Related Recs
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If you saw that NYT headline “the future isn’t female anymore” and you’re wondering what the fuck is going on with women, this book is a good place to start. the cool thing about theory is that you actually only have to read the introduction.
Jul 26, 2022
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i find as an unhealed person who doesn’t have a good sense of self respect or mindfulness sex kind of causes a lot of problems for me interpersonal and personal.
at least a break in looking at WHY you’re having sex, and what kind of sexual scripts you’re following without even realizing.. what parts of yourself are you reinforcing and/or reducing when you enter sexual situations?
i think sex can be mistaken for intimacy sometimes, is this the form of intimacy that serves you best? what conditions do you think you need to have sex that makes you feel good and genuine? do you feel you have emotional agency in your sex life?
(edit: also! sex is so fucking vulnerable! of course being vulnerable is how you form connections.. but to perform vulnerability is not the same and it happens a lot!)
i also have a lot of personal disgust towards sexual scripts put on by pornography (violence, minors, cnc ect.) the rad fem aspect of sex/porn is a whole nother beast, i’d recommend looking into bdsm ect through that lense if it’s something you are looking for more insight towards. (obviously fuck TERF and try to avoid those rabbit holes, but radical feminism affirmed a lot of theories i had on why sex/sexuality is/are such a point of shame and contention for young people)
ANYWAY, i am only 20 so take this with a grain of salt but i think that naturalism fucks with peoples potential for healthy and fulfilling sex lives, preset scripts about what it should be and what it has been. If the sex you’re having feels wrong it probably is, and you have agency to change that, just take a break and reevaluate.
Mar 6, 2024
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i studied sociology and the wonderful v interdisciplinary field of gender studies, here is a combo of my favorite papers + some of the most interesting (if not bizarre) ones. obv they are both heavy fields and i don’t remember exactly what is in each so just be warned there may be difficult topics mentioned! also i am just copy/pasting some of these from old bibliographies and syllabi lol but if you google them most have free PDFs online. i tried picking stuff related to culture but apologies if this is too long, i am a soc/gs nerd!
articles:
the REAL meaning and origin of the term “male gaze” (and why I get SO mad when women today misuse it instead of saying internalized misogyny): Laura Mulvey “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” 1989
Dana M Britton “The Epistemology of the Gendered Organization” 2000
Dick Hebdidge “Subculture: The Meaning of Style” 2011 (book)
George Chauncey “Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890–1940” 1994 (book not article but super iconic / important)
Dean Spade “Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics and the Limits of Law” 2011 (another book, v dense)
Joan Acker (def check out her other work if you like this one, I love her stuff) “From Sex Roles to Gendered Institutions” 1992
Colin Kaepernick, Robin D. G. Kelley, and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (editors) ”Our History Has Always Been Contraband” 2023 (book about Black Studies comprised of essays/excerpts of theory and about history)
Evan B Towle and Lynn M Morgan “Romancing the Transgender Native Rethinking the Use of the "Third Gender" Concept” 2002
WEB DuBois “The Souls of Black Folk” 1903 (more people should read this)
J. E. Sumerau, Ryan T. Cragun, Lain A. B. Mathers ““I Found God in The Glory Hole”: The Moral Career of a Gay Christian” 2016 lol
Patricia Hill Collins “TOWARD A NEW VISION: RACE, CLASS, AND GENDER AS CATEGORIES OF ANALYSIS AND CONNECTION” 1993 (sorry for all caps)
Candace West and Don H. Zimmerman “Doing Gender” 1987
Laurel Westbrook and Kristen Schilt “Doing Gender, Determining Gender: Transgender People, Gender Panics, and the Maintenance of the Sex/Gender/Sexuality System” 2014 (MORE PEOPLE SHOULD READ THIS! it basically offers empirical evidence / explanation of of how transphobia actually perpetuates misogyny rather than simply “protecting women” or not)
Olúfemi O. Táíwò “Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics“ 2022 (book)
Cathy J Cohen “Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens” 1997
Colin P Ashley “Gay Liberation: How a Once Radical Movement Got Married and Settled Down” 2015
Oct 15, 2024
