Bloomsbury Academic Future is Feminine, The: Capitalism and the Masculine Disorder

About the Author Ciara Cremin lectures in sociology and leads the Gender Studies programme at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She has published a number of books, including Man-Made Woman (2017), that reflects on her early experiences of presenting publicly as a woman. Her work, in general, draws on Marxist, psychoanalytic and critical theory perspectives to diagnose the human condition in capitalism today. Product Description Carnage in the classroom, misogynists in high office, sociopaths in uniform, masculinity makes headlines and for all the wrong reasons. But the most toxic of men are an index of a broader problem with the way males are raised and learn to interact. Designated male at birth, Cremin knows what it means to be masculinised. Now she offers a trans womans perspective on and diagnosis of what provocatively she describes a disorder. Its a disorder of the human personality reflective of the society into which we are born. Primed to be competitive and violent, and compelled to kill off parts of the self because of their feminine associations, the masculinised male, Cremin says, is suited to capitalisms monstrous and unquenchable needs. She draws on marxist and psychoanalytic theory both to diagnose the condition and also, importantly, to theorise how individually and collectively it might be overcome. Rejecting the idea that males are inherently violent and females inherently nurturing or that theres such a thing as a masculine or feminine essence, Cremin proclaims nevertheless that, as she conceives the terms, femininity is the riddle of a masculine disorder solved, and it knows itself to be this solution. The future is feminine. It must be. Review "Gender, haven't we had enough of the old clichés? But in these pages Ciara Cremin makes a compelling and eloquent case for the necessity of all that is signified by the 'feminine'. It is those practices anchored in 'masculinity', whoever performs them, with their repudiation of the 'feminine', which secure the depredations of our capitalist world. This is crucial reading for all in search of that transformed world we all need, if we are to have any viable future at all." --Lynne Segal, Anniversary Professor, Emeritus, Birkbeck, University of London, UK"Man enough to be a woman and not hate it? Ciara Cremin courageously attacks the severe gender dysphoria of the androcentric capitalism that underpins our white supremacist society, arguing that the antidote for its toxicity is femininity seen not as a biological destiny but as a vector of futurity. A powerful and original voice in second wave transgender studies, Cremin's visionary sociology points toward the only possible livable future." --Patricia Gherovici, psychoanalyst and author of Transgender Psychoanalysis (2017)"Seldom does an essay feature such beautiful writing that it looks like a novel. Cremin's prose unfolds from the first to the last page, supple and sensual. It links two intimately intertwined themes: masculinity as a disorder of capitalism and feminist praxis as its antidote. This is not a book that can be explained, it must be read in one go." --Silvia Gherardi, Professor of Sociology, Research Unit on Communication, Organization Learning and Aesthetics (RUCOLA), University of Trento, Italy"The Future is Feminine has heart - a political and practical commitment to addressing the phallocentric dis(order) which sustains heterogenous gender relations. In this transgressive feminine critique of capitalist patriarchy and hegemonic masculinity, a different humanity is imagined for a post-capitalist future. When the future is feminine, joyous, caring, and sustainable lives are possible beyond identity politics and performance." --Alison Pullen, Professor of Gender, Work and Organization, Macquarie University, Australia and Co-Editor of Gender, Work and Organization