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
Results 1-5 of 52
... one's dealings with girls assumed that they were basically , whether or not understandably , girl - like ; for what could be more obvious and mov- ing ( and of greater practical consequence ) than the difference between female and male ...
... one's enemies or unreliable friends are " women , " nonfighters , at heart.2 Homer , whose vocabulary for male worth does not include manliness , does have Achilles speak a memorable version of the womanliness reproach . The Trojans ...
Stephen Smith. of men one becomes a woman , and an imaginary skirt hampers one's movements.11 The thought directing Proust's description of M. de Charlus is that a person inwardly is a gender specimen - not like women or men in some ...
... one's commu- nity ; or as a " social " artifact , that is , a purely conventional formation of plastic humanity . Psychology investigates a postulated " mental dif- ference " between the sexes and later comes to appraise feminine and ...
... one's métier . Now this can be a mischievous idea . Is a young man , strong , well coordinated , and seven feet tall , who chooses not to play basketball guilty of a crime against nature , a " vice " ? One doesn't rush to that judgment ...
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 |