Polity Theorizing Gender: An Introduction

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.