The Gender Line


Book Description

Annotation Levit analyzes the ways in which law legitimizes the social segregation of the sexes through legal decisions and illustrates the ways in which men's and women's oppressions are intertwined and how law molds the very definition of masculinity.




Paradoxes of Gender


Book Description

In this pathbreaking book, a well-known feminist and sociologist--who is also the Founding Editor of Gender & Society--challenges our most basic assumptions about gender. Judith Lorber views gender as wholly a product of socialization subject to human agency, organization, and interpretation. In her new paradigm, gender is an institution comparable to the economy, the family, and religion in its significance and consequences. Drawing on many schools of feminist scholarship and on research from anthropology, history, sociology, social psychology, sociolinguistics, and cultural studies, Lorber explores different paradoxes of gender: --why we speak of only two "opposite sexes" when there is such a variety of sexual behaviors and relationships; --why transvestites, transsexuals, and hermaphrodites do not affect the conceptualization of two genders and two sexes in Western societies; --why most of our cultural images of women are the way men see them and not the way women see themselves; --why all women in modern society are expected to have children and be the primary caretaker; --why domestic work is almost always the sole responsibility of wives, even when they earn more than half the family income; --why there are so few women in positions of authority, when women can be found in substantial numbers in many occupations and professions; --why women have not benefited from major social revolutions. Lorber argues that the whole point of the gender system today is to maintain structured gender inequality--to produce a subordinate class (women) that can be exploited as workers, sexual partners, childbearers, and emotional nurturers. Calling into question the inevitability and necessity of gender, she envisions a society structured for equality, where no gender, racial ethnic, or social class group is allowed to monopolize economic, educational, and cultural resources or the positions of power.







Women and Men


Book Description

The fifth edition of Women and Men: Cultural Constructs of Gender presents a synthesis of a wide range of ethnographic and historical data concerning the roles of women, men, and gender nonconforming people in different societies. It focuses on both material conditions and ideological valuations that affect and reflect cultural models of gender. NEW TO THIS EDITION Chapter 3 includes new sections on alternative gendered identities in the Lakota of the Plains and the Navajo of the Southwest and on Yanomamo land rights. Chapter 4 contains new sections on marriage options in the Northwest Coast and on Canadian First Nations contemporary issues concerning territorial rights and the protection of lands from contamination. Chapter 6 is significantly expanded by thorough discussions of the intersectionality of gender, class, and race. Chapter 7 includes a new section on the transmigration of women from poor countries in Asia, Africa, and Central and South America to wealthier countries in the Middle East, Europe, and North America to work as nannies, cooks, and other household help, as well as other resources. Chapter 8 is significantly revised to include changes that have recently taken place to counter dominating and dominant notions of gender and sexuality. This revision contains numerous new sections along with updated economic and social statistical data pertaining to the United States and to global resources. It reframes concepts of gender and of the intersectionality of gender, class, and race as they relate to discussions throughout the book. Ethnographic studies are expanded to include contemporary material on the peoples featured in the chapters.




Constructing Women and Men


Book Description




The Inequality Reader


Book Description

Oriented toward the introductory student, The Inequality Reader is the essential textbook for today's undergraduate courses. The editors, David B. Grusky and Szonja Szelenyi, have assembled the most important classic and contemporary readings about how poverty and inequality are generated and how they might be reduced. With thirty new readings, the second edition provides new materials on anti-poverty policies as well as new qualitative readings that make the scholarship more alive, more accessible, and more relevant. Now more than ever, The Inequality Reader is the one-stop compendium of all the must-read pieces, simply the best available introduction to the stratifi cation canon.




Why Not?


Book Description

Male feminization for fun and growth? Why not? It's a question that critical thinkers ask about many subjects. Everyday there's someone who sees something and instead of saying no they ask, why not? What if the Wright brothers agreed with everyone that man can't fly? What if Henry Ford believed like everyone else that there could be no mass production? What if Galileo gave up on the idea that the world is round and not flat like the Church wanted him to? If something can be beneficial for you or others, but the accepted societal view says it's wrong, does that really make it wrong? Male-to-female crossdressing is one of those things. Sometimes viewed as an unmanly due to societal paradigms and beliefs and called a deviant behavior, it's carried a stigma with it. Does that mean it shouldn't be done? Women are allowed to cross-dress; it has become commonplace for women to wear men's styles of clothing, yet men are forced to stay in men's clothes. Dresses, skirts, stockings and all the feminine accoutrements have fallen to the wayside for most women today, and it's perfectly acceptable for them to wear flannel shirts with jeans, or sweatpants with sneakers or flat shoes. Why not? Why shouldn't a male be offered the same flexibility? Until the time comes when open-mindedness is more prevalent, and paradigms and beliefs are changed, it's still possible to do in secret or with likeminded people and groups, and the benefits are just as great. To balance the individual's masculine and feminine energies and activate the rise on Maslow's hierarchy of needs is not a trivial thing, and that is just one of many benefits it brings. If you, a person close to you, a spouse or partner, or a friend of yours is involved in male-to-female crossdressing, has an interest in it, or is bored and wants to try something new and exciting, then drop the veil of illusions by creating a new feminine illusion and thrive. Read on and see what benefits can follow in this thoughtful short read that just might improve your or someone else's life-or at least help you understand it better. Look inside now.




Gender Trouble


Book Description

With intellectual reference points that include Foucault and Freud, Wittig, Kristeva and Irigaray, this is one of the most talked-about scholarly works of the past fifty years and is perhaps the essential work of contemporary feminist thought.




Readings for Diversity and Social Justice


Book Description

These essays include writings from Cornel West, Michael Omi, Audre Lorde, Gloria Anzaldua and Michelle Fine. The essays address the multiplicity and scope of oppressions ranging from ableism to racism and other less-well known social aberrations.