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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... ideal of sharing , of course , circumstances will pull us apart in our basic visions and com- mitments . The last thing one can say is : let us try to be humane about this thwarting of humanity . The present work is a composition of ...
... ideal ; you can't think of one more alluring ; and , even if our historical development can be interpreted otherwise than as a saga of democratic progress , you cannot deny that democratic progress is feasible from any historical point ...
... ideal , which tries to combine critical freedom from gender with norma- tive investment in it , expresses Wollstonecraft's principle that nothing humanly good can be held alien to any human de jure . Undercutting this move , however ...
... ideal " we " of " our " thinking is always subject to challenge , when some subjects believe themselves to be left out of its assumptions or presumptions ; correspondingly , claims to discern the human " in general " are constantly ...
... ideal model of humanity as a sort of public utility - an inclusive apotheosis . Let us give the designation of anthropomorphism ( in an honorific sense ) to the pursuit of full concreteness , the enforcing of all perti- nent categories ...
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 |