Gender Studies
The study of gender as a fundamental category of social and cultural analysis.
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.
A group of sex workers share the most challenging aspects of their jobs. (2021)
Resources for Further Exploration:
- Sex Work is Real Work and it's Time to Treat it That Way (ACLU)
- What Everyone Gets Wrong About Sex Work (Vox)
- Sex Work is a Disability Issue. So Why Doesn't the Disability Community Recognize That? (Rooted In Rights)
- How to Be an Ally to Sex Workers (The Sex Workers Outreach Project)
- What It Would Mean to Decriminalize Sex Work (R Street Institute)
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:
- Feminist Media Studies (Media Studies)
- The Sounds of Women's History Month (Media Studies)
- Transfeminine Worlds: Works by Trans Women (Gender Studies)
- Feminism & Feminist Philosophies (Philosophy)
- In Memoriam: bell hooks (Philosophy)
- Spotlight on Victorian Women Writers Project (English & American Literature)
- Women-led Architecture Firms (Art, Art History, & Architecture)
- Art & Gender (Gender Studies + Art, Art History, & Architecture)
- Women of Ukraine (Area Studies)
- Women's History Month Streaming and DVD Resources (Media Services)
- Primary Sources on Women in University Collections (Archives & Special Collections)
- Youth Materials on Women's History and Women’s Lives (Education Library)
Hustling Verse: An Anthology of Sex Workers' Poetry by ISBN: 9781551527819Publication Date: 2019-10-15In this trailblazing anthology, more than fifty self-identified sex workers from all walks of the industry (survival and trade, past and present) explore their lived experience through the expressive nuance and beauty of poetry. In a variety of forms ranging from lyrics to list poems to found poetry to hybrid works, these authors express themselves with the complexity, agency, and honesty that sex workers are rarely afforded.
Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Workers' Rights by ISBN: 9781786633606Publication Date: 2018-11-06How the law harms sex workers--and what they want instead Do you have to endorse prostitution in order to support sex worker rights? Should clients be criminalized, and can the police deliver justice? In Revolting Prostitutes, sex workers Juno Mac and Molly Smith bring a fresh perspective to questions that have long been contentious. Speaking from a growing global sex worker rights movement, and situating their argument firmly within wider questions of migration, work, feminism, and resistance to white supremacy, they make it clear that anyone committed to working towards justice and freedom should be in support of the sex worker rights movement.
Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work by ISBN: 9781781683231Publication Date: 2014-03-11Recent years have seen a panic over "online red-light districts," which supposedly seduce vulnerable young women into a life of degradation, and New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof's live tweeting of a Cambodian brothel raid. But rarely do these fearful, salacious dispatches come from sex workers themselves, and rarely do they deviate from the position that sex workers must be rescued from their condition and the industry simply abolished -- a position common among feminists and conservatives alike. In Playing the Whore, journalist Melissa Gira Grant turns these pieties on their head, arguing for an overhaul in the way we think about sex work. Based on ten years of writing and reporting on the sex trade, and grounded in her experience as an organizer, advocate, and former sex worker, Playing the Whore dismantles pervasive myths about sex work, criticizes both conditions within the sex industry, and its criminalization, and argues that separating sex work from the "legitimate" economy only harms those who perform sexual labor.
To Live Freely in This World: Sex Worker Activism in Africa by ISBN: 9781479817566Publication Date: 2016-01-08Sex worker activists throughout Africa are demanding an end to the criminalization of sex work and the recognition of their human rights to safe working conditions, health and justice services, and lives free from violence and discrimination. To Live Freely in This World is the first book to tell the story of the brave activists at the beating heart of the sex workers' rights movement in Africa--the newest and most vibrant face of the global sex workers' rights struggle. African sex worker activists are proving that communities facing human rights abuses are not bereft of agency. They're challenging politicians, religious fundamentalists, and anti-prostitution advocates; confronting the multiple stigmas that affect the diverse members of their communities; engaging in intersectional movement building with similarly marginalized groups; and participating in the larger global sex workers' rights struggle in order to determine their social and political fate.
Insatiable Porn - A Love Story by ISBN: 9780802122599Publication Date: 2014-05-06Asa Akira (28) has already had an extremely unusual life. Educated at the United Nations International School in Manhattan, she soon was earning a good living by stripping and working as a dominatrix at a sex dungeon. Akira has now built up a reputation for being of the most popular, hardworking, and extreme actors in the business, winning dozens of awards for her 330+ movies, including her #1 bestselling series "Asa Akira Is Insatiable". In Insatiable, Akira recounts her extraordinary life in chapters that are hilarious, shocking, and touching. In a wry, conversational tone, she talks about her experiences shoplifting and doing drugs while in school, her relationship with other porn stars (she is married to one) and with the industry at large, and her beliefs about women and sexuality. Insatiable is filled with Akira's unusual and often highly amusing anecdotes, including her visit to a New Hampshire sex shop run by a mother and son. In a world where porn is increasingly becoming part of the mainstream, Akira is one of very few articulate voices writing from the inside. She something important, controversial, and astonishingly interesting to say about sex and its central role in our lives and culture.
Coming Out Like a Porn Star: Essays on Pornography, Protection, and Privacy by ISBN: 9780990557166Publication Date: 2015-10-20This one-of-a-kind book shares intimate personal stories of porn performers "coming out" to family, friends, partners, lovers, and community. The contributors represent a wide range of races, ethnicities, and genders. They include Joanna Angel, Annie Sprinkle, Betty Blac, Nina Hartley, Candida Royalle, Conner Habib, Dale Cooper, Christopher Zeischegg, Cindy Gallop, Drew DeVeaux, Erika Lust, Gala Vanting, Casey Calvert, Lorelei Lee, Stoya, Ignacio Rivera AKA Papí Coxxx, and many others. Jiz Lee is a genderqueer performer who, fascinated by the radical potential of sex, love, and art, has worked in over two hundred projects within indie, queer, and mainstream adult genres, written on gender and porn in The Feminist Porn Book, and taught queer sex workshops.
Pretty Baby: A Memoir by ISBN: 9781982175825Publication Date: 2022-07-12A queer teen rebel escapes small-town Appalachia and becomes Los Angeles's Renowned Lesbian Dominatrix in this searing and darkly funny memoir that upends our ideas about desire, class, and power. The dominatrix is the id of American femininity. She says the words that we all wish we could say when we find ourselves frozen in the presence of men. No is principal among them. So writes Chris Belcher, who appeared destined for a life of conventional femininity after she took first place in an infant beauty contest--a minor glory that followed her around a working-class town of 1,600 people in rural West Virginia. But when she came out as queer, the conservative community that had once celebrated its prettiest baby turned on her. A decade later, living in Los Angeles and trying to stay afloat in the early years of a PhD program, Belcher plunges into the work of a pro domme. Branding herself as Los Angeles's Renowned Lesbian Dominatrix, she specializes in male clients who want a domme to make them feel worthless, shameful, and weak--all the abuse regularly heaped upon women for free. A queer woman whom men can trust with the unorthodox sides of their sexualities, Belcher is paid to be the keeper of the fantasies that they can't enact in their everyday relationships. But moonlighting as a sex worker also carries risks, like the not-so-submissive who tries to turn the tables and the jealous client out for revenge. As Belcher moves between the embodied world of the pro domme and the abstract realm of academia, she discovers how lessons from the classroom apply to the dungeon, and vice versa. Still, fear that her doctoral program won't approve burdens her with a double life. Pretty Baby is her second coming out. In this sharp and discerning memoir, we see through Belcher's eyes how power and desire can be renegotiated--or reinforced.
Working It: Sex Workers on the Work of Sex by ISBN: 1629639915Publication Date: 2023-04-04Fiercely intelligent, fantastically transgressive, Working It is an intimate portrait of the lives of sex workers. A polyphonic story of triumph, survival, and solidarity this collection showcases the vastly different experiences and interests of those who have traded sex; among them a brothel worker in Australia, First Nation survivors of the Canadian child welfare system, and an afro-latina single parent raising a radicalized child. Packed with first-person essays, interviews, poetry, drawings, mixed-media collage, and photographs Working It honors the complexity of lived experience. Sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hardboiled, these dazzling pieces will go straight to the heart.
Sex Work: Rethinking the Job, Respecting the Workers by ISBN: 9780774826112Publication Date: 2013-09-18In the early twentieth century, abolitionists sought to stamp out sex work by penalizing all involved. In the generation that followed, neo-abolitionists looked at the sex industry from a feminist perspective, claiming that workers were victims caught in a patriarchal matrix. Yet both agreed that the industry was a destructive and corrupting force that should be eliminated. In this radical volume, five academics and activists convey their vision of prostitution as work, reclaiming the place of sex workers in the discussion of their lives and their work, and opposing discourses that position them as merely victims without agency.
Sex Work on Campus by ISBN: 9781000607024Publication Date: 2022-05-17Sex Work On Campus examines the experiences of college students engaged in sex work and sparks dialogue about the ways educators might develop a deeper appreciation for--and praxis of--equity and justice on campus. Analyzing a study conducted with seven college student sex workers, the book focuses on sex work histories, student motivations, and how power (or lack thereof) associated with social identity shape experiences of student sex work. It examines what these students learn because of sex work, and what college and university leaders can do to support them. These findings are combined in tandem with analysis of current research, popular culture, sex work rights movements, and exploration of legal contexts. This fresh and important writing is suitable for students and scholars in sexuality studies, gender studies, sociology, and education.
Debating Sex Work by ISBN: 9780190659899Publication Date: 2019-11-21Prostitution is often referred to as "oldest profession." Critics of this expression redescribe it as "the oldest oppression." Debates about how best to understand and regulate prostitution are bound up with difficult moral, legal, and political questions. Indeed, it can be approached from numerous angles - is buying and selling sex fundamentally wrong? How can it possibly be regulated? How can sex workers be protected, if they are allowed to work at all? In this concise, for-and-against volume, ethicists Lori Watson and Jessica Flanigan engage with each other on the nature and consequences of sex work, revealing new and profound ways in which to understand it.
Internet Sex Work: Beyond the Gaze by ISBN: 9783319656298Publication Date: 2017-10-02This book takes readers behind the screen to uncover how digital technologies have affected the UK sex industry. The authors use extensive new datasets to explore the working practices, safety and regulation of the sex industry, for female, male and trans sex workers primarily working in the UK. Insights are given as to how sex workers use the internet in their everyday working lives, appropriating social media, private online spaces and marketing strategies to manage their profiles, businesses and careers. Internet Sex Work also explores safety strategies in response to new forms of crimes experienced by sex workers, as well as policing responses. The book will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of social science disciplines, including gender studies, socio-legal studies, criminology and sociology.
The Other Sex Work: The Feminist Academic Pornography Discourse by ISBN: 9783828846548Publication Date: 2021-08-11This work is a case study analysis of the contemporary feminist academic pornography discourse. Based on two academic articles, two competing discourses are identified and examined using constructivist grounded theory and discourse analysis. This clash of discourses is traced back firstly to changing social norms on sexuality: Older generations, who still inhabit most positions of power within academia, are largely still representing restrictive attitudes on what constitutes "acceptable" sexualities. Secondly, research conventions within the humanities and social sciences have changed to defy easy explanations. Pornography researchers are therefore forced to choose between conforming to prevalent sexuality norms or research conventions.
Transgender Sex Work and Society by ISBN: 9781939594228Publication Date: 2018-02-27This is the only book that systematically examines transgender sex work in the United States and globally. Bringing together perspectives from a rich range of disciplines and experiences, it is an invaluable resource on issues related to commercial sex in the transgender community and in the lives of trans sex workers, including mental health, substance use, relationship dynamics, encounters with the criminal justice system, and opportunities and challenges in the realm of public health. The volume covers trans sex workers' interactions with health, social service, and mental-health agencies, featuring more than forty contributors from across the globe. Synthesizing introductions by the editor help organize and put into context a vast and scattered research and empirical literature. The book is essential for researchers, health practitioners, and policy analysts in the areas of sex-work research, HIV/AIDS, and LGBTQ/gender studies.
Sex Work, Health, and Human Rights: Global Inequities, Challenges, and Opportunities for Action by ISBN: 9783030641702Publication Date: 2021-04-29This open access book provides a comprehensive overview of the health inequities and human rights issues faced by sex workers globally across diverse contexts, and outlines evidence-based strategies and best practices. Sex workers face severe health and social inequities, largely as the result of structural factors including punitive and criminalized legal environments, stigma, and social and economic exclusion and marginalization. Although previous work has largely emphasized an elevated burden and gaps in HIV and sexually transmitted infection (STI) services in sex work, less attention has been paid to the broader health and human rights concerns faced by sex workers.
Sex Work, Immigration and Social Difference by ISBN: 9781138925397Publication Date: 2016-08-26Public discourses around migrant sex workers are often more confident about what migrant sex workers signify morally but are less clear about who the 'migrant' is. Based on interviews with immigrant, migrant and racialized sex workers in Vancouver, Canada and Melbourne, Australia, Sex Work, Immigration and Social Difference challenges the 'migrant sex worker' category by investigating the experiences of women who are often assumed to be 'migrant sex workers' in Australia and Canada. Many 'migrant sex workers' in Melbourne and Vancouver are in fact, naturalized citizens or permanent residents, whose involvement in the sex industry intersects with diverse ideas and experiences of citizenship in Australia and Canada. This book examines how immigrant, migrant and racialized sex workers in Vancouver and Melbourne wield or negotiate ideas of illegality and legality to obtain desired outcomes in their day-to-day work. Sex work continues to be the subject of fierce debate in the public sphere, at the policy level, and within research discourses. This study interrogates these perceptions of the 'migrant sex worker' by presenting the lived realities of women who embody or experience dimensions of this category. This book is interdisciplinary and will appeal to those engaged in criminology, sociology, law, and women's studies.
Sex Work and Hate Crime: Innovating Policy, Practice, and Theory by ISBN: 9783030869489Publication Date: 2021-11-10This book brings together literature, empirical research findings from two projects, and policy analysis to examine how some forces in England have adopted the approach of treating crimes against sex workers as hate crimes. This book identifies some of the benefits of the hate crime approach to crimes against sex workers, both operationally and for some of the victims of crime. The authors argue that the hate crime approach should not be seen as an alternative to decriminalisation of sex work but can provide a pathway to achieving more sensitive but robust policing of crimes against sex workers and support in accessing justice through the criminal justice system. They also examine the broader context of hate crime policy and scholarship as they debate the relevance, problems and merits of the sex work hate crime model.
Historical Sex Work: New Contributions From History and Archaeology by ISBN: 9780813066592Publication Date: 2020-10-13This volume explores the sex trade in America from 1850 to 1920 through the perspectives of archaeologists and historians, expanding the geographic and thematic scope of research on the subject. Historical Sex Work builds on the work of previous studies in helping create an inclusive and nuanced view of social relations in United States history. Many of these essays focus on lesser-known cities and tell the stories of people often excluded from history, including African American madams Ida Dorsey and Melvina Massey and the children of prostitutes. Contributors discuss how sex workers navigated spatial and legal landscapes, examining evidence such as the location of Hooker?s Division in Washington, D.C., and court records of prostitution-related crimes in Fargo, North Dakota. Broadening the discussion to include the roles of men in sex work, contributors write about the proprietor Tom Savage, the ways prostitution connected with ideas of masculinity, and alternative reasons men may have visited brothels, such as for treatment of venereal disease and impotence.
Scholarly Articles:
- Bonache, H., Delgado, N., Pina, A., & Hernández-Cabrera, J. A. (2021). Prostitution Policies and Attitudes Toward Prostitutes. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 50(5), 1991–2006. https://doi-org.proxyiub.uits.iu.edu/10.1007/s10508-020-01891-9
- Hansen, M. A., & Johansson, I. (2023). Asking About “Prostitution”, “Sex Work” and “Transactional Sex”: Question Wording and Attitudes Toward Trading Sexual Services. Journal of Sex Research, 60(1), 153–164. https://doiorg.proxyiub.uits.iu.edu/10.1080/00224499.2022.2130859
- Karlsson, H. (2022). Sex Work Policy Worldwide: A Scoping Review. Sexuality & Culture, 26(6), 2288–2310. https://doiorg.proxyiub.uits.iu.edu/10.1007/s12119-022-09983-5
- Laughney, C. I. (2022). Advancing Sex-Positive Social Work Research and Practice. Social Work, 67(4), 391–393. https://doiorg.proxyiub.uits.iu.edu/10.1093/sw/swac036
- Toubiana, M., & Ruebottom, T. (2022). Stigma Hierarchies: The Internal Dynamics of Stigmatization in the Sex Work Occupation. Administrative Science Quarterly, 67(2), 515–552. https://doi-org.proxyiub.uits.iu.edu/10.1177/00018392221075344
Journals to Explore:
Databases:
- Sex & SexualityExplores changing attitudes towards human sexuality, gender identities and sexual behaviors throughout the twentieth century. Produced in collaboration with the Kinsey Institute Library and Special Collections, the resource includes the work of leading American sexologists, sex researchers, and organizations.
- Archives of Sexuality and GenderProvides access to materials exploring important aspects of LGBTQ life. Includes periodicals, newsletters, manuscripts, government records, organizational papers, correspondence, an international selection of posters, and other primary source materials.
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:
Further Reading:
- We Need More Nuanced Portrayals of Sex Workers by Adele Parks - Crime Reads
- Sex workers are the heroes in "The White Lotus" Season 2 by Tina Horn - Mashable Southeast Asia
- Why Do Sex Workers Always Get Left Out of the Self Care Conversation? by Lillian Stone - Allure
- Primary Source Set: Sex Work - GLBT Historical Society
- Publications from the Global Network of Sex Work Projects
Movies:
Zola by Publication Date: 2020Zola, a Detroit waitress, is seduced into a weekend of stripping in Florida for some quick cash -- but the trip becomes a sleepless 48-hour odyssey involving a nefarious friend, her pimp and her idiot boyfriend.
Tangerine by Publication Date: 2015After hearing that her boyfriend/pimp cheated on her while she was in jail, a transgender sex worker and her best friend set out to find him and teach him and his new lover a lesson.
Spotlight on Disability Studies
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Throughout 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:
- Disability Studies: Foundations & Key Concepts By JSTOR Daily
- Disability Studies By The University of Chicago Press
Resources for Further Exploration
A selection of articles, online compilations, and other resources relevant to disability studies
- "10 Principles of Disability Justice" (Sins Invalid)
- "Critical Disability Theory" (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
- "Disability: Definitions and Models" (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
- "Disability Pride: A Q&A with Dr. Susan Ghiaciuc, Disability Studies Co-Coordinator" (James Madison University)
- "Critical Readings in Interdisciplinary Disability Studies" (Springer Link)
- "Disability: Part of the Equity Equation" (Office of Disability Employment Office)
- "College Students with Disabilities Deserve Accessible Campuses" (The Washington Post)
- "Disability Studies Resource List" (American Council of Learned Societies)
- "Academia's Ableist Culture Laid Bare" (Springer Nature)
Next Steps
The following features also cover topics of disability studies:
- Disability and Art (Art, Art History, & Architecture)
- Disability Awareness & Pride Months (Media Studies)
- National Disability Awareness Month Streaming and DVD Resources (Media Services)
- Recommended Disabled Reads from the Children's Collection (Education Library)
- Disability Awareness Resources (Indiana Institute on Disability and Community Library)
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
Black Disability Politics by ISBN: 9781478025009Publication Date: 2022-10-31In Black Disability Politics Sami Schalk explores how issues of disability have been and continue to be central to Black activism from the 1970s to the present. Schalk shows how Black people have long engaged with disability as a political issue deeply tied to race and racism. She points out that this work has not been recognized as part of the legacy of disability justice and liberation because Black disability politics differ in language and approach from the mainstream white-dominant disability rights movement. Drawing on the archives of the Black Panther Party and the National Black Women's Health Project alongside interviews with contemporary Black disabled cultural workers, Schalk identifies common qualities of Black disability politics, including the need to ground public health initiatives in the experience and expertise of marginalized disabled people so that they can work in antiracist, feminist, and anti-ableist ways. Prioritizing an understanding of disability within the context of white supremacy, Schalk demonstrates that the work of Black disability politics not only exists but is essential to the future of Black liberation movements.
Crip Times: Disability, Globalization, and Resistance by ISBN: 9781479874156Publication Date: 2018-01-16Broadly attentive to the political and economic shifts of the last several decades, Robert McRuer asks how disability activists, artists and social movements generate change and resist the dominant forms of globalization in an age of austerity, or “crip times.” Throughout Crip Times, McRuer considers how transnational queer disability theory and culture—activism, blogs, art, photography, literature, and performance—provide important and generative sites for both contesting austerity politics and imagining alternatives. The book engages various cultural flashpoints, including the spectacle surrounding the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games; the murder trial of South African Paralympian Oscar Pistorius; the photography of Brazilian artist Livia Radwanski which documents the gentrification of Colonia Roma in Mexico City; the defiance of Chilean students demanding a free and accessible education for all; the sculpture and performance of UK artist Liz Crow; and the problematic rhetoric of “aspiration” dependent upon both able-bodied and disabled figurations that emerged in Thatcher’s England. Crip Times asserts that disabled people themselves are demanding that disability be central to our understanding of political economy and uneven development and suggests that, in some locations, their demand for disability justice is starting to register. Ultimately, McRuer argues that a politics of austerity will always generate the compulsion to fortify borders and to separate a narrowly defined “us” in need of protection from “them.”
Queer Silence: On Disability and Rhetorical Absence by ISBN: 9781517914097Publication Date: 2022-10-25Championing the liberatory potential of silence to address the fraught disability politics of queerness In queer culture, silence has been equated with voicelessness, complicity, and even death. Queer Silence insists, however, that silence can be a generative and empowering mode of survival. Triangulating insights from queer studies, disability studies, and rhetorical studies, J. Logan Smilges explores what silence can mean for people whose bodyminds signify more powerfully than their words. Queer Silence begins by historicizing silence's negative reputation, beginning with the ways homophile activists rejected medical models pathologizing homosexuality as a disability, resulting in the silencing of disability itself. This silencing was redoubled by HIV/AIDS activism's demand for "out, loud, and proud" rhetorical activities that saw silence as capitulation. Reading a range of cultural artifacts whose relative silence has failed to attract queer attachment, from anonymous profiles on Grindr to ex-gays to belated gender transitions to disability performance art, Smilges argues for silence's critical role in serving the needs of queers who are never named as such. Queer Silence urges queer activists and queer studies scholars to reconcile with their own ableism by acknowledging the liberatory potential of silence, a mode of engagement that disattached queers use every day for resistance, sociality, and survival.
Introducing Disability Studies by ISBN: 9781588268662Publication Date: 2013-01-04Ronald Berger provides students with a comprehensive, accessible introduction to the key themes and controversies in disability studies. This innovative textbook: * provides historical context, from ancient times to the present * traces disability's impact throughout the life course * gives prominence to the voices of people with disabilities * explores popular culture's role in distorting ideas about disability * addresses emerging ethical issues, such as the implications of genetic selection. Illustrating the profound consequences of differing conceptions of physical, sensory, and cognitive impairments, Berger provides a solid foundation for making sense of disability as a social phenomenon.
May Tomorrow Be Awake: On Poetry, Autism, and Our Neurodiverse Future by ISBN: 9780063020153Publication Date: 2022-08-09An author and educator's pioneering approach to helping autistic students find their voices through poetry--a powerful and uplifting story that shows us how to better communicate with people on the spectrum and explores how we use language to express our seemingly limitless interior lives. Adults often find it difficult to communicate with autistic students and try to "fix" them. But what if we found a way to help these kids use their natural gifts to convey their thoughts and feelings? What if the traditional structure of language prevents them from communicating the full depth of their experiences? What if the most effective and most immediate way for people on the spectrum to express themselves is through verse, which mirrors their sensory-rich experiences and patterned thoughts? May Tomorrow Be Awake explores these questions and opens our eyes to a world of possibility. It is the inspiring story of one educator's journey to understand and communicate with his students--and the profound lessons he learned. Chris Martin, an award-winning poet and celebrated educator, works with non-verbal children and adults on the spectrum, teaching them to write poetry. The results have been nothing short of staggering for both these students and their teacher. Through his student's breathtaking poems, Martin discovered what it means to be fully human. Martin introduces the techniques he uses in the classroom and celebrates an inspiring group of young autistic thinkers--Mark, Christophe, Zach, and Wallace--and their electric verse, which is as artistically dazzling as it is stereotype-shattering. In telling each of their stories, Martin illuminates the diverse range of autism and illustrates how each so-called "deficit" can be transformed into an asset when writing poems. Meeting these remarkable students offers new insight into disability advocacy and reaffirms the depth of our shared humanity. Martin is a teacher and a lifelong learner, May Tomorrow Be Awake is written from a desire to teach and to learn--about the mind, about language, about human potential--and the lessons we have to share with one other.
Ableism in Academia: Theorising Experiences of Disabilities and Chronic Illnesses in Higher Education by ISBN: 9781787354982Publication Date: 2020-10-13Rather than embracing difference, academic ecosystems seek to normalize and homogenize ways of working and of being a researcher. As a consequence, ableism is an endemic experience in academia, though to date no attempt has been made to theorize those experiences. Ableism in Academia provides an interdisciplinary outlook on ableism that is currently missing. Through reporting of research data and exploring personal experiences, the contributors explore the concept of what it means to be and to work outside the so-called norm. The volume brings together a range of perspectives, including feminism, post-structuralism, Derridean and Foucauldian theory, crip theory, and disability theory, and draws on a number of related disciplines. Contributors use various schools of theory to raise awareness and increase understanding of the marginalized. These theories are placed in the context of neoliberal academia, and used to interrogate aspects of identity and how disability is performed, and to argue that ableism is not just a disability issue. This timely collection will be of interest to researchers in disability studies, higher education studies, and sociology, as well as to those working across the social sciences.
Blackness and Disability: critical examinations and cultural interventions by ISBN: 9781611860108Publication Date: 2012-02-01Disability Studies diverge from the medical model of disability (which argues that disabled subjects can and should be "fixed") to view disability as socially constructed, much in the same way other identities are. The work of reading black and disabled bodies is not only recovery work, but work that requires a willingness to deconstruct the systems that would keep those bodies in separate spheres. This pivotal volume uncovers the misrepresentations of black disabled bodies and demonstrates how those bodies transform systems and culture. Drawing on key themes in Disability Studies and African American Studies, these collected essays complement one another in interesting and dynamic ways, to forge connections across genres and chronotopes, an invitation to keep blackness and disability in conversation. With an analysis of disability as a result of war, studies of cognitive impairment and slavery in fiction, representations of slavery and violence in photography, deconstructions of illness (cancer and AIDS) narratives, comparative analyses of black and Latina/o and black and African subjects, analysis of treatments of disability in hip-hop, and commentary on disability, blackness, and war, this volume shows that the historical lines of demarcation in this field are permeable and should be challenged.
Feminist, Queer, Crip by ISBN: 9780253009340Publication Date: 2013-05-16In Feminist, Queer, Crip Alison Kafer imagines a different future for disability and disabled bodies. Challenging the ways in which ideas about the future and time have been deployed in the service of compulsory able-bodiedness and able-mindedness, Kafer rejects the idea of disability as a pre-determined limit. She juxtaposes theories, movements, and identities such as environmental justice, reproductive justice, cyborg theory, transgender politics, and disability that are typically discussed in isolation and envisions new possibilities for crip futures and feminist/queer/crip alliances. This bold book goes against the grain of normalization and promotes a political framework for a more just world.
Feminist Disability Studies by ISBN: 9780253223401Publication Date: 2011-10-24Disability, like questions of race, gender, and class, is one of the most provocative topics among theorists and philosophers today. This volume, situated at the intersection of feminist theory and disability studies, addresses questions about the nature of embodiment, the meaning of disability, the impact of public policy on those who have been labeled disabled, and how we define the norms of mental and physical ability. The essays here bridge the gap between theory and activism by illuminating structures of power and showing how historical and cultural perceptions of the human body have been informed by and contributed to the oppression of women and disabled people.
The Rejected Body: feminist philosophical reflections on disability by ISBN: 0415910463Publication Date: 1996-07-02The Rejected Bodyargues that feminist theorizing has been skewed toward non-disabled experience, and that the knowledge of people with disabilities must be integrated into feminist ethics, discussions of bodily life, and criticism of the cognitive and social authority of medicine. Among the topics it addresses are who should be identified as disabled; whether disability is biomedical, social or both; what causes disability and what could 'cure' it; and whether scientific efforts to eliminate disabling physical conditions are morally justified. Wendell provides a remarkable look at how cultural attitudes towards the body contribute to the stigma of disability and to widespread unwillingness to accept and provide for the body's inevitable weakness.
Extraordinary Bodies: figuring physical disability in American culture and literature by ISBN: 9780231183178Publication Date: 2017-03-07Extraordinary Bodies is a cornerstone text of disability studies, establishing the field upon its publication in 1997. Framing disability as a minority discourse rather than a medical one, the book added depth to oppressive narratives and revealed novel, liberatory ones. Through her incisive readings of such texts as Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin and Rebecca Harding Davis's Life in the Iron Mills, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson exposed the social forces driving representations of disability. She encouraged new ways of looking at texts and their depiction of the body and stretched the limits of what counted as a text, considering freak shows and other pop culture artifacts as reflections of community rites and fears. Garland-Thomson also elevated the status of African-American novels by Toni Morrison and Audre Lorde. Extraordinary Bodies laid the groundwork for an appreciation of disability culture and an inclusive new approach to the study of social marginalization.
Beginning with Disability: A Primer by ISBN: 9781138211377Publication Date: 2017-09-28While there are many introductions to disability and disability studies, most presume an advanced academic knowledge of a range of subjects. Beginning with Disability is the first introductory primer for disaibility studies aimed at first year students in two- and four-year colleges. This volume of essays across disciplines--including education, sociology, communications, psychology, social sciences, and humanities--features accessible, readable, and relatively short chapters that do not require specialized knowledge. Lennard Davis, along with a team of consulting editors, has compiled a number of blogs, vlogs, and other videos to make the materials more relatable and vivid to students. "Subject to Debate" boxes spotlight short pro and con pieces on controversial subjects that can be debated in class or act as prompts for assignments.
The Disability Studies Reader by ISBN: 9781138930223Publication Date: 2016-11-01The fifth edition of The Disability Studies Reader addresses the post-identity theoretical landscape by emphasizing questions of interdependency and independence, the human-animal relationship, and issues around the construction or materiality of gender, the body, and sexuality. Selections explore the underlying biases of medical and scientific experiments and explode the binary of the sound and the diseased mind. The collection addresses physical disabilities, but as always investigates issues around pain, mental disability, and invisible disabilities as well. Featuring a new generation of scholars who are dealing with the most current issues, the fifth edition continues the Reader's tradition of remaining timely, urgent, and critical.
The Oxford Handbook of Disability History by ISBN: 9780190234959Publication Date: 2018-07-18Disability history exists outside of the institutions, healers, and treatments it often brings to mind. It is a history where the disabled live not just as patients or cure-seekers, but rather as people living differently in the world - and it is also a history that helps define thefundamental concepts of identity, community, citizenship, and normality.The Oxford Handbook of Disability History is the first volume of its kind to represent this history and its global scale, from ancient Greece to British West Africa. The twenty-seven articles, written by thirty experts from across the field, capture the diversity and liveliness of this emergingscholarship. Whether discussing disability in modern Chinese cinema or on the American antebellum stage, this collection provides new and valuable insights into the rich and varied lives of the disabled across time and place.
A Disability History of the United States by ISBN: 9780807022047Publication Date: 2013-10-01The first book to cover the entirety of disability history, from pre-1492 to the present Disability is not only the story of someone we love or the story of whom we may become; rather it is undoubtedly the story of our nation. Covering the entirety of US history from pre-1492 to the present, A Disability History of the United States is the first book to place the experiences of disabled people at the center of the American narrative. In many ways, it's a familiar telling. In other ways, it is a radical repositioning of US history. By doing so, the book casts new light on familiar stories, such as slavery and immigration, while breaking ground about the ties between nativism and oralism in the late nineteenth century and the role of ableism in the development of democracy. A Disability History of the United States pulls from primary-source documents and social histories to retell US history through the eyes, words, and impressions of the people who lived it. As historian and disability scholar Nielsen argues, to understand disability history isn't to narrowly focus on a series of individual triumphs but rather to examine mass movements and pivotal daily events through the lens of varied experiences. Throughout the book, Nielsen deftly illustrates how concepts of disability have deeply shaped the American experience--from deciding who was allowed to immigrate to establishing labor laws and justifying slavery and gender discrimination. Included are absorbing--at times horrific--narratives of blinded slaves being thrown overboard and women being involuntarily sterilized, as well as triumphant accounts of disabled miners organizing strikes and disability rights activists picketing Washington. Engrossing and profound, A Disability History of the United States fundamentally reinterprets how we view our nation's past: from a stifling master narrative to a shared history that encompasses us all. About the Series Beacon Press's ReVisioning History series consists of accessibly written books by notable scholars that reconstruct and reinterpret US history from diverse perspectives.
Disability Histories by ISBN: 9780252080319Publication Date: 2014-12-16The field of disability history continues to evolve rapidly. In this collection, Susan Burch and Michael Rembis present essays that integrate critical analysis of gender, race, historical context, and other factors to enrich and challenge the traditional modes of interpretation still dominating the field. Contributors delve into four critical areas of study within disability history: family, community, and daily life; cultural histories; the relationship between disabled people and the medical field; and issues of citizenship, belonging, and normalcy. As the first collection of its kind in over a decade, Disability Histories not only brings readers up to date on scholarship within the field but fosters the process of moving it beyond the U.S. and Western Europe by offering work on Africa, South America, and Asia. The result is a broad range of readings that open new vistas for investigation and study while encouraging scholars at all levels to redraw the boundaries that delineate who and what is considered of historical value. Informed and accessible, Disability Histories is essential for classrooms engaged in all facets of disability studies within and across disciplines.
Journals
- Disability and Society
- Annual Disability Statistics Compendium
- Review of Disability Studies
- Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities
- Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies
- Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education
- Research in Developmental Disabilities
- Sexuality and Disability
Journal Articles
- Brown, N., & Ramlackhan, K. (2022). Exploring experiences of ableism in academia: a constructivist inquiry. Higher Education (00181560), 83(6), 1225–1239.
- Brueggemann, B. J., Garland-Thomson, R., & Kleege, G. (2005). What Her Body Taught (Or, Teaching about and with a Disability): A Conversation. Feminist Studies, 31(1), 13–33.
- Davis, L. J. (2022). Looking Backwards, Looking Forwards: Disability Studies Then, Now, and When. Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies, 16(3), 253–264.
- Davis, L. J. (1999). Crips Strike Back: The Rise of Disability Studies. American Literary History, 11(3), 500–512.
- Ginsburg, F., & Rapp, R. (2013). Disability Worlds. Annual Review of Anthropology, 42, 53–68.
- Goodley, D., Lawthom, R., Liddiard, K., & Runswick-Cole, K. (2021). Key Concerns for Critical Disability Studies. International Journal of Disability and Social Justice, 1(1), 27–49.
- McRuer, R. (2005). Crip Eye for the Normate Guy: Queer Theory and the Disciplining of Disability Studies. PMLA, 120(2), 586–592.
- Williamson, B. (2015). Access. In R. Adams, B. Reiss, & D. Serlin (Eds.), Keywords for Disability Studies (pp. 14–17). NYU Press.
Databases
Study Resources
Studying with Dyslexia by ISBN: 9780230390560Publication Date: 2012-08-01As a dyslexic student you have a unique learning style. Understanding this can help you take control and study in a way that is most effective for you. Full of practical advice and visual examples, this friendly book will guide you through the dyslexic learning style. It gives you all the essential knowledge and ideas needed to manage your dyslexia positively. Handy for students at any level, this easy-to-read guide: * suggests core strategies for doing things differently to work with your dyslexia, instead of against it * covers individual study skills, including organisation, reading, writing and taking exams * provides information on the support that should be available to you as a student.
Navigating College: A Handbook on Self Advocacy by ISBN: 9781938800009Publication Date: 2013-07-01Leaving high school and going to college is complicated for everyone. But if you're a student on the autism spectrum who is about to enter higher education for the first time, it might be a little bit more complicated for you. Maybe you're worried about getting accommodations, getting places on time, or dealing with sensory issues in a new environment. Maybe you could use some advice on how to stay healthy at school, handle dating and relationships, or talk to your friends and classmates about your disability. Maybe you want to talk to someone who's already dealt with these issues. That's where we come in. Navigating College is an introduction to the college experience from those of us who've been there. The writers and contributors are Autistic adults, and we're giving you the advice that we wish someone could have given us when we headed off to college. We wish we could sit down and have a chat with each of you, to share our experiences and answer your questions. But since we can't teleport, and some of us have trouble meeting new people, this book is the next best thing. So as you go back to school, check out a copy of Navigating College for yourself or your loved one. We ve done this all before--let us help you out.
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.
Getting Started
- 5 Radical Ways People Do Non-Monogamy That You Need to Know About (Everyday Feminism)
- The Extraordinary Political Power Of Moving ‘Beyond Monogamy’ (The Establishment)
- Ethical Non-Monogamy: The Rise of Multi-Partner Relationships (BBC)
- What Ethical Non-Monogamy Really Means & Why People Practice It (Mind Body Green)
Polysecure by ISBN: 9781944934989Publication Date: 2020-10-23Attachment theory has entered the mainstream, but most discussions focus on how we can cultivate secure monogamous relationships. What if, like many people, you're striving for secure, happy attachments with more than one partner? Polyamorous psychotherapist Jessica Fern breaks new ground by extending attachment theory into the realm of consensual nonmonogamy. Using her nested model of attachment and trauma, she expands our understanding of how emotional experiences can influence our relationships. Then, she sets out six specific strategies to help you move toward secure attachments in your multiple relationships. Polysecure is both a trailblazing theoretical treatise and a practical guide.
More Than Two by ISBN: 9780991399703Publication Date: 2014-09-01Can you love more than one person? Have multiple romantic partners, without jealousy or cheating? Absolutely! Polyamorous people have been paving the way, through trial and painful error. Now there's the new book More Than Two: A practical guide to ethical polyamory to help you find your own way.
The Ethical Slut by ISBN: 9781587613371Publication Date: 2009-03-10The essential guide for singles and couples who want to explore polyamory in ways that are ethically and emotionally sustainable. For anyone who has ever dreamed of love, sex, and companionship beyond the limits of traditional monogamy, this groundbreaking guide navigates the infinite possibilities that open relationships can offer. Experienced ethical sluts Dossie Easton and Janet W. Hardy dispel myths and cover all the skills necessary to maintain a successful and responsible polyamorous lifestyle--from self-reflection and honest communication to practicing safe sex and raising a family. Individuals and their partners will learn how to discuss and honor boundaries, resolve conflicts, and to define relationships on their own terms.
Opening Up by ISBN: 9781573442954Publication Date: 2008-05-01Relationship expert and bestselling author Tristan Taormino offers a bold new strategy for creating loving, lasting relationships. Drawing on in-depth interviews with over a hundred women and men, Opening Up explores the real-life benefits and challenges of all styles of open relationships -- from partnered non-monogamy to solo polyamory. With her refreshingly down-to-earth style and sharp wit, Taormino offers solutions for making an open relationship work, including tips on dealing with jealousy, negotiating boundaries, finding community, parenting and time management. Opening Up will change the way you think about intimacy.
Designer Relationships by ISBN: 9781627781497Publication Date: 2015-09-08Contemporary relationships are in a state of rapid evolution. These changes can and should empower people with the opportunity to develop partnerships based on their own sexualities, understandings, and agreements. This makes it possible to create what Kenneth Haslam, founder of the Kinsey Institute's Polyamory Archive, has called "designer relationships." Designer relationships may encompass: people who bond emotionally but not sexually; people who agree to be non-exclusive; single people who have occasional lovers or friends with benefits; multiple partner configurations where long-term bonds exist among all or some; partnerships in which people are kinky and that make room to explore kink.
Understanding Non-Monogamies by ISBN: 9780415800556Publication Date: 2009-12-08Most social scientific work on intimate relationships has assumed a monogamous structure, or has considered anything other than monogamy only in the context of 'infidelity'. Yet, in recent years there has been a growing interest among researchers and the public in exploring various patterns of intimacy that involve open non-monogamy. This volume gathers contributions from academics, activists, and practitioners throughout the world to explore non-monogamous relationships. Featuring both empirical and theoretical pieces, contributors examine the history and cultural basis of various forms of non-monogamy, experiences of non-monogamous living, psychological understandings of relationship patterns, language and emotion, the discursive construction of mono-normativity as well as issues of race, class, disability, sexuality and gender.
Polyamory, monogamy, and American dreams : the stories we tell about poly lives and the cultural production of inequality by ISBN: 9781138895034Publication Date: 2019-11-13This book introduces "the poly gaze" as a cultural tool to examine how representations of polyamory and poly lives reflect or challenge cultural hegemonies of race, class, gender, and nation. What role does monogamy play in American Identity, the American dream, and U.S. exceptionalism? How do the stories we tell about intimate relationships do cultural and ideological work to maintain and legitimize social inequalities along the lines of race, ethnicity, nation, religion, class, gender and sexuality? How might the introduction of polyamory or consensually non-monogamous relationships in the stories we tell about intimacy confound, disrupt or shift the meaning of what constitutes a good, American life?
Fraught Intimacies by ISBN: 9780774828963Publication Date: 2015-05-30Adultery scandals involving politicians. Dating websites for married women and men. News reports on raids of polygamous communities. It seems that non-monogamy is everywhere: in popular culture, in the news, and before the courts. In Fraught Intimacies, Nathan Rambukkana delves into how polygamy, adultery, and polyamory are represented in the public sphere. His intricate analysis reveals how some forms of non-monogamy are tacitly accepted, even glamourized, while others are vilified and reviled. By questioning what this says about intimacy, power, and privilege, this book offers an innovative framework for understanding the status of non-monogamy in Western society.
Undoing Monogamy by ISBN: 9780822374213Publication Date: 2016-04-28In Undoing Monogamy Angela Willey offers a radically interdisciplinary exploration of the concept of monogamy in U.S. science and culture, propelled by queer feminist desires for new modes of conceptualization and new forms of belonging. She approaches the politics and materiality of monogamy as intertwined with one another such that disciplinary ways of knowing themselves become an object of critical inquiry. Refusing to answer the naturalization of monogamy with a naturalization of nonmonogamy, Willey demands a critical reorientation toward the monogamy question in the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities.
The Spectre of Promiscuity by ISBN: 9780754649069Publication Date: 2007-11-28Wide-ranging research suggests that partners in gay male and bisexual relationships do not necessarily expect monogamy, or see it as an important issue. Although the frequency of gay male and bisexual non-monogamous partnerships tends to be widely acknowledged in social science literature, these relationships have rarely been explored in more detail. By providing rich empirical data, thoughtful analysis and theoretical debate, this book makes a significant contribution to the sociological literature on sexual and intimate relationships. More specifically it explores the diversity of gay male and bisexual relationship practices in the context of heteronormative citizenship and intra-social movement conflict, and highlights the complexity of power relations that circumscribe queer people's relationships and sexual lives.
Beyond Monogamy by ISBN: 9781479801596Publication Date: 2016-08-16A man and woman are in an open relationship. They have agreed that having sexual partners outside of their relationship is permissible. One night, when her partner is in another city, the woman has sex with the man's best friend. What does this mean for their relationship? More importantly, why is there such a strong cultural taboo against this kind of triangulation and what does it reveal about the social organization of gender and sexuality? In Beyond Monogamy, Mimi Schippers asks these and other questions to explore compulsory monogamy as a central feature of sexual normalcy. Schippers argues that compulsory monogamy promotes the monogamous couple as the only legitimate, natural, or desirable relationship form in ways that support and legitimize gender, race, and sexual inequalities. Through an investigation of sexual interactions and relationship forms that include more than two people, from polyamory, to threesomes, to the complexity of the 'down-low,' Schippers explores the queer, feminist, and anti-racist potential of non-dyadic sex and relationships. A serious look at the intersections of society and sexuality, Beyond Monogamy takes the reader on a compelling and accessible journey through compulsory monogamy, polyamory, and polyqueer sex and relationships.
The Handbook of Consensual Non-Monogamy: Affirming Mental Health Practice by ISBN: 9781538157121Publication Date: 2022-07-15This handbook provides perspectives across mental health disciplines on clinical work with consensual non-monogamous (CNM) people/relationships from a lens of power, privilege, and oppression. The authors provide a broad-based resource for clinicians, trainees, educators and supervisors in CNM-affirming care, addressing societal and internalized mononormativity and intersections with other forms of oppression (including ableism, racism, cisnormativity, classism). Educators using this volume will find foundational, current data on the experiences of CNM individuals and their relationships, as well as recent theory and empirical research relevant to CNM clients, including the importance of cultural humility within clinical practice. Key topics include developmental approaches to CNM, communities, families and relationships, queerness, emotional experiences, strengths/resilience, as well as ethical issues, training and organizational considerations in work with these clients, emphasizing practical recommendations, insights, and tools to promote CNM-affirming practice across settings.
- Polyamory and Queer Anarchism: Infinite Possibilities for Resistance by Susan SongOriginally published in Published in Queering Anarchism: Essays on Gender, Power, and Desire edited by C.B. Daring, J. Rogue, Deric Shannon, and Abbey Volcano, published by AK Press, 2012
Selection of online archives and other resources, which can be used to find further information on this topic
- Kenneth R. Haslam Collection on Polyamory at the Kinsey Institute LibraryThe Kenneth R. Haslam, MD. collection consists of conference materials, internet resources, media coverage, and research articles, as well as Dr Haslam’s personal correspondence and papers originally delivered at poly-oriented meetings, sex research and sex therapy conferences.
- Archives of Sexuality and GenderProvides access to materials exploring important aspects of LGBTQ life. Includes periodicals, newsletters, manuscripts, government records, organizational papers, correspondence, an international selection of posters, and other primary source materials.
- Sex & SexualityExplores changing attitudes towards human sexuality, gender identities and sexual behaviors throughout the twentieth century. Produced in collaboration with the Kinsey Institute Library and Special Collections, the resource includes the work of leading American sexologists, sex researchers, and organizations.
- RAD List of Relationship Anarchy Articles, Links, ResourcesA list of articles, books, and other resources grew out of work that was started in Metro Detroit Polyamory's Relationship Anarchy discussion group in 2016. The list is focused on Relationship Anarchy, but includes articles on other non-monogamous relationship styles.
- Consensual Non-monogamy Zotero LibraryA collaborative Zotero library that brings together citations for a number of resources relating to consensual non-monogamy. Includes books, articles, blog posts, and more.
Blogs
- The Critical PolyamoristKim 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 OneA blog about polyamory emphasizing loving relationships, personal growth, and conscious evolution.
Podcasts
- Queer Sex EdQueer Sex Ed is a podcast that centers queer and trans voices in conversations about sexual health. Many episodes cover topics related to non-monogamy.
- Multiamory PodcastMultiamory offers support and advice for modern relationships. Whether you are monogamous, polyamorous, swinging, casually dating, or if you just do relationships differently, we see you and we're here for you.
- Polyamory WeeklyPoly Weekly is a podcast devoted to tales from the front of responsible non-monogamy from an inclusive, kink-friendly point of view. Every week, Minx, her cohosts and her guests discuss issues relating to communication, gender, race, sex, kink, manners, dating, family and time management, with perspectives from all around the globe.
- All My Relations - Ep #5 Decolonizing SexAll My Relations is a podcast hosted by Matika Wilbur (Swinomish and Tulalip) and Adrienne Keene (Cherokee Nation) to explore our relationships— relationships to land, to our creatural relatives, and to one another.
It's Called Polyamory by ISBN: 9781944934422Publication Date: 2017-10-06Even in progressive families and communities, people who practice nonmonogamy are susceptible to misinformation and accusations of moral and emotional failings. Facing this requires its own coming out and education process. In this guide, Tamara Pincus and Rebecca Hiles provide a roadmap for explaining the expansive intricacies of the consensual nonmonogamy spectrum. By fusing personal experience and community research, they break down the various incarnations of polyamorous relationship structures, polyamory's intersections with race and gender, and the seemingly esoteric jargon of the lifestyle.
Love's Not Color BlindISBN: 9781944934477Publication Date: 2018-03-30The issues that make monogamous dating daunting for people of colorâshaming and exclusion by white partners, being fetishized, having realities of everyday racism ignoredâoccur in polyamorous relationships too, and trying "not to see race" only makes it worse. To make polyamorous communities inclusive, we must all acknowledge our part in perpetuating racism and listen to people of color. Love's Not Color Blind puts forward the frameworkâthrough research, anecdotal testimony, and analogyâfor understanding, identifying, and confronting racism within polyamorous communities.
Love in Abundance: a counselor's guide to open relationships by ISBN: 9780937609477Publication Date: 2011-06-01Beyond the basics of polyamory lies a complex web of negotiations, agreements, pitfalls and rewards. Kathy Labriola, a relationships counselor who has worked for many years with singles, couples and groups in polyamorous and open relationships, sets forth some of the realities of alternative lifestyles: dealing with some of the common relationship-disrupters, managing jealousy, choosing compatible partners, combining BDSM with polyamory, distinguishing between sex addiction and polyamory, and much more.
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:
- Mari Mikkola, "Feminist Perspectives on Sex and Gender"
- Talia Bettcher, "Feminist Perspectives on Trans Issues"
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:
- "An Inclusive Bibliography on Race, Gender, and Related Topics" (Google Doc set up by Meena Krishnamurthy)
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:
- Diaz‐Leon, Esa. "What is Social Construction?" European Journal of Philosophy 23, no. 4 (2015): 1137-52.
- Hacking, Ian. The Social Construction of What? Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999.
- Haslanger, Sally. "Ontology and Social Construction." Philosophical Topics 23, no. 2 (1995): 95-125.
- Mallon, Ron. "Naturalistic Approaches to Social Construction." In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by Edward N. Zalta. 2013.
- Sveinsdóttir, Ásta Kristjana. "The Social Construction of Human Kinds." Hypatia 28, no. 4 (2013): 716-32.
- Sveinsdóttir, Ásta. "Social Construction." Philosophy Compass 10, no. 12 (2015): 884-92.
Sources on the genealogy of gender:
- Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble. 2nd ed. London, UK: Routledge, 1999.
- Germon, Jennifer. Gender: A Genealogy of an Idea. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
- Repo, Jemima. The Biopolitics of Gender. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2016.
Sources on the metaphysics of gender:
- Alcoff, Linda. Visible Identities: Race, Gender, and the Self. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2006.
- Bach, Theodore. "Gender Is a Natural Kind with a Historical Essence." Ethics 122, no. 2 (2012): 231-72.
- Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble. 2nd ed. London, UK: Routledge, 1999.
- Diaz-Leon, Esa. "'Woman' as a Politically Significant Term: A Solution to the Puzzle." Hypatia 31, no. 2 (2016): 245-58.
- Haslanger, Sally. "Gender and Race: (What) Are They? (What) Do We Want Them to Be?" Noûs 34, no. 1 (2000): 31-55.
- Haslanger, Sally. Resisting Reality: Social Construction and Social Critique. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2012.
- Jenkins, Katharine. "Amelioration and Inclusion: Gender Identity and the Concept of Woman." Ethics 126, no. 2 (2016): 394-421.
- Overall, Christine. "Sex/Gender Transitions and Life-Changing Aspirations." In You've Changed: Sex Reassignment and Personal Identity, edited by Laurie Shrage, 11-27. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2009.
- Power, Nicholas, Raja Halwani, and Alan Soble, eds. Philosophy of Sex: Contemporary Readings. 6th ed. New York, NY: Rowan & Littlefield, 2012.
- See, for example:
- Ch. 14: Talia Bettcher, “Trans Women and the Meaning of 'Women'", 233-50.
- Ch. 15: Christine Overall, “Trans Persons, Cisgender Persons, and Gender Identities”, 251-67.
- See, for example:
- Sveinsdóttir, Ásta Kristjana. "The Social Construction of Human Kinds." Hypatia 28, no. 4 (2013): 716-32.
- Witt, Charlotte. The Metaphysics of Gender. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2011.
- Witt, Charlotte, ed. Feminist Metaphysics. New York, NY: Springer, 2010.
- See, for example:
- Ch. 3: Natalie Stoljar, “Different Women. Gender and the Realism-Nominalism Debate”, 27-46.
- Ch. 5: Mari Mikkola, “Ontological Commitments, Sex and Gender”, 67-83.
- See, for example:
Sources on feminist metaphysics and the metaphysics of gender vis-à-vis "mainstream" metaphysics:
- Barnes, Elizabeth. "Going Beyond the Fundamental: Feminism in Contemporary Metaphysics." Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 3, no. 114 (2014): 335–51.
- Mikkola, Mari. "Feminist Metaphysics and Philosophical Methodology." Philosophy Compass 11, no. 11 (2016): 661-70.
- Mikkola, Mari. "On the apparent antagonism between feminist and mainstream metaphysics." Philosophical Studies (2016): 1-14.
- Schaffer, Jonathan. "Social Construction as Grounding; or, Fundamentality for Feminists, a Reply to Barnes and Mikkola." Philosophical Studies (2016): 1-17.
- Sider, Theodore. "Substantivity in Feminist Metaphysics." Philosophical Studies (2016): 1-12.