Foreword-Symposium: Straightening it Out: Joan William on Unbending Gender

As most men and women acknowledge, gender is a battleground. Most of us are fairly clear on biological sex: who bears children, who ejaculates sperm, even whose (big) hands might open a stuck jar and whose (smaller ones) could pull that cufflink out of the garbage disposal. What remains less clear is how social gender roles flow from this: Does lactation result in eighteen years of primary caregiving? Should the chemical realities of testosterone shape the law governing sexual assault? 3 Should the dynamics of heterosexual relationships mirror the physics of heterosexual intercourse (penetration equals power)? Does the reality of the menstrual cycle mean that women shouldn’t engage in public life? Of course I am being somewhat flip in choosing examples that have long since been resolved by most thinking people in our culture, but we all, young and old, white and non-white, queer and straight, know that gender is serious and contested business requiring a gentle touch