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Key Concepts (Polity)
Gender
Gender issues have become an increasingly prominent concern of academics and policy-makers. Although the death of feminism has often been pronounced, feminist ideas still permeate modern thinking. But what exactly do we mean by gender? How can we best understand gender differences? How are current gender relations changing? Are we facing a crisis of masculinity? Is social life being feminized? What would it be like to live in a society in which differences of gender were transcended?
In this lively and accessible book Harriet Bradley provides an introduction to the concept of gender and the different theoretical approaches which have developed within gender studies. Using life narratives, she explores contemporary relations of masculinity and femininity and investigates processes of gendering in three important spheres of contemporary social production, reproduction and consumption.
The book highlights the centrality of gender in everyday life and shows how thinking about gender is influenced by changing political contexts, considering the options for a transformative politics of gender.
This book will be of interest to students across the social sciences, as well as anyone interested in contemporary relations between women and men.
In this lively and accessible book Harriet Bradley provides an introduction to the concept of gender and the different theoretical approaches which have developed within gender studies. Using life narratives, she explores contemporary relations of masculinity and femininity and investigates processes of gendering in three important spheres of contemporary social production, reproduction and consumption.
The book highlights the centrality of gender in everyday life and shows how thinking about gender is influenced by changing political contexts, considering the options for a transformative politics of gender.
This book will be of interest to students across the social sciences, as well as anyone interested in contemporary relations between women and men.
- GenresNonfictionGender
240 pages, Paperback
First published November 25, 1998
7 people are currently reading
81 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 29, 2023
Harriet Bradley's 'Gender' aims to explore the concept of gender through a Marxist lens of production, consumption and reproduction on the micro, meso and macro scales.
I expected this book to be a balanced depiction of modern gender issues, however, Harriet focused almost exclusively on the female experience and edged into 'man-hating' several times. She calls for less individualised critiques of gender and instead to focus on generalisations of how we collectively can experience gender related issues. If the aim of the book was to generalise for 220 pages, she succeeded. This work is wrought with basic over-generalisations particularly about men. She writes, most abhorrently on pg 82 "It is after all, only men who can rape", and although briefly touching on domestic abuse experienced by men reduces this to mostly male-on-male violence. The depiction of men continues to be two dimensional as though only her described "New Men" are capable of complex feelings and understandings of the world - (pg 135 a "major deep-seated difference between women and men: men never have to 'lie awake' as to whether they may be pregnant and what to do if they are".)
She also falls into the habit of critiquing women - pg 178 claiming that Janet Jackson's career ruining wardrobe malfunction at the 2004 Super Bowl was a ploy because some women cannot separate themselves from the need to sexually impress men. Harriet further demonises women by alluding to footballers' wives as shallow, "caring little for beyond clothing, appearance and consumption".
'Gender' begins by highlighting that much literature on the subject deals primarily with women, equating gender to women alone, then continues to follow this model. The book is dated, first written in 2007 and updated in 2013 and is unrepresentative of the modern female experience in 2023. A lot has changed in 10 years but even by 2013 standards Harriet's writing fell short.
The book could have benefited from constructing a more holistic view of gender to represent the female, male and transgender experience - the last of which was ignored altogether in any meaningful way. The subject of class could have been more insightful and provocative, like many topics it was touched upon but not explored past a point that the reader was most likely familiar with.
I expected this book to be a balanced depiction of modern gender issues, however, Harriet focused almost exclusively on the female experience and edged into 'man-hating' several times. She calls for less individualised critiques of gender and instead to focus on generalisations of how we collectively can experience gender related issues. If the aim of the book was to generalise for 220 pages, she succeeded. This work is wrought with basic over-generalisations particularly about men. She writes, most abhorrently on pg 82 "It is after all, only men who can rape", and although briefly touching on domestic abuse experienced by men reduces this to mostly male-on-male violence. The depiction of men continues to be two dimensional as though only her described "New Men" are capable of complex feelings and understandings of the world - (pg 135 a "major deep-seated difference between women and men: men never have to 'lie awake' as to whether they may be pregnant and what to do if they are".)
She also falls into the habit of critiquing women - pg 178 claiming that Janet Jackson's career ruining wardrobe malfunction at the 2004 Super Bowl was a ploy because some women cannot separate themselves from the need to sexually impress men. Harriet further demonises women by alluding to footballers' wives as shallow, "caring little for beyond clothing, appearance and consumption".
'Gender' begins by highlighting that much literature on the subject deals primarily with women, equating gender to women alone, then continues to follow this model. The book is dated, first written in 2007 and updated in 2013 and is unrepresentative of the modern female experience in 2023. A lot has changed in 10 years but even by 2013 standards Harriet's writing fell short.
The book could have benefited from constructing a more holistic view of gender to represent the female, male and transgender experience - the last of which was ignored altogether in any meaningful way. The subject of class could have been more insightful and provocative, like many topics it was touched upon but not explored past a point that the reader was most likely familiar with.
June 27, 2025
z wnioskami sie nie zgadzam - ale nie spodziewalam sie tego zwazajac na perspektywe autorki ;pp
kompedium wiedzy - w porzadku :DD
kompedium wiedzy - w porzadku :DD
February 27, 2016
A few things to begin: the work appears to be well researched and equally academically sound. It presents a number of the issues surrounding gender in the world and is recommendable to anyone wanting to acquire a better understanding of the same.
What is upsetting about the work, however, is its lack of addressing such issues as "alternate" gender identities and the issues related thereto, its almost overpowering emphasis on feminism and its lack of perspective. While discussing, at the start, a brief history of gender studies and addressing the historic shift in gender studies from specifically "women's studies" to the wider world of gender, it is itself rife with an emphasis on the study of women and feminism, and neglects to address, to any notable extent, the experiences of those of other genders. That the concept of there being more than only two genders goes unaddressed, among other ideas, is particularly disappointing. The more so is the frequent conflation of sex and gender; such glaring statements as "Only men can rape" are demonstrative.
It is worth noting that "Gender" is directed at the social aspects of gender, which is to say it addresses gender from a sociological, and not a psychological, standpoint. Gender has, of course, overlapping facets in both; it seems worthwhile to understand which of these will be addressed when reading this work.
On the whole, Bradley's "Gender" carries my recommendation with a strong caveat: it should be read critically, more than most literature. The reader should remain aware of the apparent politicking in the conclusion of (and throughout) the work and should remain aware of the great expanse of the concepts underpinning gender that go without discussion in the work.
What is upsetting about the work, however, is its lack of addressing such issues as "alternate" gender identities and the issues related thereto, its almost overpowering emphasis on feminism and its lack of perspective. While discussing, at the start, a brief history of gender studies and addressing the historic shift in gender studies from specifically "women's studies" to the wider world of gender, it is itself rife with an emphasis on the study of women and feminism, and neglects to address, to any notable extent, the experiences of those of other genders. That the concept of there being more than only two genders goes unaddressed, among other ideas, is particularly disappointing. The more so is the frequent conflation of sex and gender; such glaring statements as "Only men can rape" are demonstrative.
It is worth noting that "Gender" is directed at the social aspects of gender, which is to say it addresses gender from a sociological, and not a psychological, standpoint. Gender has, of course, overlapping facets in both; it seems worthwhile to understand which of these will be addressed when reading this work.
On the whole, Bradley's "Gender" carries my recommendation with a strong caveat: it should be read critically, more than most literature. The reader should remain aware of the apparent politicking in the conclusion of (and throughout) the work and should remain aware of the great expanse of the concepts underpinning gender that go without discussion in the work.
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June 28, 2013305.3 B8114 2013
November 3, 2014
very current, and extremely lucid... covers a lot of the world... beyond the standard view of the first world...
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews