Language And Sexual Difference

An accessible introduction to French feminist theory and contemporary French women's writing for non-French speakers. The book offers a context to this challenging, controversial body of work by giving clear accounts of the philosophical, post-structural and psychoanalytic debates which have had such an impact on French intellectual life in recent years, and to which French feminist writers offer a response.

Luce Irigaray (1932-) is the foremost thinker on sexual difference of our times. In An Ethics of Sexual Difference Irigaray speaks out against many feminists by pursuing questions of sexual difference, arguing that all thought and language is gendered and that there can therefore be no neutral thought. Examining major philosophers, such as Plato, Spinoza and Levinas, with a series of meditations on the female experience, she advocates new philosophies through which women can develop a distinctly female space and a "love of self". It is an essential feminist text and a major contribution to our thinking about language.

S. 205-307: Sex differences in language, speech and nonverbal communication : an annotated bibliography / comp. by Nancy Henley and Barrie Thorne

This book is a volume in the Penn Press Anniversary Collection. To mark its 125th anniversary in 2015, the University of Pennsylvania Press rereleased more than 1,100 titles from Penn Press's distinguished backlist from 1899-1999 that had fallen out of print. Spanning an entire century, the Anniversary Collection offers peer-reviewed scholarship in a wide range of subject areas.

A history of feminism and women's rights in Italy. No index. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

This collection of articles presents a selection of Deborah Cameron’s work on language, gender and sex in one single volume. Arranged thematically, this book covers major developments in Anglo-American feminist linguistics, and Cameron’s responses to these, spanning the last twenty years. The collection’s overarching theme is the political relationship between language and gender: four distinctly themed sections demonstrate that a variety of forces affect gender relations, and gender representations, in different times and places. Cameron examines the connections between language and the (mis)representation of reality, and the role language plays in reproducing gender inequalities. More recent articles focus on representations of men and women as communicators, as well as the impact of sexuality on gender and gender relations, an increasingly prominent area of the author’s research. This timely study brings much of Cameron’s work together for the first time, and highlights characteristics of her work with which many readers will be familiar: a combination of linguistic and feminist political orientation; and a distinct focus on conflict in gender relations. Including a new introductory essay and eleven articles, three of which are previously unpublished, with short introductions to contextualize each piece, the collection is extremely useful for students and teachers on a variety of courses including English language and linguistics, women’s studies, gender studies and communication studies.

Sexual Difference is a critical exploration of psychoanalytic theories of sexual difference. In particular it explores the way in which masculinity is expressed in theory and practice. Developing from the unsettling impact of these issues on the author's own professional practice, Stephen Frosh examines how the very language and structure of psychoanalysis are loaded with assumptions about gender. Employing both Kleinian and Lacanian theoretical perspectives this book critically examines these approacheds to sexial difference. In addition, it discusses the application of these issues in the practice of treating sexual violence and in cases of child secual abuse. Sexual Difference will be of value to all trainees and professionals in psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, psychology and social work, as well as all those with an interest in `masculinity', `femininity' and their effects.

This book addresses themes concerning male bodies, men and masculinities from an explicit feminist philosophical position, drawing from various fields, including phenomenology, gender theory, sociology of the body and continental philosophy, among others. Whereas the majority of works in the field of critical studies on men and masculinities draw predominantly on gender and queer theories, this book works from within the sexual difference theory as developed by feminist philosopher Luce Irigaray. As such, it proposes a conceptual sketch for a different understanding of the complex relationships between “male bodies”, “men” and “masculinities”, making use of Gilles Deleuze’s radical notion of “critique” and arguing, at the same time, for a post-Deleuzean concept of “becoming-man” from the philosophy of sexual difference perspective. The book represents a contribution to the interpretations of Luce Irigaray’s rich work, as well as to the fields of masculinities studies and feminist philosophy, and it is written primarily for scholars and students in cultural studies, women and gender studies, sexuality studies, and philosophy.