3 Review(s)

One of the 100 sexiest women of the world is a man, reports the US men's magazine FHM, and epitomizes the rationale of this book. Though many academics and lay people in society would prefer the distinctions of gender to be clear and unmistakable, to many they are not. Femininity and Masculinity can be seen as how we present ourselves to the world, and in understanding the world. Yet "feminine" or "masculine" traits or behaviours, as represented by the traditional discourse, are not quite as clear as the traditionalists would like. They are ambiguous, arbitrary, and imposed, and the discourse has - thankfully to some thoroughgoing interdisciplinary considerations - begun to expand, going beyond archaic notions of what is "female" or "male". This collection of essays presented at the First Global Conference: Femininity and Masculinity, held in Warsaw on 16th - 18th May 2011, begins to probe the boundaries of this expanded discourse.