Queer Post-Gender Ethics The Shape of Selves to Come

by Nicholas, Lucy

• ISBN13: 9781137321619
• ISBN10: 113732161X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2014-10-08
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

There is increasing resistance to gendering in contemporary society, seen in gender-neutral childrearing and pronouns, expansion of legal sex categories and intersex rights, and queer and genderqueer movements. This timely book considers the utopian question of whether, and how, gender could be eradicated and how we might understand identity and relationships without it. It considers the implications of arguments from 'new materialism' about the malleability of biological sex, and of queer theory and gender deconstruction, for social change and political practice. The original theoretical and practical argument is for an androgynous, reciprocal ethic or way of being in the world that transcends both sex/gender and some of the debates plaguing gender studies. It takes inspiration from real-world queer and post-gender practices, for example by being written using gender-neutral pronouns, and also considers the reality of implementing such an ethic in a highly gendered world, especially in cross-cultural contexts.

Author Biography

Lucy Nicholas is Lecturer in Sociology at Swinburne University, Australia. Research interests include gender, feminist, and queer theory, and social practices which challenge gender and sexual difference.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. The Resilience of Bigenderism
2. Diagnosing and Transcending Sexual Difference
3. Gender Justice
4. Philosophical Arguments for Post-Gender Ontological Ethics
5. Queer Futures and Queer Ethics: Sketching Inexhaustibly Reciprocal Androgyny
6. The Politics of Implementing Post-Gender Ethics: Beyond Idealism / Realism
7. The Fully Armed Self: Cultivating Post-Gender Subjects
8. Ethical Post-Gender Sexual Relationships and Communities
Conclusion: Utopian Realism