Theorizing Gender: An Introduction - Softcover

Alsop, Rachel; Fitzsimons, Annette

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0745619444 ISBN 13: 9780745619446

Publisher: Polity, 2002

Synopsis

This accessible text aims to give a theoretical overview of approaches to gender. The book discusses the major theories concerned with the ways in which we ‘become engendered', and explains and evaluates naturalist, psychoanalytic, materialist and post-structuralist accounts. Tensions between these different approaches are acknowledged , but stark polarities are resisted. Throughout the book it is recognized that becoming gendered implicates and is implicated by other aspects of social becoming. The work of Judith Butler is discussed in detail and its importance and limitations spelt out in key chapters on sexuality, the body, transgendering and political agency. Debates between ‘queer’ approaches to gender and those prioritizing sexual difference are also brought to the fore. Theorizing Gender aims to provide a framework for weaving together what are often viewed as opposing directions of thought. Students and researchers in sociology, philosophy and gender studies, and all those with an interest in gender will find it an invaluable resource.

About this title

About the Author

Dr Rachel Alsop, Gender Studies, University of Hull

Dr. Annette FitzSimons, School of Social and Professional Studies, University of Lincoln and Humberside

Dr. Kathleen Lennon, Philosophy , University of Hull

From the Back Cover

This accessible text aims to give a theoretical overview of approaches to gender. The book discusses the major theories concerned with the ways in which we ‘become engendered', and explains and evaluates naturalist, psychoanalytic, materialist and post-structuralist accounts.

Tensions between these different approaches are acknowledged , but stark polarities are resisted. Throughout the book it is recognized that becoming gendered implicates and is implicated by other aspects of social becoming. The work of Judith Butler is discussed in detail and its importance and limitations spelt out in key chapters on sexuality, the body, transgendering and political agency. Debates between ‘queer' approaches to gender and those prioritizing sexual difference are also brought to the fore.

Theorizing Gender aims to provide a framework for weaving together what are often viewed as opposing directions of thought. Students and researchers in sociology, philosophy and gender studies, and all those with an interest in gender will find it an invaluable resource.

Tensions between these different approaches are acknowledged , but stark polarities are resisted. Throughout the book it is recognized that becoming gendered implicates and is implicated by other aspects of social becoming. The work of Judith Butler is discussed in detail and its importance and limitations spelt out in key chapters on sexuality, the body, transgendering and political agency. Debates between ‘queer' approaches to gender and those prioritizing sexual difference are also brought to the fore.

Theorizing Gender aims to provide a framework for weaving together what are often viewed as opposing directions of thought. Students and researchers in sociology, philosophy and gender studies, and all those with an interest in gender will find it an invaluable resource.

Edition details

• Publisher: Polity
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0745619444
• ISBN 13: 9780745619446
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288