Law Commons^™

Foreword-Symposium: Straightening It Out: Joan William On Unbending Gender, Adrienne D. Davis

Scholarship@WashULaw

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 …