Categories We Live by: The Construction of Sex, Gender, Race, and Other Social Categories, by Ásta

Meeting at our favourite local coffee shop, Local Café, to discuss this critical notice of Ásta’s remarkable contribution to social ontology and feminist philosophy, we place an order with an individual behind the counter. We begin the interaction by assessing the individual, before attributing to them various social properties, including the property of being a barista, the property of being queer, the property of being trans, and the property of being a man. Presumably, the barista engages in the same practice of assessment and attribution. In concert, we implicitly settle on the rules, norms, and expectations that will structure our interaction. For example, if the authors had attributed the property of being a mail carrier to the individual behind the counter, we would have waited for someone else before ordering coffee. Or, if everyone were attributed the property of being straight, the barista and one of the authors wouldn’t have shared a familiar, knowing smile.