Gender: Sources, Perspectives, and Methodologies

Smith, Raven

<p>Gender studies have become a major academic field in the past 25 years, providing a lens through which to reexamine and reevaluate knowledge in every area of human interaction and activity. The Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender encompasses the various concepts of sex and gender that have arisen from the critical study of those subjects worldwide, as well as the emerging reimagination of the more traditional humanities and social sciences. Broad theoretical essays address issues of sex and gender at the personal and the social level&#x3b; others examine issues of identity, status, class, ethnicity, race, and nation&#x3b; of sexuality and the body&#x3b; of social institutions and the structures of representation - all through the lens of gender. With a truly global perspective, topics of individual entries include changing conceptions of the feminine, the family and masculinity, religion, morality, cultural images, medical practice, public health, economy and society and many more. In addition, the work discusses the influences of gender studies on various academic disciplines, examining how it has transformed and utilized methods and theories that have evolved.</p> 01

<p>This volume of the Macmillan Interdisciplinary Handbooks series on gender studies engages feminist, queer, and transgender perspectives on animals. <em>Gender: Animals</em> traces how non-human and human animals are crucial subjects in gender studies, especially when it comes to understanding matters of life and death, difference and diversity, carnality, and representation. Its 21 chapters examine such topics as feminist food politics, veterinary care, zoos, microbes, breeding, chattel slavery, industrial slaughter, and animal internet stardom. Chapters are written by eminent scholars, are peer reviewed, include illustrations, and offer bibliographies to encourage further research. The volume concludes with a glossary and a comprehensive index.

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<p>Part of the Macmillan Interdisciplinary Handbooks series on gender studies, <em>Gender: Laughter</em> examines the forms and function of laughter through the discipline of gender and sexuality studies. Comprised of 25 chapters, the volume assesses laughter and related forms of cultural expression, such as artworks, discourses, genres, and styles, and their deployment in feminist and queer theory and activism as well as in the cultural sphere at large. How does laughter signify and spur the empowerment of women, queers, and racialized subjects, and how does it generate solidarity among and between minority groups? Chapters are written by eminent scholars, are peer reviewed, include illustrations, and offer bibliographies to encourage further research. The volume concludes with a glossary and a comprehensive index.

<p>Do writings about ethnicity, class and gender form a 'holy trinity' or challenge previous unidimensional analyses? <p/><i>Intersexions</i> accepts the triple perspective but goes further. One aim is to understand the processes by which relations of power are maintained, reproduced and resisted. <i>Intersexions</i> also examines modes of representation: within social theory, feminism, development theory and discussions of capitalism and postcolonialism, as well as dominant ideological notions of caste, domesticity and 'success'. <p/>The writers' approaches are all critical but concerned also with providing alternatives. Comparative and specific analyses are combined, attention is paid to the written and spoken material of the people 'represented' and their own positions as commentators examined. Topics range from discussions of family ideology and paid and domestic work, to analyses of writings by Aboriginals, Vanuatuans and second generation Greek Australians and critiques of the cultural construction of gender and ethnicity in Bangladesh, India and Indonesia. <p/>Themes recur and overlap. Unitary categories are questioned and the processes by which relations described as 'class', 'ethnic', 'cultural' and 'gender' <i>intersect</i> and interact are demonstrated.</p>