Gender Reckonings: New Social Theory and Research

by James W. Messerschmidt (Editor), Michael A. Messner (Editor), Raewyn Connell (Editor), Patricia Yancey Martin (Editor)

Overview

Vivid narratives, fresh insights, and new theories on where gender theory and research stand today

Since scholars began interrogating the meaning of gender and sexuality in society, this field has become essential to the study of sociology. Gender Reckonings aims to map new directions for understanding gender and sexuality within a more pragmatic, dynamic, and socially relevant framework. It shows how gender relations must be understood on a large scale as well as in intimate detail.

The contributors return to the basics, questioning how gender patterns change, how we can realize gender equality, and how the structures of gender impact daily life. Gender Reckonings covers not only foundational concepts of gender relations and gender justice, but also explores postcolonial patterns of gender, intersectionality, gender fluidity, transgender practices, neoliberalism, and queer theory.

Gender Reckonings combines the insights of gender and sexuality scholars from different generations, fields, and world regions. The editors and contributors are leading social scientists from six continents, and the book gives vivid accounts of the changing politics of gender in different communities.

Rich in empirical detail and novel thinking, Gender Reckonings is a lasting resource for students, researchers, activists, policymakers, and everyone concerned with gender justice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781479809349
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	02/13/2018
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

James W. Messerschmidt (Editor)
James W. Messerschmidt is Professor of Sociology and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Southern
Maine. His research has covered such diverse areas as gender and crime/violence, genderqueers, intersectionality, and global political masculinities. Messerschmidt is the author of a number of books, including Gender, Heterosexuality, and Youth Violence:
The Struggle for Recognition and, most recently, Masculinities in the Making: From the Local to the Global.

James W. Messerschmidt is Professor of Sociology and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Southern Maine. His research has covered such diverse areas as gender and crime/violence, genderqueers, intersectionality, and global political masculinities. Messerschmidt is the author of a number of books, including Gender, Heterosexuality, and Youth Violence: The Struggle for Recognition and, most recently, Masculinities in the Making: From the Local to the Global.

Michael A. Messner (Editor)
Michael A. Messner is Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at the University of Southern California. He is the author of several books, most recently Unconventional Combat: Intersectional Action in the Veterans' Peace Movement.

Raewyn Connell (Editor)
Raewyn Connell is a sociologist, now Professor Emerita at University of Sydney and Life Member of the National Tertiary Education Union. Her books include Southern Theory and Gender: In World Perspective. She has worked for labor, peace, and women’s movements, and for democracy in education.

Patricia Yancey Martin (Editor)
Patricia Yancey Martin, Emerita Professor of Sociology at Florida
State University, Tallahassee, specializes in gender and organizations.
She has published on gender as practice, gender as social institution,
mobilizing masculinity, feminist bureaucracies, and fraternities and athletics in relation to rape on college campuses. Her books include Handbook of
Gender, Work and Organization, Rape Work: Victims, Gender & Emotions in Organizations & Community, and Feminist Organizations: Harvest of the New Women’s Movement.

Patricia Yancey Martin, Emerita Professor of Sociology at Florida State University, Tallahassee, specializes in gender and organizations. She has published on gender as practice, gender as social institution, mobilizing masculinity, feminist bureaucracies, and fraternities and athletics in relation to rape on college campuses. Her books include Handbook of Gender, Work and Organization, Rape Work: Victims, Gender & Emotions in Organizations & Community, and Feminist Organizations: Harvest of the New Women’s Movement.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction: The Editors 1

Part I Points of Departure: Gender and Power and Its Sequels 11

1 "Theories Don't Grow on Trees": Contextualizing Gender Knowledge 13

2 Hegemonic, Nonhegemonic, and "New" Masculinities 35

3 From Object to Subject: Situating Transgender Lives in Sociology 57

Part II The Larger Scope of Gender Analysis 71

4 Postcoloniality and the Sociology of Gender 73

5 Race, Indigeneity, and Gender: Lessons for Global Feminism 90

6 Categories, Structures, and Intersectional Theory 111

Part III Four Dimensions of Relationship, Struggle, and Change 131

7 Why "Heteronormativity" Is Not Enough: A Feminist Sociological Perspective on Heterosexuality 134

8 Gender Inequality and Feminism in the New Economy 156

9 Gender Politics in Academia in the Neoliberal Age 173

10 The Holy Grail of Organizational Change: Toward Gender Equality at Work 193

Part IV Dynamics of Masculinities 211

11 Concerning Tradition in Studies on Men and Masculinities in Ex-Colonies 213

12 Rethinking Patriarchy through Unpatriarchal Male Desires 233

13 On the Elasticity of Gender Hegemony: Why Hybrid Masculinities Fail to Undermine Gender and Sexual Inequality 254

Part V Agendas for Theory 275

14 Limitations of the Neoliberal Turn in Gender Theory: (Re)Turning to Gender as a Social Structure 277

15 Paradoxes of Gender Redux: Multiple Genders and the Persistence of the Binary 297

16 The Monogamous Couple, Gender Hegemony, and Polyamory 314

Conclusion: Reckoning with Gender 331

About the Contributors 347

Index 353

Editorial Reviews

"A refreshingly up-to-date collection of essays that covers a wide range of theories and debates, Gender Reckonings brings much needed clarity and breadth to the challenges of undoing or re-imagining gender away from its hegemonic moorings. These new essays by seasoned experts in gender and sexuality studies will be of enormous use to scholars and students alike, and are sure to become catalysts for future feminist analyses."

Suzanna Danuta Walters

"The publication of Raewyn Connell's Gender and Power in 1987 proclaimed a new sociology of gender, from sex roles to situating gender relations in multiple fields of power. These exciting new essays refer back over three decades of theory and research, and suggest just how germinal that work was in generating new avenues of thinking about gender."

Michael Kimmel

"This collection by eminent scholars with a spectrum of styles and conceptual frameworks contributes immensely to our sociological understanding of gender theory and research. In looking back and moving forward, these authors celebrate, critique, and consider the changes and challenges of the social analysis of gender. This compelling volume demonstrates the diverse ways that contexts matter and the importance of engaging in social research for gender equality and social justice."

Margaret Abraham

This collection by eminent scholars with a spectrum of styles and conceptual frameworks contributes immensely to our sociological understanding of gender theory and research. In looking back and moving forward, these authors celebrate, critique, and consider the changes and challenges of the social analysis of gender. This compelling volume demonstrates the diverse ways that contexts matter and the importance of engaging in social research for gender equality and social justice.”
-Margaret Abraham,Co-editor of Contours of Citizenship: Women, Diversity, and Practices of Citizenship

"The publication of
Raewyn Connell's Gender and Power in 1987 proclaimed a new sociology of gender, from sex roles to situating gender relations in multiple fields of power. These exciting new essays refer back over three decades of theory and research, and suggest just how germinal that work was in generating new avenues of thinking about gender."
-Michael Kimmel,Author of Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era

“A refreshingly up-to-date collection of essays that covers a wide range of theories and debates, Gender Reckonings brings much needed clarity and breadth to the challenges of undoing or re-imagining gender away from its hegemonic moorings. These new essays by seasoned experts in gender and sexuality studies will be of enormous use to scholars and students alike, and are sure to become catalysts for future feminist analyses.”
-Suzanna Danuta Walters,Author of The Tolerance Trap: How God, Genes, and Good Intentions are Sabotaging Gay Equality

From the Publisher