Haslanger on Gender and Race

2023-2 Metaphysics of the Self Segment 2 (S.Haslanger, "Gender and Race: (What) Are They? (What) Do We Want Them to Be?")

 

Q) According to Haslanger, in what ways are the definitions of race and gender similar?

First, both gender and race are real. Second, both race and gender are social categories. Third, neither gender nor race is chosen, but the forms they take can be resisted or mutated. Fourth, both race and gender are hierarchical in terms of privilege or subordination, but such a hierarchy are contingent. Finally, although ideologies of race and gender and the hierarchical structures they sustain are substantively different, they are intertwined.

 

Q) What do you take to be the strongest objection about Haslanger’s account of gender? 

Jenkins points out that Haslanger’s gender theory is ethically problematic because its definition of woman excludes most trans women. According to Haslanger, being a woman requires that one function as a woman ‘regularly and for the most part.’ However, there are trans women who do not undergo medical surgery and are not perceived as women by those around them. Therefore, many trans women will not be categorized as women according to Haslanger’s definition.