Male Femininities

Rigorously and playfully complicating its core concepts, Male Femininities takes a sociological tour through the spaces where male bodies and male subjectivities encounter, embrace, disavow, and inhabit the feminine. Expansive in its empirical and theoretical scope, this book is a must-have for scholars and students of gender studies. (Jane Ward, author of The Tragedy of Heterosexuality) Male Femininities explores the political potential of gender boundary crossing and encourages readers to see gender as distinct from sex and sexuality. Focusing on what happens when social rules are broken, each chapter reveals the variety of spaces in which gender can look different from what we might expect. (Kristen Barber, author of Styling Masculinity) Kudos to the editors for bringing together such engaging work - including compelling first-person narratives and theoretically- and historically-grounded ethnographic research - that illustrates a range of male femininities in action. (Wendy Simonds, author of Hospital Land USA) Male Femininities comes at an opportune time as we experience rapid change and political disputes concerning gender...This volume seeks to explain male femininities by looking toward history, attempting to create definitions, exploring embodiment, unraveling performances/performativity, interrogating sexualities and sexual behaviors, and seeking to understand the role of institutions. Weaving together personal narratives and empirical studies, this collection provides a diverse look at an understudied subsect of gender. - MC Whitlock (Gender and Society)