Skip to main content Skip to search Skip to search

Social Science Women's Studies

Gender Blending

Confronting the Limits of Duality

by (author) Aaron Devor

other Holly Devor

Publisher
Indiana University Press
Initial publish date
Oct 1989
Category
Women's Studies, Gender Studies
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780253205339
    Publish Date
    Oct 1989
    List Price
    $24.95

Classroom Resources

Where to buy it

Description

Gender Blending examines the social construction of gender and its implications for the lives of gender blending females and for society in general. Aaron Devor constructs a theory which interprets gender as a social distinction related to, but different from, biological sex. Devor defines gender as a status learned by displaying the culturally defined insignia of the gender category with which one identifies.

Fifteen women who have to varying degrees rejected traditional femininity, but not their femaleness, discuss their lives with Devor. These women, sometimes mistaken for men, choose to minimize their female vulnerability in a patriarchal world by minimizing their femininity. During childhood, their reaction to their secondary status in society, as potential victims of violence and exploitation, was often to be a tomboy. Now, in adulthood, their gender identity does not fit either of the two roles socially and culturally defined as feminine and masculine.
Gender Blending offers a deeper appreciation of the social construction of gender. Any woman who has questioned the value of the concept of femininity will find the experiences of these gender blending females revealing and important to a view of woman's place in the patriarchy.

About the authors

Contributor Notes

Aaron Devor, PhD, FSSSS, FSTLHE, is the Founder and Academic Director of the world's largest Transgender Archives, the world's first Research Chair in Transgender Studies, a former Dean of Graduate Studies (2002-2012), and a professor of Sociology at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada.

Editorial Reviews

"Devor's Gender Blending is a pathfinding study that creates a new frontier in sex and gender research."?Journal of the History of Sexuality

"Its readable style achieves a unique balance of the personal with scientific rigor."?Contemporary Sociology

". . . a fascinating study . . ."?Choice

"A major contribution to the understanding of gender."?Anne Bolin