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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... center of the gender . The logic of gender does not require the meaning at the center to pervade the gender , for the ordering of the pen to " she " is not a proposition about the pen but a prearrangement for propositions involving the ...
... center of meaning for a gender , consisting of the objects of apprehension in reference to which all the parts of the gender net- work are gathered together , must be distinguished from the central meaning of the gender , a fabric of ...
... center of meaning and central meaning may have centers in turn , and we would expect these to converge : the preferred examples of " man " should also be the fullest instantiations of " masculine . " But this centering of the centers ...
... meanings could not survive with this freedom because a gen- der's central meaning , the meaning that makes it a gender , is eminently the meaning of its center of meaning . How could one keep a sense of what feminine and masculine mean ...
... center of meaning , its " prototype " -for instance , a movie- star gender paragon - are relegated to a deficient status . ) 20 Since this sort of type is an alien shell imposed on its victims , it must be read as a reflection of the ...
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 |