The Women & Gender Studies Digital Archive: Gender Studies

Here is a powerful reply to Iron John, a fresh look at the complicated nature of what R.W. Connell calls "masculinities." One of the most important voices in the new feminist scholarship by men, Connell provides a nuanced and incisive analysis of how our notions of masculinity have evolved in psychoanalysis, social science, and historically in the creation of a global economy. There is not one but many masculinities, she claims, in a bold critique of the "men's movement" and other simplistic approaches to sexual identity. Instead, Connell delineates the complicated dynamics of masculine politics and recent changes in male identity. Drawing on rich ethnographic work, Connell offers portraits of dozens of men of different classes, some working to change masculinities, some resisting change. Eel openly disparages his wife: "The first chance I can see to get rid of her, she's gone." Mark, who calls himself "a very straight gay," thinks men should behave in traditionally masculine ways. "If you're a guy why don't you just act like a guy?" he asks. Danny, undertaking the "long haul" of his own sexism, admits, "It's hard not to be aggressive sometimes." Connell offers the first critical history of ideas and the most sophisticated theoretical analysis of masculinity to date. Her attempts to understand changes in male identity and to think about these issues on a global scale are unique. Integrating social science, feminist theory, gay theory, and psychoanalysis in an innovative yet unusually accessible way, she develops a new theory of masculinity politics. This is a book for everyone interested in the history of western masculinities and the sexual politics of the contemporary era.

An engaging introduction to one of the most visible, controversial and least understood emblems of Islam Listen to Sahar Amer discuss misconceptions of the veil on World News Radio (Australia)The Islamic veil in all its forms – from the headscarf to the full body garment – is one of the most visible signs of Islam as a religion. It is also one of its most controversial and misunderstood traditions among both Muslims and non-Muslims. In an environment of increasing conservatism in both Euro-American and Muslim-majority societies, in a world where a woman’s right to wear the headscarf has become a touchstone for issues of all sorts, and at a time when racial and religious profiling has become commonplace, it is our political and social responsibility to gain a deeper understanding of veiling.This concise, easy-to-read and even-handed introduction is organised around three main topics: the historical, religious and cultural background; contemporary debates about the veil; and the varied, shifting meanings the veil has had for Muslim women over the past century. It explains the role of veiling in the religious, cultural, political and social lives of Muslims past and present, looks at the meaning and practice of veiling in Europe, the Middle East and the USA, gives a wider perspective on the veil, leading to a more nuanced understanding of Muslim women and Islam in general, & presents the necessary background to more informed discussions over national and foreign policy."

"The foundational text that gave me life-changing context, helping me to understand who I was and who came before me."--Tourmaline, activist and filmmaker Transgender Warriors is an essential read for trans people of all ages who want to learn about the towering figures who have come before them--and for everyone who is part of the fight for trans liberation This groundbreaking book--far ahead of its time when first published in 1996 and still galvanizing today--interweaves history, memoir, and gender studies to show that transgender people, far from being a modern phenomenon, have always existed and have exerted their influence throughout history. Leslie Feinberg--hirself a lifelong transgender revolutionary--reveals the origin of the check-one-box-only gender system and shows how zie found empowerment in the lives of transgender warriors around the world, from the Two Spirits of the Americas to the many genders of India, from the trans shamans of East Asia to the gender-bending Queen Nzinga of Angola, from Joan of Arc to Marsha P. Johnson and beyond. This book was published with two different covers. Customers will be shipped the book with one of the available covers.

The Shape of Sex is a pathbreaking history of nonbinary sex, focusing on ideas and individuals who allegedly combined or crossed sex or gender categories from 200–1400 C.E. Ranging widely across premodern European thought and culture, Leah DeVun reveals how and why efforts to define “the human” so often hinged on ideas about nonbinary sex.The Shape of Sex examines a host of thinkers—theologians, cartographers, natural philosophers, lawyers, poets, surgeons, and alchemists—who used ideas about nonbinary sex as conceptual tools to order their political, cultural, and natural worlds. DeVun reconstructs the cultural landscape navigated by individuals whose sex or gender did not fit the binary alongside debates about animality, sexuality, race, religion, and human nature. The Shape of Sex charts an embrace of nonbinary sex in early Christianity, its brutal erasure at the turn of the thirteenth century, and a new enthusiasm for nonbinary transformations at the dawn of the Renaissance. Along the way, DeVun explores beliefs that Adam and Jesus were nonbinary-sexed; images of “monstrous races” in encyclopedias, maps, and illuminated manuscripts; justifications for violence against purportedly nonbinary outsiders such as Jews and Muslims; and the surgical “correction” of bodies that seemed to flout binary divisions.In a moment when questions about sex, gender, and identity have become incredibly urgent, The Shape of Sex casts new light on a complex and often contradictory past. It shows how premodern thinkers created a system of sex and embodiment that both anticipates and challenges modern beliefs about what it means to be male, female—and human.

"This updated edition of Bornstein's formative My Gender Workbook (1997) provides an invigorating introduction to contemporary theory around gender, sexuality, and power. The original is a classic of modern transgender theory and literature and, alongside Bornstein's other work, has influenced an entire generation of trans writers and artists. This revised and expanded edition extends that legacy, offering an accessible foundation for examining gender in the reader's life and in the broader culture while arguing for the dismantling of all forms of oppression. For fans of the original, Bornstein's new material merits a fresh read..."--Publishers Weekly, starred review Cultural theorists have written loads of smart but difficult-to-fathom texts on gender theory, but most fail to provide a hands-on, accessible guide for those trying to sort out their own sexual identities. In My Gender Workbook, transgender activist Kate Bornstein brings theory down to Earth and provides a practical approach to living with or without a gender. Bornstein starts from the premise that there are not just two genders performed in today's world, but countless genders lumped under the two-gender framework. Using a unique, deceptively simple and always entertaining workbook format, complete with quizzes, exercises, and puzzles, Bornstein gently but firmly guides readers toward discovering their own unique gender identity. Since its first publication in 1997, My Gender Workbook has been challenging, encouraging, questioning, and helping those trying to figure out how to become a "real man," a "real woman," or "something else entirely." In this exciting new edition of her classic text, Bornstein re-examines gender in light of issues like race, class, sexuality, and language. With new quizzes, new puzzles, new exercises, and plenty of Kate's playful and provocative style, My New Gender Workbook promises to help a new generation create their own unique place on the gender spectrum.

"I know I'm not a man . . . and I've come to the conclusion that I'm probably not a woman, either. . . . . The trouble is, we're living in a world that insists we be one or the other." With these words, Kate Bornstein ushers readers on a funny, fearless, and wonderfully scenic journey across the terrains of gender and identity. On one level, Gender Outlaw details Bornstein's transformation from heterosexual male to lesbian woman, from a one-time IBM salesperson to a playwright and performance artist. But this particular coming-of-age story is also a provocative investigation into our notions of male and female, from a self-described nonbinary transfeminine diesel femme dyke who never stops questioning our cultural assumptions. Gender Outlaw was decades ahead of its time when it was first published in 1994. Now, some twenty-odd years later, this book stands as both a classic and a still-revolutionary work--one that continues to push us gently but profoundly to the furthest borders of the gender frontier.

Covering American transgender history from the mid-twentieth century to today, Transgender History takes a chronological approach to the subject of transgender history, with each chapter covering major movements, writings, and events. Chapters cover the transsexual and transvestite communities in the years following World War II; trans radicalism and social change, which spanned from 1966 with the publication of The Transsexual Phenomenon, and lasted through the early 1970s; the mid-'70s to 1990-the era of identity politics and the changes witnessed in trans circles through these years; and the gender issues witnessed through the '90s and '00s. Transgender History includes informative sidebars highlighting quotes from major texts and speeches in transgender history and brief biographies of key players, plus excerpts from transgender memoirs and discussion of treatments of transgenderism in popular culture.

A new account of the formation of sexual identity, coined 'emerged fusion', which avoids the traps of the essentialism versus constructivism debate, and offers a viable third alternative. This book is a theoretical tool that will be useful in sociology, queer studies, and gender studies as a new approach to understanding sexual identity.

Lambda Literary Award Finalist - LGBTQ Anthology 2019 Over the Rainbow Recommended Book List Dedicated to trans women everywhere, this inspirational collection of letters written by successful trans women shares the lessons they learnt on their journeys to womanhood, celebrating their achievements and empowering the next generation to become who they truly are. Written by politicians, scientists, models, athletes, authors, actors, and activists from around the world, these letters capture the diversity of the trans experience and offer advice from make-up and dating through to fighting dysphoria and transphobia. By turns honest and heartfelt, funny and furious or beautiful and brave, these letters send a clear message of hope to their sisters: each of these women have gone through the struggles of transition and emerged the other side as accomplished, confident women; and if we made it sister, so can you!

Merging critical theory, autobiography, and sexological archival research, Queer Embodiment provides insight into what it means to have a legible body in the West. Hil Malatino explores how intersexuality became an anomalous embodiment assumed to require correction and how contesting this pathologization can promote medical reform and human rights for intersex and trans people. Malatino traces both institutional and interpersonal failures to dignify non-sexually dimorphic bodies and examines how the ontology of gender difference developed by modern sexologists conflicts with embodied experience. Malatino comprehensively shows how gender-normalizing practices begin at the clinic but are amplified thereafter through mechanisms of institutional exclusion and through Eurocentric culture's cis-centric and bio-normative notions of sexuality, reproductive capacity, romantic partnership, and kinship. Combining personal accounts with archival evidence, Queer Embodiment presents intersexuality as the conceptual center of queerness, the figure through which nonnormative genders and desires are and have been historically understood. We must reconsider the medical, scientific, and philosophical discourse on intersexuality underlying contemporary understandings of sexed selfhood in order to understand gender anew as a process of becoming that exceeds restrictive binary logic.