Gender

Addressing students and the general reader, this series introduces key concepts in feminist theory. Any reader will find the series vitally useful, not just for understanding what new theories mean and how they are used but also for grasping how they have evolved. In her incisive discussion V. Geetha points out that ‘gender is everywhere’, and when we allocate to the male and female sexes, specific and distinctive attributes and roles, we are ‘doing’ gender. She suggests insightfully that gender ‘is both part of the world we live in, as well as a way of understanding the world’. Provocative and jargon-free, the book shows how gender identities mesh with those constituted by caste, class, religion and sexual preferences, forming a set of arrangements that have evolved through history. It enables the reader to undertake a fresh and critical analysis of what we consider to be normal and given, to ask questions, to take stock of the self and the world.