Philosophy
So I was in a funky bistro in Santa Cruz with an old friend having a meal and the need arose to make use of the facilities. As I approached the two doors, I noticed that in place of the usual international symbols or linguistic indicators to let you know which was the men's and which was the ladies' room, they decided to use photographs. One image was of men in drag and the other was of women with fake moustaches in men's clothing (including one with a nice bowler hat). I found it an interesting place to make a statement on the standard, naive notion of gender. "Sure," I agreed, "the usual simplistic dichotomy does not fully capture the complexity of gender and sexuality in the real world." At the same time, however, I also thought, "But I really need to take a piss." Now, I felt proud to be hip enough to understand the subtext of the signs, but unfortunately I was not hip enough to be able to figure out the direct references. (My lack of hipness, hipocity, and absolute hipesqenicity must be clear by the fact that I still use words like "hip".) A urinal waited behind only one of those doors. Which was it? I got it wrong. If you had to make the call, which would you say was the intended reference of the photos? Men who were giving the social clues correlated with femininity: men's room or ladies' room? Biological women providing the culturally dictated signals of masculinity: men's or ladies'? Which should be which and why?
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Wonderful questions this time around, folks. Thank you very much. Two good ones for today. Anne asks, "In Nigeria and parts of Cameroon, pidgin english only uses one gender to describe everyone. Men and women are both given the word man along with all...
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Last week I was a teacher. Next week I will be a philosopher. This week I am a professional grader. So, a grade question. Why are women better students? Not a universal claim, but on average my female students are better than my male students. A friend...
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During the "ask any question, auto mechanics to quantum mechanics" section of class yesterday, a male student asked why other men were made uncomfortable by his conversing with them from a stall in the men's room. The discussion opened up to explain...
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Philosophy
A Gender Puzzle
So I was in a funky bistro in Santa Cruz with an old friend having a meal and the need arose to make use of the facilities. As I approached the two doors, I noticed that in place of the usual international symbols or linguistic indicators to let you know which was the men's and which was the ladies' room, they decided to use photographs. One image was of men in drag and the other was of women with fake moustaches in men's clothing (including one with a nice bowler hat). I found it an interesting place to make a statement on the standard, naive notion of gender. "Sure," I agreed, "the usual simplistic dichotomy does not fully capture the complexity of gender and sexuality in the real world." At the same time, however, I also thought, "But I really need to take a piss." Now, I felt proud to be hip enough to understand the subtext of the signs, but unfortunately I was not hip enough to be able to figure out the direct references. (My lack of hipness, hipocity, and absolute hipesqenicity must be clear by the fact that I still use words like "hip".) A urinal waited behind only one of those doors. Which was it? I got it wrong. If you had to make the call, which would you say was the intended reference of the photos? Men who were giving the social clues correlated with femininity: men's room or ladies' room? Biological women providing the culturally dictated signals of masculinity: men's or ladies'? Which should be which and why?
- What's The Difference: Equality, Justice, And Fairness
We were talking about bathrooms the other day. I mentioned that in my building at work, on the top floor there used to be one single stall men's and one single stall women's room. They have since chanced the men's room into a unisex...
- Language, Gender, And The Many
Wonderful questions this time around, folks. Thank you very much. Two good ones for today. Anne asks, "In Nigeria and parts of Cameroon, pidgin english only uses one gender to describe everyone. Men and women are both given the word man along with all...
- Gender And Grades
Last week I was a teacher. Next week I will be a philosopher. This week I am a professional grader. So, a grade question. Why are women better students? Not a universal claim, but on average my female students are better than my male students. A friend...
- Homophobia And Anti-semitism
During the "ask any question, auto mechanics to quantum mechanics" section of class yesterday, a male student asked why other men were made uncomfortable by his conversing with them from a stall in the men's room. The discussion opened up to explain...
- Socrates: Feminist?
Travis Larkin Is Socrates a feminist? In book five, Socrates radically states that women should receive the same training (geometry, gymnastics, and music) as men in society. For this reason it is the common misconception that Socrates is a feminist....