Gender ThinkingTemple University Press, 2010 M04 30 - 384 pages How can we accept the gender system in view of its ills? Yet, are we really at liberty to abolish gender differences, "when the gender system gives us benchmarks of personal identity and worth along with primary channels in which to pursue the rewards of love?" With this double question, Steven G. Smith introduces his inquiry into the idea of gender and how it is implicated in love, respect, equality, and personal character. Gender Thinking is the first comprehensive philosophical exploration of the concept of gender Asking the question, what is gender?—that is, what sort of thing do we take femininity and masculinity to be?—Smith considers how gender thinking is interwoven with ideas about human nature. He suggests ways in which ideas about race, class, culture age, temperament, and sexual orientation can be understood from clues found in gender thinking. And he calls for a renegotiated procreative partnership between women and men as the key to the redemption of gender. |
From inside the book
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... aspect of the work may seem irrele- vantly or dangerously abstract . But more than one kind of abstractness threatens gender thinking . It is dangerous to set aside issues of charac- ter and value while theorizing political structure ...
... is a super - familiar aspect of our life , yet it is the worst of our perplexities insofar as it intrudes on the democratic project as a dark spot . It stands apart from the " people Copyrighted Material A Prologue on Democracy 3.
... aspects of masculinity and femininity and thus arrive at attractive cores which , while partial , are morally and politically symmetri- cal . But femininity and masculinity are not so easily combined ; central to the notion of ...
... aspects as feminine and masculine in various real and imaginary settings . Without these facts , or a selection of them , gender thinking would lack content and orien- tation . But each idea is truly a conception , not a mere perception ...
... aspect : we are made in the divine image , and we are made male and female ( Gen. 1:27 ) . Whatever is true of person - as - such is true for us only in the way that it can be true of sexually reproducing animals ; animal , more ...
Contents
1 | |
5 | |
23 | |
41 | |
4 The Sex Basis of Gender | 85 |
5 Gender Valuation and Selfhood | 139 |
6 Gender and Duality | 205 |
7 Gender and Procreation | 254 |
Realizing Sex | 303 |
Notes | 321 |
Index | 375 |