As a woman who majored in philosophy in college, I always felt discluded from the texts we studied. Today, I am starting to work on a project. The project is titled: Gender-neutral Leviathan. Currently, the only version of Leviathan I can find specifically refers to the natural state of men. In this piece, I will replace male-specific words with gender-neutral words. For example, I will replace the words “man” and “men” with “person” and “people,” respectively. Also, the pronouns “his” and “he” I will replace with “their” and “them,” respectively.
This is necessary because all philosophical works need to be updated to be more inclusive of everyone who is not male. This will be a step towards gender equality, but we still have a long way to go. This will be a huge undertaking, and I estimate that it will take me many months. But, I have a passion for making philosophy inclusive, and so I believe that I will finish and publish this piece.
This is just the beginning. If all goes well, I will make it my life’s work to obliterate the use of male-focused language in philosophical texts and replace it with gender-neutral words. I believe this will enhance all genders’ understanding of the texts, and increase female representation in the philosophical community. My ultimate goal is to replace the male-dominated versions of great philosophical texts used in classrooms in college environments with gender-neutral versions of the same texts.
What do you think about making philosophic works gender-neutral? Is it a waste of time, or something that you cannot believe has not been done before? Let me know in the comments!
Things We Forget 
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