Gender Theory in Troubled Times

Theorizing gender is more urgent and highly political than ever before. These are times, in many countries, of increased visibility of women in public life and high-profile campaigns against sexual violence and harassment. Challenges to fixed, traditional gender norms have paved the way for the recognition of gay marriage and gender recognition acts allowing people to change the gender assigned to them at birth. Yet these are also times of religious and political backlash by the alt right, the demonization of the very term ‘gender’ and a renewed embrace of the ‘naturalness’ of gendered difference as ordained by God or Science.

A follow-up to the authors’ 2002 text, Theorizing Gender, this timely and necessary intervention revisits gender theory for contemporary times. Refusing a singular ‘truth about gender’, the authors explore the multiple strands which go into making our gendered identities, in the context of materialist and intersectional perspectives interwoven with phenomenological and performative ones. The resulting critical overview will be a welcome and invaluable guide for students and scholars of gender across the social sciences and humanities. Preface
Introduction
Chapter One. The Data of Biology
Chapter Two. Gendered Psyches: Psychoanalysis and Sexual Difference
Chapter Three. Historical Materialism
Chapter Four. Simone de Beauvoir: Becoming Woman
Chapter Five. Intersectionality
Chapter Six. Judith Butler: Performativity, Precariousness and Queering
Chapter Seven. Making Sense of our (Gendered) Selves
Conclusion. The ‘Truth about Gender’

Questions for Further Reflection
Notes
Bibliography "Conceptually sophisticated yet clear and accessible, this book is a must-have text for students exploring feminist and gendered approaches to the urgent issues of our time."
Ruth Holliday, University of Leeds

"Lennon and Alsop have put paid to the idea that gender theory is remote from the social and political concerns of global feminisms. With measured analyses but no fence-sitting, the authors are reliable guides to the gender-race-trans-queer controversies that animate our everyday lives."
Stella Sandford, Kingston University

"This is a rare book of theory that speaks as effectively to a new student of gender as to the well-read feminist scholar. By weaving their critique of essentialism throughout their eloquent and fair-minded summaries of major thinkers, Lennon & Alsop have created a masterpiece rich in concrete, contemporary examples. This is intersectional theorizing at its interdisciplinary best."
Myra Marx Feree, University of Wisconsin-Madison

"A vibrant and vital contribution to the field of gender theory and to feminist scholarship, articulating complex theories with sophistication and clarity."
Feminist Studies Association

"A fantastic resource for introducing students, especially graduate students and advanced undergraduates, to classic debates in gender theory."
Contemporary Sociology Kathleen Lennon is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Hull
Rachel Alsop is Lecturer in Gender Studies at the University of York