Gender: Antiquity and Its Legacy

by Brooke Holmes

Gender has now become a pervasive topic in the humanities and social sciences. Yet despite its familiarity within universities and colleges, some have argued that the radical debates which first characterized gender studies have become ghettoized or marginalized -- so that gender no longer
makes the impact on creative thinking and ideas that it once did. Brooke Holmes here rescues ancient ideas about sex and gender in order precisely to reinvigorate contemporary debate. She argues that much writing on gender in the classical age fails to place those ancient ideas within their proper
historical contexts. As a result, the full transformational force of that thinking is often overlooked. In this short, lively book, the author offers a sophisticated and historically rounded reading of gender in antiquity in order to map out the future of contemporary gender studies. By re-examining
ancient notions of sexual difference, bodies, culture, and identity, Holmes shows that Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, Epicureans and others force us to reassess what is at stake in present-day discussions about gender. The ancient world thus offers a vital resource for modern gender theory.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Gender, Feminism, Classics, LGBT, Queer

213 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2011

Reviews

[Nameless · Rating 3 out of 5]

This writing plots a good main idea of how the conceptions of being famine and musculine had been struggling from the ancient Greek, and it established the heterosexuality and homosexuality in the 19th century, but still facing the flux of gender identity of the 21st century. More than a half of writing contains a heap of literature reviews from notable scholars, while having less of the author's self analysis of the journey of construction of the gender identity.

The main concept of the book really provokes the mind of the readers to rethink of the understanding of gender in present, this is a good book to read and being used for research. However, the over literature review and citing from too many previous authors in the gender study (in comparison the size of the book 180 pages is considered to be disproportioned between the self analysis and the sources used in the texts) makes this book hard to read because I, the reader, have to remember all the authors and their referred writing. Also, from the text, it does not really say how the souces used is linked to the analysis, which makes reading this book is inaccessible.

[bertha mason · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would give this 3.5 stars if I could, but I am choosing to round down. Solid scholarship, but often left me feeling like “yes—and?” I think it would have been better if they just assumed a level of knowledge in queer theory, although I understand that writing to a classics audience (which is unfortunately a boy’s club) necessitates some hand-holding that other fields wouldn’t need. Important work, and yet, I think there are better versions of this.

[Aliosha Bielenberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for Classics First Readings 2017. Provisional rating and review, until September.

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel that Holmes did not incorporate material culture enough in her discussions.

[Mohamed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this was a very good book, I must say that the content felt a little lacking. A good chunk of it is spent explaining the debates surrounding modern readings of classical texts, which wasn't exactly what I was looking for. The author spends too much time explaining how modern thinkers interpreted findings regarding gender when what I was hoping for was to be presented with the findings themselves. Despite this shortcoming, I did manage to learn a lot about the opinions of famous thinkers, most notably Foucault, Hegel, and Butler. I would recommend this to anyone interested in both classical perceptions of gender as well as classical texts (medical, philosophical, literary, etc.). If you're looking for something more direct and in touch with the classical period, I'd recommend the "sex" book in this series by Daniel Orrells. However, on the whole, I would say that this was a very easy, pleasant, and informative read.