Contemporary Gender Theory Research Articles

Gendered relations? Associations between Swedish parents, siblings, and adolescents' time spent sedentary and physically active.

The family is assumed to be fundamental in youth socialization processes and development, connected to social and cultural practices such as healthy lifestyles and physical activity. However, gender patterns in physical activity among adolescents and the structural drivers of gender inequality (e.g., parentage and siblingship) are poorly understood. The aim of this study was to explore further how gender structures relate to adolescents' time spent being sedentary and physically active, using contemporary gender theory. This cross-sectional study involved 1,139 adolescents aged 13-14 and their parents, including 815 mothers and 572 fathers. Physical activity and time spent sedentary were assessed through accelerometry among adolescents and through a self-report questionnaire for parents validated against accelerometry. The results showed significant relationships between mothers' moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and girls' MVPA on weekdays and weekends, and fathers' MVPA was significantly related to girls' MVPA on weekdays. Our results imply that the relationship between Swedish parents' and adolescent girls' physical activity in higher intensities are to some extent gendered practices. However, time spent sedentary does not seem to show any patterns of being performed according to binary ideas of gender. Further, our exploratory analyses suggest that these results somewhat intersect with parents' educational level and relate to intra-categorical aspects of doing gender. The results also indicate slight gendered patterns in the "doing" of brotherhood for time spent sedentary, however, for boys only on weekends. The study contributes to the understanding of gender norms as constraints and enablers for adolescents' participation in physical activity. The results can spur public health and physical activity research to apply a contemporary gender theory approach, and to expand the research agenda connected to what relates to gender inequalities in physical activity practices.

Gender and charismatic power

Working beyond the inclination to inaugurate alternative theoretical traditions alongside canonical sociology, this article demonstrates the value of recovering latent gender theory from within classic concepts—in this case, Weber’s “charisma.” Close readings of Weber reveal, (a) tools for theorizing extraordinary, non-masculinist agency, and, (b) clues that account for the conventional wisdom (popular and scholastic) that charisma is “not for women.” While contemporary movements may be tempted to eschew charismatic leadership per se because of legacies of dominance by men, there is value in Weber’s formulation, which anticipated the performative turn in social theory that would destabilize biologistic gender ontologies. Value in this exchange also flows back to Weber: by confronting his intermittent tendency to describe charisma in terms that we now recognize as “customs of manly power,” we reveal heretofore unseen imperfections (i.e., traditionalist modes of legitimation) in his ideal-type. This engagement thus demonstrates an empowering mutuality between contemporary gender theory and “the classics.” The article ends by theorising the nexus of gender and charisma in the case of Trump, pointing to possibilities for vitiating Donald Trump’s charisma, as well as for anti-Trumpian charisma.

Gender research in hospitality and tourism management: time to change the guard

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explain the problem with how gender is positioned in hospitality and tourism management studies. It recommends critical theories to investigate how gender is researched in the sector’s academic and institutional systems.Design/methodology/approachThe conceptual study explains contemporary gender theories and gives examples of relevant hospitality and tourism management studies. A four point critical agenda for researching gender is proposed and justified.FindingsThe study highlights how the focus on “female leadership” as different from the male norm and the use of traditional theoretical framings reinforce stereotypes about the primacy of women’s domestic commitments to their detriment.Research limitations/implicationsA limitation of this academy focussed study is that it has not recommended specific initiatives to combat specific issues of gender discrimination in hospitality and tourism employment. A further limitation is that the primary focus was on critical management theory to explain heteronormative based gender discrimination. It did not discuss queer theory.Practical implicationsIn addition, a new research agenda, steps are proposed to change the masculine culture. Hospitality and tourism universities and research institutions should review men’s/women’s/gender diverse representation at leadership levels. Critical gender research approaches may also be fostered by sectorial conference streams and journal special issues and university graduate research students should be taught to design such studies.Social implicationsThe use of contemporary approaches in gender studies will enable researchers to propose more targeted equality and diversity management actions for industry. They will also assist educators to better design curricula that protect and promote the interests of women studying a hospitality, tourism or events degree and those who identify as gender diverse.Originality/valueThe paper challenges the masculine status quo in hospitality and tourism management gender studies, arguing that adherence to traditional orthodoxies has stifled the development of critical paradigms and methodologies. Its key contribution is to reveal the advantages that critical gender theorising can bring to further the aim of gender equality by showing practical applications.

The German literature in American exile – great writers and their wives: perspectives from Russian scholars

The article focuses on the life and art of the famous Germane writers, namely Thomas Mann, Lion Feuchtwanger, and Franz Werfel. After the outbreak of WWII, when the Nazi forces invaded these lands, a lot of emigres managed to leave for the USA. For many of them, the escape route was extremely turbulent. The German writers in the USA settled closely together in California, forming a tight community. The famous Germane writers had to decide upon two principal questions: what they could do for the culture of their home country while staying in exile, and how to interact with the culture of the country where they live. In this connection, it is of great importance to analyze not their works, but the books of their wives. They took care of the house and children on a daily basis, as well as became secretaries, councilors, and closest associates of their great husbands. The authors also propose the main perspectives on a future research on this topic, focusing on the social and political phenomenon of “the community of German writers in American exile”, analyzing how the intellectual community was formed, discussing the documents of this age, studying the memories about their time in America in the context of the contemporary gender theory.

Literary Forms/Techniques & Methods of Study

Literary Forms/Techniques & Methods of Study Christopher T. Begg, William J. Urbrock, CFC Alan J. Moss, and George C. Heider 68. Ehud Ben Zvi, "Introductory Centre/Core Periphery Considerations and the Case of Interplaying of Rigid and Flexible Constructions of Centre and Periphery among the Literati of the Late Persian/Early Hellenistic Period," Centres and Peripheries, 21-41 [see #608]. B. Z.'s opening essay in the above collection serves as a methodological introduction to the volume as a whole and to the C-P (centre-periphery) concept in all its variety. Its main purpose is to provide readers with shared basic background from which to approach the other contributions of the volume. It includes a "theory" section (section "A") and then moves to "practical examples" (sections "B" and "C"). The latter sections are meant to clearly illustrate the existence and usefulness as well as the limitations of C-P cross-cultural/cross-historical patterns and their generative "grammars." To be sure, these general cross-cultural tendencies necessarily lead to unique historical outcomes, due to matters of historical contingency. The examples cited in section "B" mainly deal with: (a) self-constructions of groups that, while they are peripheral in terms of historical and economic capital, are central in terms of their cultural and symbolic capital; and (b) the construction of the "central" city of a group as "peripheral." The latter case serves to show that social-anthropological modes and underlying systematic generative grammars may work for "real" societies and social agents, but also for societies and social agents that existed only in the shared memory and imagination of a group. Section "C" stresses via examples that C-P constructions are often neither linear nor unidirectional and that often the system works through a set of related "axes" rather than a single such axis. In making this case, B. Z. discusses a variety of significant and substantially different cases, which make clear, beyond doubt, that at times, seemingly expected differentiations of what is central and peripheral were negotiated along a multiplicity of axes. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] 69. [Genesis 12, etc.] Joshua Berman, "Juxtaposed Conflicting Compositions (Gen 1:1–2:4a / 2:4b-25; Exod 14–15; Judg 4–5): A New Kingdom Egyptian Parallel," JNSL 42 (1, 2016) 1-13. The Hebrew Bible records several instances of juxtaposed conflicting accounts (Genesis 1–2; Exodus 14–15; and Judges 4–5). To date, however, no example has been adduced from cognate literature of differing accounts of the same event juxtaposed with each other in this way. In the case of the Kadesh inscriptions of Ramesses II, B. points out here, the pharaoh commissioned two differing accounts of the Battle of Kadesh, and had these carved side by side at several monumental sites. B.'s study examines the discrepancies between the two versions, and how Egyptologists have explained their juxtaposition. On this basis, he then discusses the implications of this extrabiblical example for our understanding of juxtaposed conflicting accounts in the Hebrew Bible. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] 70. [Jeremiah] Corrine Carvalho, "Whose Gendered Language of God? Contemporary Gender Theory and Divine Gender in the Prophets," CurTM 43 (3, 2016) 12-16. In the Book of Jeremiah, gender-bending takes place in the text on three planes: first, defeat of the nation is depicted through gender-bending metaphors; second, the prophet Jeremiah's own gender is called into question through his interactions with God and the community; third, the picture of restoration also involves gender reversal. Gender distortion [End Page 18] and reversal in the book are part of a larger rhetorical strategy to depict the defeat of the city as a disruption of every social category.—W.J.U. 71. Cynthia Ruth Chapman, "Modern Terms and their Ancient Non-Equivalents. Patrilineality and Gender in the Historical Study of the Bible," HeBAI 5 (2016) 78-93. Modern gender-critical methodological frameworks that have emerged within Western academic discourse can open new windows into ancient texts and worldviews, allowing the researcher to recognize and begin to theorize gendered language and categories. At the same time, however, modern methodologies...

Constructions of Gender in Contemporary South African Crime Fiction: A Feminist Literary Analysis of the Novels of Angela Makholwa

This article offers a feminist literary analysis of Angela Makholwa’s two crime novels, Red Ink (2007) and Black Widow Society (2013), in order to explore how a black female author represents gendered constructions of identity and gender violence in the genre of crime fiction. Over the last few decades, crime fiction has received increased scholarly attention in academic circles, both locally and abroad. In the South African context, scholars have tended to focus their analytical gaze on a few, well-known and established crime writers. I seek to extend the critical debate about South African crime writing by turning my attention to the work of a black female crime writer. Although Makholwa’s novels make a number of observations about the salience of race in the South African milieu, this analysis focuses on her fictional representations of contemporary gender assumptions and relations. In particular, I consider how her literary representations of gender violence invite readers to trace the violence back to the gendered ordering of female characters’ lived experiences. A close reading of her novels reveals that misogyny is rife and that, regardless of where they are located on the socio-economic ladder, female characters must negotiate their way in terms of very prescriptive and fundamentally gendered scripts. Rather than regarding violence against women as aberrations, these texts suggest that such violence is pervasive and that the brutal instances of physical violence are merely extreme manifestations of discursive and structural gender oppression that shapes every aspect of the female characters’ lives. This article follows an interdisciplinary approach and I utilise founding and contemporary gender theory as well as sociological gender research to enrich the literary analysis of Makholwa’s texts.

Post-identity politics and the social weightlessness of radical gender theory

This paper examines recent forms of post-identity thought within contemporary gender theory, specifically the works of Rosi Braidotti, Elizabeth Grosz and Bobby Noble. Despite the many insights that these theories offer, I argue that they suffer from what Lois McNay has labelled ‘social weightlessness’ insofar as their models of subjectivity and agency are disconnected from the everyday realities of social subjects. I identify two ways in which this social weightlessness is manifested in radical gender theories that endorse a post-identity politics: (i) they overlook the social and political importance to many individuals of establishing stable, coherent identities; (ii) they are unable to offer a satisfactory account of agency. I suggest that these issues arise, at least in part, from the anti-recognition stance adopted by such radical gender theorists. I argue that by incorporating a properly nuanced model of recognition back into their theories they can imbue their accounts with a properly grounded model of the subject that is responsive to the inequalities and oppressions that infuse the particular concrete contexts in which we experience and live out our identities.

Virtuous necessity: conduct literature and the making of the virtuous woman in early modern England

While many scholars find the early modern triad of virtues for women - silence, chastity, and obedience - to be straightforward and nonnegotiable, Jessica C. Murphy demonstrates that these virtues were by no means as direct and inflexible as they might seem. Drawing on the literature of the period - from the plays of Shakespeare to a conduct manual written for a princess to letters from a wife to her husband - as well as contemporary gender theory and philosophy, she uncovers the multiple meanings of behavioral expectations for sixteenth- and seventeenth-century women. Through her renegotiation of culturalideals as presented in both literary and nonliterary texts of early modern England, Murphy presents models for oacceptableo womenAEs conduct that lie outside of the rigid prescriptions of the time. Virtuous Necessity will appeal to readers interested in early modern English literature, including canonical authors such as Shakespeare, Spenser, and Milton, as well as their female contemporaries such as Amelia Lanyer and Elizabeth Cary. It will also appeal to scholars of conduct literature; of early modern drama, popular literature, poetry, andprose; of womenAEs history; and of gender theory.

New Categories Are Not Enough

Recently, scholars and activists have turned their attention toward improving the measurement of sex and gender in survey research. The focus of this effort has been on including answer options beyond “male” and “female” to questions about the respondent’s gender. This is an important step toward both reflecting the diversity of gendered lives and better aligning survey measurement practice with contemporary gender theory. However, our systematic examination of questionnaires, manuals, and other technical materials from four of the largest and longest-running surveys in the United States indicates that there are a number of other issues with how gender is conceptualized and measured in social surveys that also deserve attention, including essentialist practices that treat sex and gender as synonymous, easily determined by others, obvious, and unchanging over the life course. We find that these understandings extend well beyond direct questions about the respondent’s gender, permeating the surveys. A hyper-gendered world of “males” and “females,” “brothers” and “sisters,” and “husbands” and “wives” shapes what we can see in survey data. If not altered, surveys will continue to reproduce statistical representations that erase important dimensions of variation and likely limit understanding of the processes that perpetuate social inequality.

The Discussion on Female Heroes in Respect of Gender Socialisation of Girls: Retelling Myths of Psyche, Artemis and Katniss

Myths, tales and other related stories for children have significant role in all cultures since they can render the multiplicity of experiences; explain the behaviour of the physical universe; and describe human nature and society. These stories are ‘the most potent means by which perceptions, values and attitudes are transmitted from one generation to the next' (Hourigan 1997, p.1). One genre of such stories is hero story. The hero story is very popular in children's literature and young adult literature since they are considered to be ‘unequivocally good for children morally and mentally' (Hourigan 1997, p.3). To see how the heroic archetype has changed over time, we can explore and compare the journey of traditional female heroes with a contemporary female superhero. This research paper shows how to do an alternative activity for EFL (English as Foreign Language) college students in doing literary analysis by discussing the journey of three female heroes from ancient Greek myths and a recently young adult (YA) text. The heroines of the ancient myths are Psyche in Apuleius's Cupid and Psyche (1855); and Artemis in Callimachus's Artemis (1988). The heroine of the YA literature is Katniss in Collin's The Hunger Games (2008), a contemporary young adult's dystopian literature. By patterning the quests of the heroes in question onto Campbell's monomyth, the author tries to demonstrate that these female heroes (Psyche, Artemis and Katniss) qualify as male heroes. Then, the author compares and contrasts the female heroes in respect of contemporary gender theory and the socialisation of girls.

Who leads?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to engage with contemporary gender and entrepreneurship theories to gain insights into the division of labour, capitals and capacities and gendered identities within husband and wife heterosexual copreneurial businesses. This paper acknowledges copreneurship as a constituent sub group of research within family business and in doing so, the wider small business domain. Design/methodology/approach – A multiple exploratory interview approach was used, with data generated through face-to-face in-depth interviews and ethnographic participant – observer multi-setting observation. This approach provided exceedingly rich and detailed data, and thus insights into the complex relationships found within copreneurial businesses. Findings – The interviews generated a large amount of qualitative data, which were organised into themes through a process of recursive abstraction. Expelling the myth of the “male lead entrepreneur”, this study found that entrepreneurial identity and roles and responsibilities within a copreneurial business are shared and complementary, and are dependent upon the unique capacities and capitals of each partner. While there is evidence of duties that could be stereotypically described as either “men’s work or women’s work”, there was no apparent role tension between the partners. Thus, no partner’s contribution was deemed more valuable than the other. Originality/value – By examining the division of labour and unique value/contribution of both men and women within the copreneurial/familial relationship the stereotyped perception of the husband being the lead (male) entrepreneur is challenged in favour of the more complementary capacities, roles, responsibilities and, thus, value of each actor/participant.

Enacting Gender and Kinship around a Large Outdoor Fire Pit at the Seneca Iroquois Townley-Read Site, 1715–1754

This article examines a single large outdoor fire pit (Feature 5) from the ca. 1715–1754 Seneca Iroquois Townley-Read site, exploring the untidy intersection of contemporary gender theory, archaeological remains (encompassing artifacts, subsistence remains, features, spatial relations, and contemporaneous mortuary data from the region), and normative conceptions of Iroquois gender roles. While many social categories of people presumably circulated through the feature area, women were consistently present and likely controlled most of the work that took place. The Feature 5 assemblage suggests that Seneca women smoked pipes and worked brass, were involved in complex sets of tasks and “changes of hands” that contributed to subsistence and trade, and labored and demonstrated control over resources and personnel in a way that was not in any sense “private.” The spatial separation of gendered areas of control was one way in which both Seneca kinship and gender identities were performed and reproduced.

Spellbinding Stories. Gender Theory and Georges Sorel's Concept of Social Myth

This paper explores the potential of Georges Sorel's concept of social myth for contemporary feminist theory that focuses on performativity. It therefore represents not a historical analysis of Sorel's concept, but an attempt to adapt it to contemporary contexts. This effort of updating possible uses of Sorelian theory in feminist contexts hinges on the interest shared by Sorelian and gender theory in the performative and normative aspects of narrative. Taking into account the ways in which narrative may be seen to share with myth both constraining and liberating performative dimensions, I distinguish between ideological myth and social myth. Using Judith Butler's theory of citation, I define ideological myth as being instituted through reiterations of legitimate identities which, through these reiterations, become normative. However, as Butler argues, such normative discourses (in my terms, those which anchor ideological myths) are instituted at the expense of a repudiated zone of alterity. Examining the common status of Sorel's socialist radicals and contemporary feminist radicals in their belonging to a repudiated zone of alterity, I argue that it is in such uninhabitable areas of social life that social myths are born. I acknowledge the fact that for Butler social change can happen through citing the norm so that it exceeds its intended disciplinary effects, and I note that, on the contrary, in Sorel's case a social myth expresses a complete break with institutionalised worldviews. Yet, I argue, it is possible to re-evaluate Sorelian theory for use within contemporary gender theory that addresses normative and performative discourses.

Gender, Tradition, and Culture in Translation: Reading the Onnagata in English

A survey of the literature published in English on the practice of the kabuki onnagata is given in relation to readings of contemporary gender theory and issues of female representation in and exclusion from the form. Scholarly cross-cultural readings in Japanese theatre are probed.

Gender monoglossia, gender heteroglossia: the potential of Bakhtin's work for re-conceptualising gender

The development of an analysis of gender which avoids conflations with sex, but which also acknowledges the powerful role of embodiment in gender production, has tantalised gender theorists for some time. Many writers have critiqued the slippage back to sexed bodies underlying various apparently social constructionist analyses of gendered behaviour. Conversely, some poststructuralist and ‘Third Wave’ accounts of gender have been accused of paying insufficient attention to the role of the material in productions of gender. This article draws on Mikhail Bakhtin's work, particularly his concepts of monoglossia and heteroglossia, as offering an application to gender which addresses such tensions and binaries, recognising both the power and effects of (‘monoglossic’) binarised accounts of gender, but also the diverse heteroglossia at play in all such productions. It is argued that analysis of monoglossia and heteroglossia in gender performance facilitates the simultaneous ‘holding’ of recognition of (a) the impact of the material and the discursive in gender construction; and (b) the active work undertaken by dominant, traditional accounts of gender to author themselves as ‘real’ and total, while also identifying the contradictions and diversity within these productions. The article begins by outlining dilemmas facing contemporary gender theory, and then explaining Bakhtin's work on monoglossia and heteroglossia in language. These concepts are then applied to gender, elaborating how the monoglossic, binary account of gender operates to mask and pathologise heteroglossia; yet how heteroglossia nevertheless exists in all productions of gender. It is argued that Bakhtin's work, in application to gender, offers a sophisticated account that can address existing theoretical binaries, acknowledging the role of the material, and of social structures, while simultaneously identifying and celebrating heteroglossic disturbances integral to gender production.

You’ll Never be More of a Man: Gay Male Masculinities in Academic Women’s Studies

This essay analyzes the complicated gendered landscape that academic women’s studies represents for gay male students and instructors. It uses personal experience and contemporary gender theory to explore why women’s studies is perceived to be the natural province of gay males, how gay males are interpellated as ‘‘men’’ in women’s studies, and the choices gay males face between academic feminism and popular discourses of gay rights activism. It argues that Women’s studies represents both a promising and perilous discursive space for gay males, especially those attempting to embody gender constructionist, anti-essentialist, and queer subject positions.

Bridging the Gap: ‘Doing Gender’, ‘Hegemonic Masculinity’, and the Educational Troubles of Boys

AbstractThis article reviews popular and social scientific perspectives on the academic gender gap in education, specifically the finding that boys underperform compared to girls. The article highlights the utility of sociology in analyzing the gender gap and in guiding how educators respond to students’ gender. It suggests that contemporary gender theories ‘doing gender’ and ‘hegemonic masculinity’ offer the best lenses through which to view academic gender differences. These perspectives can frame boys’ academic troubles as an important social problem, but one that is rooted in the social construction of masculinity rather than institutional discrimination against boys.

The Australian Parliament: A Gendered Organisation

This study, drawing on interviews with 13 male and 15 female members of the Australian parliament, has two aims. The first is to contribute to knowledge about the nature of the Australian parliament, an institution which has seldom been subjected to gender analysis. This is particularly pertinent given the significant increase in womens representative status over the past decade. The second of the papers aims is to demonstrate the efficacy of contemporary gender and organisational theory, particularly work on men and masculinities, for investigating questions related to womens involvement in politics. The paper draws on Joan Ackers (‘Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: A Theory of Gendered Organizations’, Gender and Society, 4, 1990, 139–58; ‘From Sex Roles to Gendered Institutions’, Contemporary Sociology, 21, 1992, 565–9.) notion of ‘gendered organisations’ to interrogate the data.

Clinical Implications of Contemporary Gender Theory

The current intellectual scene in psychoanalysis is marked by vigorous theoretical controversies about gender. The ideas being debated have important implications for clinical work, which have not been thoroughly explicated or integrated into common practice. These implications include the following: gender can accrue idiosyncratic meanings; gender identity is considered fluid and rigidity of gender identity deemed problematic; gender-related conflicts are typically described as divergent; analysis of superego conflicts related to gender becomes particularly important; and, finally, gender-related biases are seen as inevitable and must be taken into account in the clinical situation. A detailed clinical example illustrates the application of these ideas. While the more dramatic cases related to gender have been more frequent subjects of study, conflicts about gender are everyday occurrences for our patients and deserve further attention.

Hidden Agendas: Cross-Dressing in 17th-Century France

In this much-needed study, Joseph Harris bridges the gap between two distinct approaches to cross-dressing. On the one hand, literary scholars have long recognized the fascination with the topic in seventeenth-century French literature and culture, but often without consideration of its implications for gender ideologies. On the other, post-structuralist theorists of gender have given a prominent place to drag as both a practice and a model, but usually from a presentist outlook. Fully versed in both approaches and bringing each to bear on the other, Harris has made an important contribution to the study of gender in seventeenth-century French literature and culture and, more generally, to the investigation of cross-dressing itself. Ambitious and wide-ranging, Hidden Agendas is the first study to consider this practice and its literary trope during this period in anything like a comprehensive way. Examining historical and fictional transvestites in dramatic works, prose fiction and memoirs from the entire century, Harris' study complements other work on early modern cross-dressing through the attention given to its image (as opposed to its ‘reality’) within the context of the seventeenth century. After an astute discussion of the historical, methodological and terminological parameters of his study, Harris examines attitudes toward cross-dressing in the period, reviewing the radically different responses to male and female transvestism and conflicting uses of cross-dressing at court (Chapter 1) and then the meanings of the cross-dresser in carnivalesque traditions and theatrical cross-casting (Chapter 2). Harris then turns to what he calls ‘transvestite poetics’, the representation and justification of cross-dressing in dramatic and narrative texts (Chapters 3–5). Emphasizing the importance of the final ‘anagnorisis’ or revelation of the cross-dresser's true identity, these chapters show how gender norms are by and large reasserted but also how the female-to-male transvestite in particular becomes an eroticized and potentially transgressive character. The last two chapters turn to memoirs and pseudo-memoirs in order to consider the cases of several late seventeenth-century cross-dressers. Harris argues that, if cross-dressing allows several women freedom from male dominance (although not necessarily freedom to assume masculine authority), the writings of Abbé de Choisy betray a profound ambivalence toward femininity. Finally, in an Appendix at the end of this book, readers will find a valuable list of ‘transvestite texts’, classified by genre and category (type of cross-dressing, cross-casting, etc.). Beyond providing a broad survey of cross-dressing in seventeenth-century French literature and culture, Hidden Agendas nuances some of the conclusions of contemporary gender theory. Thus, for instance, using the seventeenth-century example, Harris nuances Judith Butler's argument about the inherently subversive performativity of drag. And similarly, in spite of Marjorie Garber's claim, he shows that the cross-dresser does not always constitute a ‘third term’ between the masculine and the feminine. In sum, even if it retains some of the formal features of a doctoral thesis, this is an incisive and stimulating book that is now the principal study of cross-dressing in seventeenth-century France.