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1. Is Haslangers conception of gender merely outlining oppression within our

society, or does her understanding of it only further entrench oppressive constructs?
a. While Haslanger does describe more freeform notions of how
gender relates to oppression, particularly in terms of intersectionality (the concept
that being black and male is an inherrently dangerous one in this society), her
very notion of gender is somewhat outmoded, even a mere 16 years after
publishing. Nearly all the concepts she works with exist within the gender binary,
understanding gender as a class system imposed between men and women.
This is itself exclusionary, ignoring the experiences of people who exist outside
the gender binary. Obviously, they are oppressed by men, but so too are they by
women. Trans and non-binary people are murdered at a rate which can only be
considered a form of terrorism, and this notion, of a class subordinate to
cissexual women, is left entirely unaddressed. However, her understanding of
gender as class does allow for this to be incorporated into her argument. Gender
is not dependent on sex (which is as constructed as gender), but it is a system of
social organizing built upon subjugation. It would be easy for a post-third wave
feminist understanding of gender to be grafted onto this existing framework,
making Haslangers argument far less problematic.
2. How does the notion of race as a construct impact the everyday life of somebody
who has been racialized?
a. In effect, it doesnt. Race is, beyond any doubt, a social
construction. There are no clear genetic markers for race, no way beyond
physical appearance and stereotype to denote race. However, the idea of race
is something that accounts for both a great deal of strife and also of personal
identity. In the sense that people and others understand themselves as belonging
to a certain race, the notion of race as false is meaningless. It is real due simply
to the fact that it is believed. Race is real because people suffer from it, and also
because people work it into their identities. No amount of academic jargon can
change this, and while a concerted effort to show race as biologically false might
be beneficial in the long run, reducing the argument to race is fake is not itself
anti-racist,
3. In what ways does Haslangers text mark a departure from previous notions of
gender and race, and in what ways is it still caught in the past?
a. Most notably, Haslangers text shows a movement towards
intersectional feminism. While second wave feminism was very much a
movement of white intellectuals, Haslanger writes on the cusp of the third wave,
even if she herself came to prominence in the wake of the second. The result is a
text which makes more attempts to understand the complex relationship between
gender, class, and race. While not always successful, there is still a much greater
degree of intersectionality than most work of the decades prior. Even so, there is
still a somewhat restraining notion of what gender and race actually are, and
what categories exist within these broad terms. Though the title of the essay
implies an understanding of both as construct, the essay itself fails to fully take
on this concept. Rather, it skirts around it, using retrograde notions for both
gender and race indicative of the time of Haslangers political and philosophical
coming of age. This, perhaps, is the failing of third wave feminism as a whole - it
acknowledges these issues in a manner not present previously, but fails to fully
take them on.