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Gender Studies

The study of gender as a fundamental category of social and cultural analysis.

Fatness & Fat Liberation

This guide is a collection of resources related to the Fat Liberation movement. Like other marginalized groups, fat activists have reappropriated and reclaimed the word fat, a previously derogatory term used to pathologize people of larger sizes. As opposed to medical terms like obese or overweight (which are rooted in the flawed science of the BMI scale and racism), fat activists utilize the adjective fat as both a positive descriptor and identity category grounded in solidarity and community. The Fat Liberation movement is widespread and far-reaching. This guide offers an introduction in a variety of genres and mediums written by and about fatness and fat liberation. You will find introductory books about fat discrimination (and how it continues to worsen), fiction that celebrates fat bodies and lived experiences, and Substack blogs by fat activists and writers, among many other resources. 

If you would like to begin to learn about Fat Liberation, explore some of the articles below:

 

Video: Activism: Profiles In Fatness. Desiree Burch and Dr. Sabrina Strings (author of Fearing The Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia). (2022). 

Further Reading:

This tab contains selected articles and academic books in the field of Fat Studies. Articles are listed chronologically while books are listed by sub-discipline (Readers & Introductory texts, Intersectionality, and History).

Articles

Sourced from the following syllabi:

Books: Introductions & Readers

Books: Intersectionality

Books: History

Movement

Read the "Health at Every Size Principles" here.

Poetry

Photography & Art

Further reading and lists:

Podcasts

Maintenance Phase: Selected Episodes

  • Anti-Fat Bias  To celebrate the release of her new book, Aubrey takes Mike on a tour through the statistics and debates surrounding weight bias. Anyone interested in body positivity, airline seats, 'skinny shaming' or the sugar content of melons is legally obligated to join us.
  • The Body Mass Index  The BMI is EVERYWHERE. But is it scientific or scientif-ish? While many Americans think of the body mass index as an objective measure of health, its history reveals a more complicated story.
  • The Obesity Epidemic  Over the last 30 years, fatness has been defined as a risk factor for disease, then a disease in itself, then a global epidemic. What caused this rapid shift?
  • Is Being Fat Bad For You?  For nearly four decades, Americans have heard a simple story about health, longevity and obesity. This week, we learn it's a little more complicated. 
  • Fat Camps  How America's oldest fat camp — and the inspiration for Disney’s "Heavyweights" — became the symbol of a health intervention that enjoys worldwide popularity despite no evidence that it improves anyone's health.

And read this article about Maintenance Phase ("Breaking Down the ‘Wellness-Industrial Complex,’ an Episode at a Time") from the New York Times.

Podcast Episodes


Blogs

  • NotBlueAtAll "On this blog you’ll find me talking about a range of topics both personal and not. I write a lot about fat acceptance, self-acceptance, self-care, my own abuse survival, fatshion, activism, events and so very much more. This blog is a process, a journey. It helps me sort out my thoughts and share my story. Through this blog, I have met good friends, made connections with fellow abuse survivors and so many badasses."
  • Fluffy Kitten Party "I started this blog as a personal project in 2018, as I quit Weight Watchers for the very last time and embarked on a journey to root diet culture out of my life. Since then, I’ve developed a following of people looking to do the exact same thing."
  • Two Whole Cakes Lesley Kinzel has been engaging with body politics and social justice activism both as an academic and as an everyday upstart for over a decade
  • Your Fat Friend In 2016, Aubrey Gordon began writing anonymously about the social realities of life as a very fat person, publishing under the name Your Fat Friend.
  • Extra Inches - Male Plus Size Blog All about plus size fashion for men – enriched with some tips about grooming, beard care and lifestyle topics.
  • Chubstr A style destination for big and tall or plus size men. We’re pushing back against the myth that bigger guys don’t care about style by creating compelling content that runs the spectrum of fashion, lifestyle, politics, travel, food, and relationships.

Substacks

Video: Film & TV: Profiles In Fatness. Desiree Burch (2022). In this episode, Desiree is joined by an expert, Aubrey Gordon, to reflect on the harmful stereotypes of fatness found in film and TV, while also celebrating the overlooked heroes from the big screen. 

To read more about fat representation in the media, click the links below:

Television

Films

Read the Fat Liberation Manifesto here. By Judy Freespirit and Aldebaran, November, 1973. Published by the Fat Underground.


Writers & Journalists

A list of writers who focus on fat liberation along with a selection of their publications.


Organizations

Spotlight on Sex Work

March is Women's History Month and conversations surrounding the history of women and trans+ femme rights wouldn't be complete without discussing the stigma and discrimination of the sex work industry (which men, nonbinary, and agender folks also participate in). Sex work has often been considered "the oldest profession" and has been an active profession (legal or not) for centuries. Despite its active part of our communities, sex work has continuously been seen through a negative lens claiming sex workers have no agency and only do the work because they've been manipulated or coerced against their will. While there are absolutely dangerous situations in sex work—and sex trafficking is a real issue—it's time to see sex work for what it really is: a job.

Sex work is also an active area of research and scholarly discourse, particularly within gender and sexuality studies. This guide helps illuminate and contextualize the many cultural, critical, and scholarly threads surrounding sex workers and their experiences, exploring different perspectives of sex work and how to change the narrative of sex work to be more explicitly feminist and equitable.

 

Video: A group of sex workers share the most challenging aspects of their jobs | The Archive. (2021)

Resources for Further Exploration:

Next Steps

If you'd like to engage more deeply with Women's History Month, units across the Libraries have created a number of interrelated resources and features to provide more holistic coverage of this commemoration. You'll find those, below:

Scholarly Articles:

Journals to Explore:

Databases:

While there are never enough groups working to support sex workers and end the stigma around this profession, there are a number of activist, advocacy, and research organizations dedicated to sex work and sex workers. We've included a selection of the most well-known below:

Spotlight on Disability Studies

A group of activists, including Judy Heumann (center, with yellow stockings) protest for the enforcement of Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act, in April of 1977Throughout history, communities of disabled, neurodiverse, crip, and sick people have been overlooked and oversimplified in academic conversations. Disability activism and political movements carved out a space for addressing ableism in research and academia; as a result, disability studies has emerged. Disability studies is an interdisciplinary field that explores disabled identities in the humanities and social sciences. For this spotlight on disability studies, we include neurodiverse, crip, and sick identities in our definition of disability. 

To read more about disability language and the use of "crip," enjoy this article by Dean Strauss: "Queer Crips: Reclaiming Language,"  and Brittany Wong's Huffington Post article "It's Perfectly OK to call a Disabled Person 'Disabled,' And Here's Why." 

We also recommend the following resources that helped with this feature:

Resources for Further Exploration

A selection of articles, online compilations, and other resources relevant to disability studies

Next Steps

The following features also cover topics of disability studies:

Image Description: A group of activists, including Judy Heumann (center, with yellow stockings) protest for the enforcement of Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act, in April of 1977. Later that month, the protesters would occupy a federal building in San Francisco in protest in a sit-in that lasted more than 25 days. Photo by Wally McNamee / CORBIS / via Getty Images.

Journals

Journal Articles

Study Resources

Spotlight on Consensual Non-monogamy

Consensual Non-monogamy

Consensual non-monogamy is an umbrella term used to describe any agreed-upon romantic/sexual relationship that falls outside of the exclusive, dyadic (two-person) structure of monogamy, including polyamory and open relationships. Though non-monogamous relationships have gained greater contemporary visibility, it has existed in many and various forms across history. This guide provides an introduction to both scholarly and popular resources for those wishing to learn more about consensual non-monogamy.

Image of three young Black people embracing at the beachGetting Started

         

 

 

                                                                                                                                         Image: Three young Black people embracing at the beach.

Selection of online archives and other resources, which can be used to find further information on this topic

Blogs

  • The Critical Polyamorist - Kim TallBear's blog about polyamory, other forms of open non-monogamy, and their intersections with Indigeneity, race, and cultural politics in the US and Canada.
  • Conscious Polyamory: Loving More Than One - A blog about polyamory emphasizing loving relationships, personal growth, and conscious evolution.

Podcasts

Metaphysics of Gender

While in common parlance the word gender often serves as a kid-friendly synonym for sex, in feminist and academic discussions, the two are often seen as conceptually distinct. A rough and hasty description of the sex-gender distinction might say that sex is a biological given, gender is a social construction, and never the twain shall meet. However, even if we grant the sex-gender distinction (and a number of feminists do reject it for a variety of reasons), it remains far from obvious what, precisely, gender is, what it means for gender to be socially constructed, or what we should make of gender anyway.

Fortunately, feminists and philosophers have recently taken interest in the metaphysics of gender. This LibGuide serves as a selective bibliography on some of the scholarly work being done in this fascinating and important field of inquiry. A companion subject post on this topic is forthcoming.

Getting Started

For introductory material on the philosophy of gender and feminist philosophy, check out these articles from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, which also provides extensive bibliographies of their own that are worth exploring:

Additionally, the following bibliography identifies sources (within and without philosophy) on matters pertaining to trans genders, the lived experiences of transfolk, and intersectionality, and should prove a valuable resource for those interested in the metaphysics of gender:

Next Steps

If you'd like to explore this topic further, our library subject research portals are also a good place to get started; among other things, they provide tailored, subject-based lists of research resources:

Sources on the nature of social construction, considered as such or with particular respect to gender:

Sources on the genealogy of gender:

Sources on the metaphysics of gender:

Sources on feminist metaphysics and the metaphysics of gender vis-à-vis "mainstream" metaphysics:

Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World

Old Babylonian (circa 1800 BCE) clay model showing a nude couple on a couch and engaged in penetrative sex, possibly symbolising a “sacred marriage”; moulded and fired.Throughout history, gender and sexuality have played pivotal roles in shaping human societies, but it is important to recognize that the ways in which these ideas were understood and expressed in the ancient world often differ dramatically from our modern perceptions. Indeed, the contemporary labels we ascribe to gender and sexual identities—such as ‘gay,’ ‘lesbian,’ ‘non-binary,’ or ‘transgender’—are arguably insufficient to describe the numerous and diverse forms of gender expression and sexual practices that appeared across the ancient world.

Across civilizations—from ancient Mesopotamia to Greece, Rome, and Egypt—attitudes towards biological sex, gender roles, and sexuality were deeply connected to the religions, politics, and social structures of the time. Far from being fixed or universal, gender identities and norms were fluid, multifaceted, and influenced by cultural beliefs about power, divinity, and human nature. By exploring how ancient cultures approached the complex topics of sex and gender, not only can we uncover fascinating insights into their own worldviews, but we can also challenge our own assumptions about these fundamental aspects of human life.

In this feature, we showcase some resources that center discussions about gender and sexuality in different regions of the ancient world. Wherever possible, we have aimed to include both secondary and primary sources (in translation). Ancient history generally refers to world history from 3000 BCE to 500 CE, but we have included some resources that cover periods or events which fall outside of this time span in order to paint a more comprehensive picture – especially when a particular culture has been studied less thoroughly than others.

Moreover, while each tab spotlights a particular geographic region, be aware that these regions may not correspond to modern geographical boundaries. For example, even though Egypt is located within continental Africa, scholars generally include Egypt in the region of the Near East due to its close historical and linguistic connections to the ancient cultures that resided there. If you would like to study the gender and sexuality of an ancient culture that is not represented in this feature, please consult the list of more generalized secondary sources and reference works below.

Image Description: Old Babylonian (circa 1800 BCE) clay model showing a nude couple on a couch and engaged in penetrative sex, possibly symbolizing a “sacred marriage”; molded and fired. © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.

Below we offer some primary and secondary resources that include discussion about gender and sexuality in ancient Greco-Roman cultures. In part due to the wealth of surviving texts from these cultures, this topic has been widely studied by modern scholars.

Primary Sources

Books

Internet Resources

  • Diotima - “a resource for information on women, gender, sex, sexualities, race, ethnicity, class, status, masculinity, enslavement, disability, and the intersections among them in the ancient Mediterranean world.” The website includes translations and other resources on gender and sexuality in the ancient world. It largely centers Greek and Roman cultures, but it also includes some ancient Egyptian and Coptic texts.
  • Ancient Graffiti Project - "a digital resource for locating and studying handwritten inscriptions of the early Roman empire. These ancient messages and sketches offer a window into the daily life and interests of the people who lived in the ancient world, especially in Herculaneum and Pompeii. They provide perspectives on Roman society, the ancient economy, religion, spoken language, literacy, and activities within the ancient city." Many examples are sexual in nature, and includes 137 pieces of graffiti found in brothels.

Secondary Sources

In the field of archaeology, the ancient Near East refers to the ancient nations, people and languages of the Fertile Crescent, spanning from the Nile Valley through Anatolia and southward to the limits of Mesopotamia. Here we provide some primary and secondary resources that explore themes of gender and sexuality in the ancient cultures of this region.

Primary Sources

Books

Internet Resources

  • Diotima - “a resource for information on women, gender, sex, sexualities, race, ethnicity, class, status, masculinity, enslavement, disability, and the intersections among them in the ancient Mediterranean world.” The website includes translations and other resources on gender and sexuality in the ancient world. It largely centers Greek and Roman cultures, but it also includes some ancient Egyptian and Coptic texts.

 

Secondary Sources

Here we provide some primary and secondary resources pertaining to gender and sexuality in ancient East- and South-Asian cultures, namely China, Japan, Korea, and India. In order to paint a more complete picture, some of these sources discuss topics that occurred later than the ancient period and into the medieval.

Primary Sources

Secondary Sources

Books

Specific Chapters and Scholarly Articles

The continent of Africa has a complex history. Much of North Africa, positioned along the southern Mediterranean coast, was colonized by European powers—most extensively, the Roman empire. Consequently, the region of North Africa is significant in Greek and Roman political and military history, and it was the birthplace of many prominent Greco-Roman writers, including Ptolemy, Saint Augustine, and Apuleius (whose novel, The Golden Ass, we have included in the ‘Greece and Rome’ tab of this feature). Likewise, the study of ancient Egypt, due to the region’s complex linguistic and historical connections to Eastern Mediterranean and West Asian cultures, is generally included in the discipline of Near Eastern Studies, a distinction that is reflected in this guide. Comparatively, the ancient cultures of Saharan and Sub-Saharan Africa have been studied far less, much less the gender and sexuality thereof. Nevertheless, we have provided some secondary sources on gender and sexuality in this under-studied region and temporal frame.

Secondary Sources

Books

Specific Chapters and Scholarly Articles

Because literary sources from the ancient Americas are sparse, most of our current knowledge on gender and sexuality in this region comes from archaeological evidence. With that in mind, below are some secondary sources that explore gender and sexuality in the ancient Americas.

Secondary Sources

Books

Specific Chapters and Scholarly Articles