Author: V Geetha
Publisher: Stree
Year: 2002
Language: English
Pages: 149
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8185604452]
Description
Provocative and jargon-free, this book shows how gender identities mesh with those constituted by caste, class, religion and sexual preferences, forming a set of arrangements that have evolved through history.
Addressing students and the general reader, this series introduces key concepts in feminist theory. Any reader will find the series vitally useful, not just for understanding what new theories mean and how they are used but also for grasping how they have evolved.
In her incisive discussion V. Geetha points out that ‘gender is everywhere’, and when we allocate to the male and female sexes, specific and distinctive attributes and roles, we are ‘doing’ gender. She suggests insightfully that gender ‘is both part of the world we live in, as well as a way of understanding the world’.
Provocative and jargon-free, the book shows how gender identities mesh with those constituted by caste, class, religion and sexual preferences, forming a set of arrangements that have evolved through history. It enables the reader to undertake a fresh and critical analysis of what we consider to be normal and given, to ask questions, to take stock of the self and the world.
V. Geetha writes in Tamil and in English on history, culture and gender. She is an editor with Tara Publishers, Chennai. She has co-authored with S. V. Rajadurai, ‘Towards a Non-Brahmin Millennium: From Iyothee Thass to Periyar (Calcutta: Samya, 1998)’.
Maithrey Krishnaraj, a pioneering scholar in women’s studies, was formerly professor and director, Research Centre for Women’s Studies, SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai. She continues to be engaged in women’s studies through her writing, teaching and research.
Contents
Foreword Maithrey Krishnaraj
Preface
Introduction
1. God Made You Different, Nature Made Us Different
2. The War of the Sexes
3. Role Play
4. Masculinity and Femininity: Ideas Are Real
5. Gender as History
6. Gender Practices
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index