A question of sex : feminism, rhetoric, and differences that matter / Kristan Poirot.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Poirot, Kristan, 1976- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Feminism--United States.

Feminism.

United States.

Sex differences.

Sex.

Feminist theory.

Physical Description:

xii, 154 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Boston : University of Massachusetts Press, [2014]

Summary:

By the mid-1990s feminist theorists and critics began to challenge conventional thinking about sex difference and its relationship to gender and sexuality. Scholars such as Anne Fausto-Sterling and Judith Butler troubled the sex-gender/nature-nurture divide. Some have asserted that these questions about sex are much too abstract to contribute to a valuable understanding of the material politics faced by feminist movements. In A Question of Sex, Kristan Poirot challenges this assumption and demonstrates that contemporary theories about sex, gender, identity, and difference compel a rethinking of the history of feminist movements and their rhetorical practices. Poirot focuses on five case studies-the circulation of Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a Woman?" in early and contemporary feminist contexts; the visual rhetorics of the feminist self-help health movement; the public discourse of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and early nineteenth-century ideas about suffrage, sex, and race; the conflicts over lesbian sexuality in the 1960s and 1970s; and the discourse that surrounds twenty-first-century Slut Walks. In the process, Poirot rethinks the terms through which we understand U.S. feminist movements to explore the ways feminism has questioned sexed distinctions and practices over time. Book jacket.

Contents:

Recognizing sex: Sojourner Truth and multicultural anxiety

Matters of sex and race: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, biological foundationalism, and nineteenth-century liberalism

Visions of sex: Freud, gynecology, and the Federation of Feminist Women's Health Centers

Sexing woman: lesbian identifications, media, and "second wave" feminism

Questionable engagements: slutwalks and beyond.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781625340894

1625340893

9781625340887

1625340885

OCLC:

867765741