NB Gender and Sexuality (2024)

29/06/2022

In Q***R COMPANIONS: Religion, Public Intimacy, and Saintly Affects in Pakistan (Duke University Press), Omar Kasmani theorizes saintly intimacy and the construction of q***r social relations at Pakistan's most important site of Sufi pilgrimage. Conjoining q***r theory and the anthropology of Islam, Kasmani outlines the felt and enfleshed ways in which saintly affections bind individuals, society, and the state in Pakistan through a public architecture of intimacy. Islamic saints become lovers and q***r companions just as a religious universe is made valuable to critical and q***r forms of thinking. Focusing on the lives of ascetics known as fakirs in Pakistan, Kasmani shows how the affective bonds with the place's patron saint, a thirteenth-century antinomian mystic, foster unstraight modes of living in the present. In a national context where religious shrines are entangled in the state's infrastructures of governance, coming close to saints further entails a drawing near to more-than-official histories and public forms of affect. Through various fakir life stories, Kasmani contends that this intimacy offers a form of q***r world making with saints. Author-intervew podcast link

https://newbooksnetwork.com/q***r-companions↙️

29/06/2022

By the early twenty-first century, about one woman in twelve could expect to die of a pregnancy or childbirth complication in Malawi. Specific deaths became object lessons. Explanatory stories circulated through hospitals and villages, proliferating among a range of practitioners: nurse-midwives, traditional birth attendants, doctors, epidemiologists, herbalists. Was biology to blame? Economic underdevelopment? Immoral behavior? Tradition? Were the dead themselves at fault?

In PARTIAL STORIES: Maternal Death from Six Angles (University of Chicago Press), Claire L. Wendland considers these explanations for maternal death, showing how they reflect competing visions of the past and shared concerns about social change. Drawing on extended fieldwork, Wendland reveals how efforts to legitimate a single story as the authoritative version can render care more dangerous than it might otherwise be. Historical, biological, technological, ethical, statistical, and political perspectives on death usually circulate in different expert communities and different bodies of literature. Here, Wendland considers them together, illuminating dilemmas of maternity care in contexts of acute change, chronic scarcity, and endemic inequity within Malawi and beyond. Author-interview podcast link ⬇️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/partial-stories

22/06/2022

Over 20,000 residents of California were sterilized in the first half of the 20th century. A vast archive of the sterilization request records provides chilling evidence of the identities and family resources of these people. Furthermore, the documents explain why physicians and social workers deemed reproductive intervention to be in the interests of the state. Using the records from the Pacific Colony institution, Natalie Lira investigates why young women and men of Mexican origin were disproportionately detained, narrates their experiences of confinement and sterilization, and traces diverse strands testifying to widespread individual and familial resistance. In this conversation, Lira and Velázquez dig deeper into some of the themes addressed in Lira’s book, and reflect broadly on the cultural and racialist assumptions that fuel carceral and sterilization strategies a century ago and in the present day.

Learn more as Mirelsie Velázquez speaks with Natalie Lira about Lira’s recent book, LABORATORY of DEFICIENCY: Sterilization and Confinement in California, 1900-1950s (University of California Press) on the podcast ↙️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/laboratory-of-deficiency

22/06/2022

There are three major myths of human nature: humans are divided into biological races; humans are naturally aggressive; and men and women are wholly different in behavior, desires, and wiring. RACE, MONOGAMY, and OTHER LIES THEY TOLD YOU: Busting Myths about Human Nature (Second Edition) (U California Press) counters these pervasive and pernicious myths about human behavior. Agustín Fuentes tackles misconceptions about what race, aggression, and s*x really mean for humans, and incorporates an accessible understanding of culture, genetics, and evolution that requires us to dispose of notions of "nature or nurture."

Presenting scientific evidence from diverse fields, including anthropology, biology, and psychology, Fuentes devises a myth-busting toolkit to dismantle persistent fallacies about the validity of biological races, the innateness of aggression and violence, and the nature of monogamy, s*x, and gender. This revised and expanded edition provides up-to-date references, data, and analyses, and addresses new topics, including the popularity of home DNA testing kits and the lies behind '"incel" culture; the resurgence of racist, nativist thinking and the internet's influence in promoting bad science; and a broader understanding of the diversity of s*x and gender. Author-interview podcast link ⤵️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/race-monogamy-and-other-lies-they-told-you-second-editio

21/06/2022

Despite her famous pseudonym, "Jane Roe," no one knows the truth about Norma McCorvey (1947-2017), whose unwanted pregnancy in 1969 opened a great fracture in American life. Journalist Joshua Prager spent hundreds of hours with Norma, discovered her personal papers--a previously unseen trove--and witnessed her final moments. THE FAMILY ROE: An American Story (W. W. Norton) presents her life in full. Propelled by the crosscurrents of s*x and religion, gender and class, it is a life that tells the story of abortion in America.

Drawing on a decade of research, Prager reveals the woman behind the pseudonym, writing in novelistic detail of her unknown life from her time as a s*x worker in Dallas, to her private thoughts on family and abortion, to her dealings with feminist and Christian leaders, to the three daughters she placed for adoption. Author-interview podcast link 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-family-roe

14/06/2022

In CLAIMING UNION WIDOWHOOD: Race, Respectability, and Poverty in the Post-Emancipation South (Duke University Press), Brandi Clay Brimmer analyzes the US pension system from the perspective of poor black women during and after the Civil War. Reconstructing the grassroots pension network in New Bern, North Carolina, through a broad range of historical sources, she outlines how the mothers, wives, and widows of black Union soldiers struggled to claim pensions in the face of evidentiary obstacles and personal scrutiny. Brimmer exposes and examines the numerous attempts by the federal government to exclude black women from receiving the federal pensions that they had been promised. Her analyses illustrate the complexities of social policy and law administration and the interconnectedness of race, gender, and class formation. Expanding on previous analyses of pension records, Brimmer offers an interpretive framework of emancipation and the freedom narrative that places black women at the forefront of demands for black citizenship. Brimmer joins us on the podcast ⤵️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/claiming-union-widowhood

10/06/2022

MINORITARIAN LIBERALISM: A Tr****ti Life in a Brazilian Favela (University of Chicago Press) is a mesmerizing ethnography of the largest favela in Rio, where residents articulate their own politics of freedom against the backdrop of multiple forms of oppression. Normative liberalism has promoted the freedom of privileged subjects, those entitled to rights--usually white, adult, heteronormative, and bourgeois--at the expense of marginalized groups, such as Black people, children, LGBTQ folks, and slum dwellers. In this visceral ethnography of Rocinha, the largest favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Moisés Lino e Silva explores what happens when liberalism is inflected by people whose lives are impaired by normative understandings of liberty. He calls these marginalized visions of freedom "minoritarian liberalism," a concept that stands in for overlapping, alternative modes of freedom--be they q***r, favela, or peasant. Lino e Silva introduces readers to a broad collective of favela residents, most intimately accompanying Natasha Kellem, a charismatic self-declared tr****ti (a term used in Latin America to indicate a specific form of female gender construction opposite to the s*x assigned at birth). Delve deeper on the podcast ↙️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/minoritarian-liberalism

08/06/2022

In MASCULINITY and DRESS in ROMAN ANTIQUITY (Routledge), Kelly Olson argues that clothing functioned as part of the process of communication by which elite male influence, masculinity, and s*xuality were made known and acknowledged, and furthermore that these concepts interconnected in socially significant ways. This volume also sets out the details of masculine dress from literary and artistic evidence and the connection of clothing to rank, status, and ritual. This is the first monograph in English to draw together the myriad evidence for male dress in the Roman world, and examine it as evidence for men's self-presentation, status, and social convention. Delve deeper as Olson joins us on the podcast ⤵️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/masculinity-and-dress-in-roman-antiquity

16/05/2022

SISSY INSURGENCIES: A Racial Anatomy of Unfit Manliness (Duke University Press) focuses on the figure of the "sissy" in order to rethink how Americans have imagined, articulated, and negotiated manhood and boyhood from the 1880s to the present. Rather than collapsing sissiness into homos*xuality, Ross shows how it constitutes a historically fluid range of gender practices that are expressed as a physical manifestation, discursive epithet, social identity, and political phenomenon. He reconsiders several black leaders, intellectuals, musicians, and athletes within the context of sissiness, from Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver, and James Baldwin to Little Richard, Amiri Baraka, and Wilt Chamberlain. Demonstrating that sissiness can be embraced and exploited to conform to American gender norms or disrupt racialized patriarchy, he also shows how it constitutes a central element in modern understandings of race and gender. Give Ross' NBN interview a listen ↙️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/sissy-insurgencies

02/05/2022

When Hurricanes Irma and María made landfall in Puerto Rico in September 2017, their destructive force further devastated an archipelago already pummeled by economic austerity, political upheaval, and environmental calamities. To navigate these ongoing multiple crises, Afro-Puerto Rican women have drawn from their cultural knowledge to engage in daily improvisations that enable their communities to survive and thrive.

MAKING LIVABLE WORLDS: Afro-Puerto Rican Women Building Environmental Justice (University of Washington Press) weaves together autobiography, ethnography, interviews, memories, and fieldwork to recast narratives that continuously erase Black Puerto Rican women as agents of social change. In doing so, Hilda Lloréns serves as an "ethnographer of home" as she brings to life the powerful histories and testimonies of a marginalized, disavowed community that has been treated as disposable. Check out her NBN interview ⤵️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/making-livable-worlds-1

29/04/2022

Mid-century America had a problem talking about s*x. Dr. Mary Calderone first diagnosed this condition and, in 1964, led the uphill battle to de-stigmatize s*x education. Supporters hailed her as the “grandmother of modern s*x education” while her detractors painted her as an “aging libertine,” but both could agree that she was quickly shaping the way s*x was discussed in the classroom.

Part biography, part social history, THE TRANSFORMATION of AMERICAN S*X EDUCATION: Mary Calderone and the Fight for S*xual Health (NYU Press) for the first time situates Dr. Mary Calderone at the center of decades of political, cultural, and religious conflict in the fight for comprehensive s*x education. Listen in as Ellen S. More describes Americans’ attempts to come to terms with the vexed subject of s*x education in schools from the late 1940s to the early twenty-first century on the podcast 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-transformation-of-american-s*x-education

26/04/2022

FEMINISMS with CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS (Syracuse University Press), co-edited by Ping Zhu and Hui Faye Xiao, offers an examination of the ways in which Chinese feminist ideas have developed since the mid-1990s. By juxtaposing the plural “feminisms” with “Chinese characteristics,” they both underline the importance of integrating Chinese culture, history, and tradition in the discussions of Chinese feminisms, and stress the difference between the plethora of contemporary Chinese feminisms and the singular state feminism. Learn more about the volume on the podcast ↙️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/feminisms-with-chinese-characteristics

26/04/2022

On this episode Lillian Faderman joins us to discuss WOMAN: The American History of an Idea (Yale University Press). In this latest effort, Faderman examines what it means to be a “woman” in America, tracing the evolution of the meaning from Puritan ideas of God’s plan for women to the s*xual revolution of the 1960s and its reversals to the impact of such recent events as , the appointment of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, the election of Kamala Harris as vice president, and the transgender movement. Listen in to learn more about this 400-year history on the podcast 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/woman

20/04/2022

Spanning the decades from the rise of photography to the age of the selfie, THE CULTURE of MALE BEAUTY in BRITAIN: From the First Photographs to David Beckham (University of Chicago Press) traces the complex visual and consumer cultures that shaped masculine beauty in Britain, examining the realms of advertising, health, po*******hy, psychology, sport, and celebrity culture. From earlier beauty show contestants and youth-obsessed artists, the book moves through the decades into considerations of disfigured soldiers, physique models, body-conscious gay men, and celebrities such as David Beckham and David Gandy who populate the worlds of television and social media. Deslandes calls on historians to take beauty and gendered aesthetics seriously while recasting how we think about the place of physical appearance in historical study, the intersection of different forms of high and popular culture, and what has been at stake for men in “looking good.” Learn more on the podcast 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-culture-of-male-beauty-in-britain

08/04/2022

Ireland’s 2015 Marriage Equality referendum is often framed as an incredible achievement just 20 years after s*x between men was decriminalized (1993). But starting the story of gay and le***an rights in Ireland in 1993 is misleading; the work and roots of the major reforms of the 1990s and 21st century are in the 1970s, when gay and le***an activists formed organizations, lobbied for legislative change, and, perhaps most importantly, engaged in the essential work of shifting public perception of same-s*x love. In his 2021 book GAY and LE***AN ACTIVISM in the REPUBLIC of IRELAND, 1973-1993, Patrick McDonagh chronicles the work of the groups and individuals who helped shape Ireland into the state it is today. Join us as we chat about the isolation of being gay in a conservative Catholic nation, the fortitude of Ireland’s gay and le***an groups, and the revolutionary possibilities of Saturday night discos 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/gay-and-le***an-activism-in-the-republic-of-ireland-1973-93

07/04/2022

Gender and s*xuality in modern Iran are frequently examined through the prisms of nationalist symbols and religious discourse. In REVOLUTIONARY BODIES: Technologies of Gender, S*x, and Self in Contemporary Iran (Bloomsbury Academic), Kristin Soraya Batmanghelichi takes a different approach, interrogating how normative ideas of women's bodies in state, religious, and public health discourses have resulted in the female body being deemed as immodest and taboo. Through a diverse blend of sources, including a popular women's journal, a red-light district, cases studies of temporary marriages, iconic public statues, and an HIV-AIDS advocacy organization in Tehran, Batmanghelichi argues that conceptions of gender and s*xuality have been mediated in public discourse and experienced and modified by women themselves over the past 30 years of the Islamic Republic. Give the author's NBN interview a listen ⤵️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/revolutionary-bodies

06/04/2022

BITCH: On the Female of the Species (Basic Books) is a fierce, funny, and revolutionary look at the queens of the animal kingdom. Studying zoology made Lucy Cooke feel like a sad freak. Not because she loved spiders or would root around in animal f***s: all her friends shared the same curious kinks. The problem was her s*x. Being female meant she was, by nature, a loser. Since Charles Darwin, evolutionary biologists have been convinced that the males of the animal kingdom are the interesting ones—dominating and promiscuous, while females are dull, passive, and devoted. In BITCH, Cooke tells a new story. Learn more on the podcast 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/bitch

23/02/2022

In DESIGNING MOTHERHOOD: Things that Make and Break Our Births (MIT Press), Michelle Millar Fisher and Amber Winick along with more than 50 contributors consider over 100 designs that have defined the arc of human reproduction. This volume considers a breadth of designs that have defined the relationships between people and babies during the past century, including the menstrual cup, population policy posters, home pregnancy tests, tie-waist skirts, cesarean birth curtains, birth in film, the Kuddle Up blanket, breast pumps, and car seats. Learn more on the podcast 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/designing-motherhood

22/02/2022

In the world of interior design, mid-century Modernism has left an indelible mark still seen and felt today in countless open-concept floor plans and spare, geometric furnishings. Yet despite our continued fascination, we rarely consider how this iconic design sensibility was marketed to the diverse audiences of its era. Examining advice manuals, advertisements, and more, MID-CENTURY MODERNISM and the AMERICAN BODY: Race, Gender, and the Politics of Power in Design (Princeton University Press) offers a powerful new look at how codes of race, gender, and identity influenced—and were influenced by—Modern design and shaped its presentation to consumers. Tune in 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/mid-century-modernism-and-the-american-body

21/02/2022

Something is definitely up with men. From millions online who engage with the manosphere to the backlash, from Men's Rights activists and incels to spiraling su***de rates, it's easy to see that, while men still rule the world, masculinity is in crisis. Feminism has gone some way towards dismantling the patriarchy, but how can we hold on to the best aspects of our metaphorical Father?

Listen in as Nina Power, author of WHAT DO MEN WANT?: Masculinity and Its Discontents (Penguin Books), speaks to Pierre d'Alancaisez about the challenge of accepting biological differences and the potential for men and women living well in a world where capitalism has replaced the values - family, religion, service, and honour - that used to give our lives meaning. PODCAST LINK ⤵️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/what-do-men-want

18/02/2022

Patricia Tilburg's WORKING GIRLS: S*x, Taste, and Reform in the Parisian Garment Trades, 1880-1919 (Oxford University Press) is at once a cultural, gender, urban, and labour history of the Belle Epoque era. Named for the lunch hour when thousands of female garment workers spilled into the streets of Paris each day, the midinette became a symbol of French taste and skill, the embodiment of productive labour and the pleasures of the modern capital. Represented by a range of observers during the period as young, cheerful, attractive, and s*xually available, the midinette became the subject of (male) fantasy and philanthropy, her image working to assuage anxieties about a rapidly changing world. Learn more on the podcast 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/working-girls

18/02/2022

The Rgveda contains over a 1000 hymns, addressed primarily to 3 gods: the deified ritual Fire, Agni; the war god, Indra; and Soma, who is none other than the personification of the sacred beverage soma. The hymns were sung in day-long fire rituals in which poet-priests prepared the sacred drink to empower Indra. The dominant image of Indra is that of a highly glamorized, violent, and powerful male; the three gods represent the ideals of manhood.

Listen in as Jarrod Whitaker discusses his book, STRONG ARMS and DRINKING STRENGTH: Masculinity, Violence, and the Body in Ancient India (Oxford University Press) on the podcast ↙️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/strong-arms-and-drinking-strength

15/02/2022

Is confidence the secret to success? Maybe not.

In CONFIDENCE CULTURE (Duke University Press), Shani Orgad and Rosalind Gill argue that imperatives directed at women to “love your body” and “believe in yourself” imply that psychological blocks rather than entrenched social injustices hold women back. Rejecting confidence culture’s remaking of feminism along individualistic and neoliberal lines, Orgad and Gill explore alternative articulations of feminism that go beyond the confidence imperative. Learn more on the podcast ↙

https://newbooksnetwork.com/confidence-culture

NB Gender and Sexuality

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