Apartheid of Sex: A Manifesto on the Freedom of Gender - Hardcover

Rothblatt, Martine

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 051759997X ISBN 13: 9780517599976

Publisher: Crown, 1995

Synopsis

Rothblatt makes a case for the adoption of a new sexual model that accommodates every shade of gender identity. She reveals that traditional male and female roles are dictated neither by genetics, genitals, nor reproductive biology, but rather by social attitudes that originated in early patriarchal cultures and that have been institutionalized in modern law, and she calls a new acceptance of human sexuality in all its prismatic variety. 10 charts.

About this title

About the Author:

Martine Rothblatt is the Vice-Chair of the Bioethics Subcommittee of the International Bar Association.

From Booklist:

Positing the notion of a continuum with virtually limitless variations between the gender extremes, this well-researched, scholarly work argues for a new sexual revolution. Rothblatt contends "there is no socially meaningful characteristic that defines humanity into two absolute groups, men and women. . . . Genitals are as irrelevant to one's role in society as skin tone" and asserts that manhood and womanhood are lifestyle choices. Sure to provoke controversy, the book sees chromosomal differentiation as an unreliable tool for sorting humans into two genders; "male" and "female" thought patterns as meaninglessly simplistic constructions; and sex as developing on account of the evolutionary benefits derivable from the genetic diversity of two parents' cells (i.e., sex leads to an endless reshuffling of genetic material, minimizing unhelpful mutations and maximizing resistance to parasites). Concluding with an International Gender Bill of Rights, Rothblatt's "manifesto on the freedom of gender" makes a welcome addition to collections strongly concerned with women's issues. Whitney Scott

About this edition

• Publisher: Crown
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 051759997X
• ISBN 13: 9780517599976
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 178