ABSTRACT
Many people have no difficulty answering questions about their gender and their race, but it is not clear what, if anything, follows from the ability to do this. Does it follow that there are isolable parts of one’s identity that determine one’s gender and one’s race? Spelman’s answer is NO. She maintains that gender and racial identity must be understood in terms of the imposition of classification systems, not in terms of psychological or biological states inhering in individuals.
