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 47
... schemes than the one we inhabit , or that we can just as well choose not to care about gender at all . The " just as well " condition refers , at one level , to practical possibility and facility - as when Margaret Mead concludes in Sex ...
... scheme of culturally ordered pres- tige , " where " prestige " itself is a male or male - centered concern . The tendency to define women relationally , in turn , must be seen as a reflex of their exclusion from - yet crucial linkages ...
... scheme in which to display the meaning of " human " -- that we ought rather to speak of a human condition or a human project - we should try to get a view of the relations among these conceptions . " How we are , " or " human nature ...
... scheme has more orienting force for most of us , most of the time , than any other human differentiation . Our culture's gender scheme is now the object of concerted criti- cism , epitomized in the theses of Arbitrariness , Impairment ...
... schemes possess centers of meaning in ( what are taken to be ) sexed bodies . There are systems of markers around these cen- ters , many assigned according to no natural necessity - what counts as " women's work " in one valley may well ...
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 |