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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... conception of gender involves the assumption that masculine and feminine are simply partial but combinable expressions of human symbol systems , ways of dividing social labor , and individual identities and behaviors . Many feminist ...
... conception that responds to what it takes to be masculine and feminine with unprecedented sympathy and fairness- fostering the historical illusion that people have always felt and Copyrighted Material The Two Sides of Gender Thinking 19 ...
... conception that makes pos- sible a more thorough exposure of our gender system's unfairness and harmfulness than it has ever received , with profound alienation from gender as a consequence . Both ways of thinking have now appropri ...
... conceptions . " How we are , " or " human nature , " and " how it is with us , " or " the human condition , " are ... conceive ourselves apart from them . Does death pertain to human nature , or to the human con- dition ? In which of ...
... conceive a human project or per- haps a bundle of characteristic projects . What we are up to is surely the crucial revelation of what we are as well as where we are . Whatever is generally determining for the interpretation of hu- man ...
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 |