Don't Hate the Player: Traits Versus Norms

In this chapter, we consider the social norms that link gender categories, sexed biology, and gendered behavior to one another. We evaluate gender abolitionism, the view that we should do away with gender altogether. Many gendered social norms are pernicious, and insofar as gender abolition targets them, it's a reasonable project. But "gender" means many things, so the target of "gender abolitionism" is not always clear. We criticize the way that some gender abolitionists have shifted their attention from gender norms, many of which are legitimate targets of an abolitionist project, to the gendered behaviors and gender categories that the norms are about.