Queer Feminist Science Studies: A Reader

by Cyd Cipolla (Editor), Kristina Gupta hD (Editor), David A. Rubin hD (Editor)

Queer Feminist Science Studies takes a transnational, trans-species, and intersectional approach to this cutting-edge area of inquiry between women's, gender, and sexuality studies and science and technology studies (STS). The essays here "queer"--or denaturalize and make strange--ideas that are taken for granted in both areas of study. Reimagining the meanings of and relations among queer and feminist theories and a wide range of scientific disciplines, contributors foster new critical and creative knowledge-projects that attend to shifting and uneven operations of power, privilege, and dispossession, while also highlighting potentialities for uncertainty, subversion, transformation, and play.

Theoretically and rhetorically powerful, these essays also take seriously the materiality of "natural" objects and phenomena: bones, voles, chromosomes, medical records and more all help substantiate answers to questions such as, What is sex? How are race, gender, sexuality, and other systems of differences co-constituted? The foundational essays and new writings collected here offer a generative resource for students and scholars alike, demonstrating the ingenuity and dynamism of queer feminist scholarship.

Genres: Science, Feminism, Nonfiction, Queer, Social Science, Gender, LGBT

352 pages, Paperback

Published December 1, 2017

Reviews

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book filled a requirement for knowledge and analysis that I knew I had, but thought could not be reached, and it incited my desire to continue research into queering science. Looking at science studies through an queer, open perception is essential for the future of science. Studies of medicine and biology, as well as more abstract studies of botany and zoology, need to move away from the generally-accepted, the Western standard of study. Western, colonized, male-oriented, unchanging systems of science study are how, in the past, we reached conclusions that ova, the qualitative and "reserved" nature of it, dictated how women should act, to speak nothing of women who did not possess ovaries. It's how hysteria was considered a real diagnosis, and a prescribed, involuntary stimulation was considered the treatment. The standard of science studies today needs to be reconsidered; "We've always done it this way" is no longer the right answer.
This collection of essays taught me scientific methods of study and fact that had never occurred to me.
I will treasure it moving forward in my exploration of biology and evolution.

[Mills College Library]

306.7601 Q382 2017

[fivestarbookreview]

Cyd Cipolla, Kristina Gupta, David Rubin, and Angela Willey, the editors of Queer Feminist Science Studies have curated a magnificent collection of existing articles from various areas of scientific study in an attempt to queer the scientific field. They challenge the essentialisms not only of the typically male scientific paradigm, but also take aim at rigidity in feminism and gender studies. The editors have also selected articles to highlight the queerness inherent in science – for example, David Rubin’s article on how intersex became a gender, Angela Willey and Sara Giordano’s exploration of vole monogamy and how it impacted gene research, and Michelle Murphy’s dissection of objectivity. Most of the entries were initially published in scientific journals and have been edited down for this volume which will be a welcome relief for those not accustomed to scientific academese. Hopefully, this absorbing collection will be the first of many.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting ideas, although some of the essays, and especially the introduction to different sections of the book, get too erudite and jargon-y to be entertaining (or sensical). This is a very academic book, while also discussing many different "vulgar" topics. My favorite essays were ones that did not dwell in theoretical jargon, but instead used concrete (modern and historical) examples to expose the heteronormative biases in scientific methodology. Recommend for those interested in queer feminist theory and willing to get into the weeds in this area.

[Madi · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Queer feminist sciences studies scholarship offers powerful examples of how to critique the normalizing and pathologizing tendencies of Western biomedicine and science, while also providing insights into how science and biomedicine might be reformed and/or (re)appropriated in order to better serve the interests of women, sexual minorities, gender-nonconforming people, and other historically marginalized groups."