Conf%cianand Feminist Perspectives on the Self 7.

sexist as we use the term today, and all efforts at reconstructing the Confu-
cian persuasion must excise those elements of the tradition that assign
women inferior roles. This excision-or perhaps, in some cases, exorcism-
must in the first instance be evidenced in the socioecononlic realm, because
good reasons can no longer be given for restricting freedom to develop one's
own capacities to rhe fuHcst on the basis of biologically or otherwise con-
structed sex differences.
The task of modifying the Confucian persuasion to accord with contem-
porary feminist morat sensibilities may nor, however, be an altogetl~erHcr-
culean effort conceptually. Admitting the pervasive downplaying of tlie
abilities and accomplishments of women in classical Confucianism, I never-
theless hold that the &rust of that tradition was not competirive individual-
ism-associated in the West with tlie mascrzline-but rather otlier-directed
nurturing, associated throughout Western history with the feminine. And
when we come to appreciate that the Western eradition only negatively cele-
brates qualities and attributes associated with the feminine, we migllt cau-
tiously opine that the demand for gender equality could well be brought into
Confucianism ulithout doing violence to its basic insights and precl.prs.
We might go even furrher in this regard, revising, but keeping the central
role of the family that dominates the tradition. We can certainly have not
only the concept of the family with the concept of sexual equal;ty; wc can
also expand, yet still keep the concept of tlie family by allowing for two
and perhaps more parents or nurturers of the same sex. Homophobia was,
and stitl is, as characteristic of rhe Chinese tradition as sexism was, but gays
and lesbians, too, are the srzm of tlie roles they live within and ouuidc of the
family, and the conceptual framework of Confucianism would surely be as
impoverished by their exclusion as it would be enriched by their inclusion.
To see these points in another way, consider a related criticism against
Confucianism, that it is hierarchical and, consequently, elitist. I believe the
charge is misplaced, for two reasons. First, although elitism dues directly en-
tail a hierarchy, the converse does not hold, and hence the two concepts are
not logically equivalent. What comes to mind, for example, is a happy, nur-
turing family, a well-run and productive classroom, a scientist supervising
the research of her graduate students, or a family doctor working with the
patients he or she has come to know well. All of these and many other social
situations arc in a sense hiera~hieai,but to label thcrn ""clitist" guarantees
that we will not understand them,
Second, the charge against the hierarchical ordering of Confucianism is
usually couched in terms of human rehtionships based on roles &at are de-
scribed as holding between "superiors" and "inferiors," or between "super-
ordinates" and "subordinates." But when we look closely at the Confucian
texts for guidance in how to properly fulfil1 our roles as parents and chil-
dren, teachers and students, an so on, and when we keep in mind the central