PHIL202 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Caster Semenya, Camel Hair, Jorge Luis Borges

• School: University of Waterloo
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHIL202
• Professor: Shannon Dea

Document Summary

This course considers some of the deepest theoretical and practical questions about gender. One of the lessons of this course is that, put simply, there is no biology without society (and vice versa!). The notion that gender is fluid and malleable is nowadays quite familiar. Over twelve modules spanning a range of disciplines and historical periods, we will learn that sex too is a complicated business and always has been. At first glance, there may seem to be little difficulty in categorizing most people into two groups male and female according to their morphological features. After all, it happens all the time on public restroom doors. While most people are only male or only female in most of these respects, it is not true of e(cid:448)e(cid:396)(cid:455)(cid:271)od(cid:455). A(cid:374)d, i(cid:374)deed, e(cid:448)e(cid:374) though, i(cid:374) ou(cid:396) so(cid:272)ial li(cid:448)es, (cid:449)e te(cid:374)d to judge people(cid:859)s se(cid:454) (cid:271)(cid:455) thei(cid:396) secondary sex traits, there is wide variation in these traits(cid:859) i(cid:374)sta(cid:374)tiatio(cid:374) (cid:449)ithi(cid:374) hu(cid:373)a(cid:374) populatio(cid:374)s.