[Marxism] Re: The Penis and the Clitoris, or Gould against Functionalism

[l.willms@xxxxxxxxxxx (Lueko Willms)]

.    On  30.01.05
  wrote  furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx (Yoshie Furuhashi)
     on  /ALIST/MARXMAIL
     in  p0510034cbe22b07a04c0@[140.254.114.56]
  about  [Marxism]  The Penis and the Clitoris, or Gould against Functionalism

   I have hardly read any of the contributions in this thread, but  
this one prompts a comment:

YF> The main scientific point that Gould sought to illustrate in "Male
YF> Nipples and Clitoral Ripples" (as well as many other essays) is the
YF> poverty of "a severely restrictive functionalist view of life" (which
YF> assigns purposes to all biological components of the body of a
YF> species [and sometimes even social behaviors of it], arbitrarily
YF> broken down and compartmentalized for the sake of analysis) in
YF> explaining natural history.

   This reminds me of the book "Woman. An Intimate Geography" by  
Natalie Angier (probably published by Random House or some other  
subsidiary of Bertelsmann). Angier works for the New York Times.

   In chapter 13 she analyses the breast, introducing the disctinction  
between the practical breast and the aesthetic bosom, whose size has  
no practical purpose; there is also a chapter on the clitoris.

   Sure, I don't know if anybody has already mentioned this book.

   As to penis and clitoris, comrades may be interested to read the  
articles by Jim Sinclair, a spokesperson for the Autistics movement  
("Don't mourn for us!") on his intersexuality:
   http://web.syr.edu/%7Ejisincla/notice.htm


Yours,
Lüko Willms                                     http://www.mlwerke.de
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