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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... position . My first premise and final claim is that human truth will arise from an inclusive communalizing effort - that no subject or class ( and no mode of reasoning ) can adequately realize humanity on its own , in philosophy or ...
... positions . But we are also always borne along by a collective spontaneity by virtue of which we are exempt from regulation , a self - accomplishing togetherness without which regulation could not even take hold . Here - one might say ...
... position . The connection can be made in either direction : females can be expected to weep and plead because that behavior accords with their position ; at the same time , femaleness is the apt reference of a simile that would describe ...
... position . In working out the symbolism , are we to take it as a bare positive fact that women are subordinate to men ? No , the fact is not bare ; one can read in it a meaning put in with the order of humanity's creation . ( This ...
... position where it is again true that men are men and women are women , but in a " spiritual " sense , so that the male or female body has become a metaphor of personal identity rather than its literal presence . In this version of the ...
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 |