified that the plate would not encourage any socially adjusted person to commit a violent act and opined that the government was "overreaching."{{cite web|url=https://www.thestar.com/halifax/2019/04/24/grabher-licence-plate-not-dangerous-former-sex-researcher-tells-ns-court.html|title='Grabher' licence plate not dangerous, former sex researcher tells N.S. court|work=The Canadian Press|date=2019-04-24|accessdate=2019-05-09}}{{cite news|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-personalized-grabher-licence-plate-wont-incite-sexual-violence/|title=Personalized 'Grabher' licence plate won't incite sexual violence, former researcher tells Nova Scotia Supreme Court|first=Michael|last=MacDonald|work=The Globe and Mail|date=2019-04-24|accessdate=2019-05-09}}
On 4 August 2020, Soh published her first book, The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths about Sex and Identity in Our Society.{{cite book |last =Soh |first =Debra |author-link =Debra W. Soh |title =The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths about Sex and Identity in Our Society |publisher =Threshold Editions |date =August 2020 |pages =336 |url =https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-End-of-Gender/Debra-Soh/9781982132514 |isbn =978-1982132514}}
In 2021, Soh started her own podcast, "The Dr. Debra Soh Podcast".{{citation needed|date=March 2023}}
Personal life
Soh is of Malaysian-Chinese descent.{{cite news |last=Soh |first=Debra |title=Attacks on Asian-Americans reveal a strange racial double standard |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-attacks-on-asian-americans-reveal-a-strange-racial-double-standard/ |newspaper=The Globe and Mail |location=Toronto, Ontario |date=February 22, 2021 |access-date=July 23, 2021 }}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Official website|https://www.drdebrasoh.com/}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Soh, Debra W.}}
Category:York University alumni
Category:Canadian women scientists
Category:Canadian women non-fiction writers
Category:Canadian science journalists
Category:Canadian political journalists
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:Canadian people of Chinese descent
Category:Canadian people of Malaysian descent
Category:Toronto Metropolitan University alumni