Haslanger Flashcards
Q: What analytical approach does Sally Haslanger take in her essay “Gender and Race: (What) Are They? (What) Do We Want Them to Be?”?
A: She argues that race and gender are social constructs used to maintain inequalities and focuses on how these categories function in systems of power and oppression.
Q: What are the three types of inquiries Haslanger differentiates between regarding race and gender?
A: Conceptual Inquiry, Descriptive Inquiry, and Analytical (Revisionary) Inquiry.
Q: What is Haslanger’s goal in redefining race and gender categories?
A: To develop accounts of gender and race that will be effective tools in the fight against injustice.
Q: What role does critical feminist and antiracist theory play in Haslanger’s work?
A: She examines how gender and race contribute to inequality and injustice, guided by concepts such as social hierarchies, intersectionality, and social phenomena beyond identity.
Q: How does Haslanger define gender?
A: Gender is a social class structured by relations of inequality, where men are dominant and women are subordinate.
Q: What problems does Haslanger address with common gender definitions?
A: The Commonality Problem and the Normativity Problem.
Q: How does Haslanger extend her gender framework to race?
A: Race is also a social position that structures inequality, marked by bodily features presumed to indicate ancestral origin.
Q: What is a group considered racialized according to Haslanger?
A: A group is racialized if its members are socially positioned as subordinate or privileged and marked by features presumed to indicate ancestral links.
Q: What are the key issues in defining race and gender according to Haslanger?
A: The Normativity Problem and the need to define race and gender to support justice movements.
Q: What is Gender Externalism according to Haslanger?
A: Gender is determined primarily by how other people react to you.
Q: What is the Commonality Problem in the context of defining categories like gender?
A: The Commonality Problem asks whether there is something all individuals within a category share, considering diverse experiences and characteristics.
Q: How does the Commonality Problem manifest in discussions about gender?
A: It questions whether there is a common trait or experience shared by all women, given the vast differences in their lives.
Q: How does Haslanger address the Commonality Problem?
A: Haslanger argues that women share the fact that their assumed sex has socially disadvantaged them, focusing on social structures rather than inherent traits.
Q: What is the Normativity Problem in defining categories like gender and race?
A: The Normativity Problem concerns the risk of excluding individuals when defining a category around specific norms or experiences.
Q: How does the Normativity Problem affect definitions of gender and race?
A: It questions whether defining these categories based on certain experiences or oppressions might exclude those who do not fit the norm.
