Experiencing Gendered Seeing

Southern Journal of Philosophy 55 (4):475-499 (2017)
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Abstract

This paper explores the concept of “gendered seeing”: the capacity to visually perceive another person's gender and the role that one's own gender plays in that perception. Assuming that gendered properties are actually perceptible, my goal is to provide some support from the philosophy of perception on how gendered visual experiences are possible. I begin by exploring the ways in which sociologists and psychologists study how we perceive one's sex and the implications of these studies for the sex/gender distinction. I then discuss feminist philosopher Linda Alcoff's concept of “interpretative horizons,” which highlights the role that one's social and political identities play in how we understand the world around us. I also discuss Elizabeth Grosz's notion of double sensation. I then apply some work in the philosophy of perception on perceptual learning and the cognitive penetration of perception to gendered seeing. My hypothesis is that we can explain how one's interpretative horizons are acquired through some notion of perceptual learning. I conclude by suggesting some of the epistemic and ethical implications of gendered seeing.

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Katie Tullmann
University of Missouri, St. Louis

Citations of this work

Feminist Aesthetics.Carolyn Korsmeyer & Peg Weiser - 2021 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
The Problem of Other Minds.Katherine Tullmann - 2019 - Metaphilosophy 50 (5):708-728.

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References found in this work

The Modularity of Mind.Robert Cummins & Jerry Fodor - 1983 - Philosophical Review 94 (1):101.
Mind and World.Huw Price & John McDowell - 1994 - Philosophical Books 38 (3):169-181.
Seeing‐As in the Light of Vision Science.Ned Block - 2014 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 89 (1):560-572.
Intentionalism defended.Alex Byrne - 2001 - Philosophical Review 110 (2):199-240.

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