Extra Terms
What is a paradigm?
A set of concepts or thought patterns, including theories, research methods, postulates, and standards for what constitutes legitimate contributions to a field.
What is racism?
Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior.
What is oppositional sexism?
The belief that men and women are "opposites".
Who defends the "intrinsic inclination" model of sex and gender variation against social constructionists and gender essentialists?
Julia Serano, "Intrinisic Inclinations"
What do social constructionists believe?
They believe that masculine and feminine traits do not only describe human behavior, but give an idea of how someone should act. All these categories are a social construction, not a real biological fact.
What is a social construction?
If it is an intended or unintended product of social practice.
What is racialism?
There are heritable characteristics, possessed by members of our species, that allow us to divide them into small sets of races, in such a way that all the members of these races share certain traits and tendencies with each other that they do not share with members of any other race. (central idea of racism)
What is subconscious sex?
Identifying as man or woman neither in between/disposition toward a certain sexual identity.
Who argues that gender is a category that has been socially constructed. This person attempts to provide a philosophical definition of "woman" and "man" that takes this reality into account, and does not treat these categories as natural.
Sally Haslanger, "Gender and Social Construction"
What do gender essentialists believe?
They believe that those born male are preprogrammed to act masculine, and those born female are preprogrammed to act feminine.
What is racial prejudice?
Is the tendency to subscribe to false moral and theoretical propositions about races.
A negative attitude towards a group of people based on race — not on direct knowledge or experience.
What is cognitive incapacity?
Being irrational, ignorant, unable to see that the evidence does not support factual claims.
i.e. inability to change your mind in the face of appropriate evidence.
What is gender expression?
Refers to whether our presentation, behaviors, interests, and/or affinities are considered feminine, masculine, or some combination.
Who argues that in order to dismantle racism and its foundation, we will need to progress through two phases. 1) requires those in all significant societal positions to be scientifically literate regarding the absence of biological races. 2) requires a paradigm shift in all cultural, political, and economic practices and institutions.
Naomi Zack, "Philosophical and Social Implications of Race"
What does Kai C. Wong, "Collective Responsibility and Multiple Racial, Ethnic, and Cultural Identities" argue for?
We can define group membership on the basis of a set of overlapping characteristics such that we can make sense of two individuals' membership in the same group even if they share no common characteristics. ("Overlapping Characteristics" approach to defining a community)
What is De Gustibus?
On/about taste
What is intrinsic racism?
People who differentiate morally between members of difference races because they believe that each race has a different moral status, quite independent of the moral characteristics entailed by its racial essence. (ex: A person believes a certain race is inferior because God says so.)
What is sexual orientation?
A person's sexual identity in relation to the gender to which they are attracted to. (gay, lesbian, bisexual, asexual, pansexual, etc.)
Who distinguishes various aspects of racism, including racialism and intrinsic/extrinsic racism. This person asserts that racialism is false, and that both kinds of racism are theoretically and morally wrong.
Kwame Anthony Appiah, "Racisms"
What is a disposition?
A tendency to assent to a false proposition, both moral and theoretical, about races. When the facts are presented to you, you still struggle to give up your beliefs.
What is autonomy?
The capacity to be one's own person, to live one's life according to reasons and motives that are taken as one's own and not the product of manipulative or distorting external forces.
i.e. The freedom to make your own individual choices.
What is extrinsic racism?
People who make moral distinctions between members of different races because they believe that the racial essence entails certain morally relevant qualities. Focuses on features and characteristics of people.
What is the binary gender system?
It is the classification of sex and gender into two distinct, opposite and disconnected forms of masculine and feminine.
Who argues that domestic violence by a man against a woman who are in an intimate relationship severely diminishes the autonomy of the woman. The law should not allow women who are the victims of domestic abuse to shield their male partners by withdrawing complaints or failing to testify against them.
Marilyn Friedman, "Domestic Violence Against Women and Autonomy"
What are some reasons why women stay in abusive relationships?
Lack of financial means, worries about children's welfare, fear of separation assault, being misguided/misunderstanding the abusive situation, and being motivated to stay by questionable normative commitments.