El sexo de las metáforas

Abstract

The hypothesis that states metaphors are structurally determinant in our social relations, routines, and experience has been accepted broadly in the last decades. Moreover, metaphors are to be found in many different levels of scientific practices and have a diverse set of functions in science. Therefore, they impregnate all scientific enterprise. In this work we examine selected gender metaphors used in biology. We show metaphors are effective precisely because its effectiveness depends on shared social conventions, kinship relations and, authority that, by convention, is given to those that use them.