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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... look at than whites ( whose whiteness was not something I could see ) . Although I had only the slightest acquaintance with qualities of life associated with blacks and so could have little sense of what there might be to lose in a ...
... looks more like a culture than a government . But what counts most is not , in any case , the means , be it “ rule " or acculturation , but the aim of building the richest possible life in com- mon . In a democratic society , both ...
... look from one to the other ? Or is there a transgender point of view from which the judgment of asymmetry can be made neutrally ? What is " desirable , " as Harding confirms in passing , is set by the feminist project , but where are ...
... look at myself in a mirror I see what I look like rather than what I see like . The mirror experience is fascinating , certainly , because it takes me right up to the edge of seeing myself seeing , fudges an approximation of this , a ...
... look to what is difficult ( wisdom , courage , or even walking on our hands ) as most fully revealing of our given potential . Clearly , what we recognize as our endowed potential depends on what we want to do and how we are able to ...
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 |