Abstract
Momin Rahman and Stevi Jackson, Gender and sexuality: Sociological approaches, Polity Press: Cambridge, 2010; 200 pp.: 978-0-745-63376-3, $64.95, €60, £50, (hbk), 978-0-745-63377-0, $24.95, €19.20, £15.99 (pbk)
Reviewed by : Matthew Hall, Nottingham Trent University, UK
Mapping, contextualizing and illustrating key sociological theories and perspectives on the concepts of gender and sexuality, from the diverse and complex terrain that makes up Feminist, Masculinity and Sexuality Studies, is a difficult undertaking. More so if the intended audience is undergraduate students and other newcomers who require a book written in a succinct, clear and accessible style with learning resources, thought-provoking tasks and questions at key points throughout. The outcome is a major accomplishment, making this book an indispensable learning and teaching resource.
The book is organized into five parts, beginning with a brief overview of essentialist ideas and the development of sociological challenges. Subsequent parts cover in depth the concepts of structure, culture, self and identity, culminating with the authors’ conclusions. ‘Real life’ examples are provided throughout in order to contextualise complex theories. The authors explain that issues such as same-sex marriage, sex tourism, media programming, immigration, politics and so on cannot be fully understood without ‘a thoroughly sociological analysis of the social organization of sexuality and gender and their social meaning’ (p. 2). That is, interrogating the dynamics of social structures and individual agency. As expected, challenging the cultural pervasiveness of biological and social essentialism is a central theme of this book. For example, readers are warned of such views citing Thornhill and Palmer’s (2000) analysis of men’s infidelity and propensity to rape as an ‘inevitable outcome of the male competition to impregnate as many women as possible’ (p. 117). As Rahman and Jackson correctly point out, the underlying assumption of heterosexuality and two distinct sexes in such analysis is a product of the contemporary cultural climate in which it emerged. The works of Lacqueur (1990) and Hird (2004) are cited to point out ‘that the idea of two distinct sexes is a relatively recent one: pre-Enlightenment understanding in most western cultures was of one sex which had variations along its scale, from masculinity at one end to femininity at the other, with many variations along the way’ (p. 120).
Gender and sexual inequalities are the other main threads throughout the book. Written as a continuum, the authors provide an overview of perspectives and in-house debates from feminist (including those from differing ethnicities and cultures), lesbian and gay scholars and queer theorists along the modernity to post-modernity spectrum. Attempting to cover the extensive variety of perspectives and theorists discussed in this book in such a short review would be a futile task. Suffice it to say that the authors conclude that the work of these scholars has brought about ‘structural and ideological changes, resulting in cultural and political values shifting towards public gender equality’ (p. 205) although ‘the acceptance of sexual diversity is much less secured and widespread’ (p. 206). However, Rahman and Jackson rightly caution the reader on the extent of these changes noting that gendered and sexual identities remain trapped in essentialist frameworks.
On the whole this book achieves what it sets out to do but, like many texts which examine gender and sexuality, the three major sub-fields – Feminist, Masculinity and Sexuality Studies – are not attended to equally (Beasley, 2005). This book is no different in that the overview of the literature provided is largely concerned with feminist and lesbian and gay theorists. Admittedly, given that Masculinity Studies is a relatively new field in comparison (Whitehead and Barrett, 2001), a book structured as a continuum will necessarily be unevenly weighted. However, the relative absence of discussion on theorists such as John Stoltenberg, Devon Carbado and Gary Dowsett (see Beasley, 2005 for a more comprehensive overview) from Masculinity Studies – with the exception of Raewyn Connell – in my opinion represents a missed opportunity and indeed risks presenting an unbalanced overview of the current field to students and newcomers.
Despite these omissions, the book provides a well-organized and comprehensive introduction to past and current thinking. Rahman and Jackson’s efforts will hopefully inspire other gender and sexuality scholars to take up the challenge of providing specific and comprehensive overviews of this exciting and passionately-debated field.