A question of sex
Subtitle: feminism, rhetoric, and differences that matter
By: Kristan Poirot
Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
Published: 2014
Language: eng
Number of pages: 154
ISBN-13: 9781625340894; 9781625340887
Subjects: Feminist theory; Sex differences; Feminism; Sex
Description: "By the mid-1990s feminist theorists and critics began to challenge conventional thinking about sex difference and its relationship to gender and sexuality. Scholars such as Anne Fausto-Sterling and Judith Butler troubled the sex-gender/nature-nurture divide. Some have asserted that these questions about sex are much too abstract to contribute to a valuable understanding of the material politics faced by feminist movements. In A Question of Sex, Kristan Poirot challenges this assumption and demonstrates that contemporary theories about sex, gender, identity, and difference compel a rethinking of the history of feminist movements and their rhetorical practices. Poirot focuses on five case studies--the circulation of Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a Woman?" in early and contemporary feminist contexts; the visual rhetorics of the feminist self-help health movement; the public discourse of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and early nineteenth-century ideas about suffrage, sex, and race; the conflicts over lesbian sexuality in the 1960s and 1970s; and the discourse that surrounds twenty-first-century SlutWalks. In the process, Poirot rethinks the terms through which we understand U.S. feminist movements to explore the ways feminism has questioned sexed distinctions and practices over time. She emphasizes the importance of reading feminist engagements with sex as rhetorical endeavors--practices that are shaped by the instrumental demands of movements, the exigent situations that call for feminists to respond, and the enduring philosophical traditions that circulate in U.S. political contexts."--Publisher's description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 129-149) and index.

Text in English.
Table of contents: title: Recognizing sex: Sojourner Truth and multicultural anxiety; title: Matters of sex and race: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, biological foundationalism, and nineteenth-century liberalism; title: Visions of sex: Freud, gynecology, and the Federation of Feminist Women's Health Centers; title: Sexing woman: lesbian identifications, media, and "second wave" feminism; title: Questionable engagements: slutwalks and beyond.