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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... fundamental sameness , or some combination of these attributes - we can abolish gender . Can we , though ? That is a serious question ; the difference be- tween femininity and masculinity is intimately bound to the physical structure of ...
... fundamental structures of thinking and valuing . In try- ing to get to the bottom of gender , I think we open up every great issue in a profitable way - which is a sign that human differentiation is a central question for us , like the ...
... fundamentally like the others and at the same time fatefully unique in her or his particularity . So far from being crippled by the contradictions among these ele- ments , Democracy , like a strong metaphor , gets its vitality from ...
... fundamental im- portance in giving our life , our historically determinate configuration of " power , " its basic character . Gender is to be contemplated as one of the largest and least escapable contours of meaning in human life ...
... fundamental characteristic of primates is that they nurse their young : this is indeed a point of fundamental importance for primates and in the absence of other mammals for comparison might Copyrighted Material 26 On Conceiving the Human.
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 |