A Discursive Investigation

• By Jill Reynolds

The increase in numbers of single people has been described as one of the greatest social phenomena of western society. Most women will spend periods of their lives alone, without a committed partner relationship. Yet there is still a degree of social stigma attached to this status. Single women are a crucial group for study in relation to perceived changes in family life and relationships. This book provides a new understanding of what is often taken-for-granted – female single identity.

In an examination of extracts from her interviews with women aged 30 to 60 years and living alone, Jill Reynolds explores how women deal with this potentially stigmatized identity. She focuses on identity and self-representation through consideration of discourse and the conversational moves made by the participants. Her analysis highlights that the culturally available and familiar resources for understanding singleness are highly polarized. Single women weave their way through the extreme contrasts of a denigrated or an empowered identity. Thus, while most participants give very positive accounts, they also pay attention to widespread social expectations that success in life involves a long-term committed relationship.

This book makes an important contribution to the understanding of the lives of single women and represents a challenge to the considerable literature on gender and family life which has inadequately theorized singleness. It will be of great interest to academics and students in social psychology, sociology, social work and social policy. It will also be of particular interest to students of gender studies, qualitative research, narrative studies, conversation analysis and discourse analysis.

ISBN: 9780415405683

Published April 25 2008 by Routledge.

An introduction

• By David Gauntlett, Professor David Gauntlett

Popular media present a vast array of stories about women and men. What impact do these images and ideas have on people’s identities?

The new edition of Media, Gender and Identity is a highly readable introduction to the relationship between media and gender identities today. Fully revised and updated, including new case studies and a new chapter, it considers a wide range of research and provides new ways for thinking about the media’s influence on gender and sexuality.

David Gauntlett discusses movies such as Knocked Up and Spiderman 3, men’s and women’s magazines, TV shows, self-help books, YouTube videos, and more, to show how the media play a role in the shaping of individual self-identities.

The book includes:

• A comparison of gender representations in the past and today, from James Bond to Ugly Betty
• An introduction to key theorists such as Judith Butler, Anthony Giddens and Michel Foucault
• An outline of creative approaches, where identities are explored with video, drawing, or Lego bricks
• A website with extra articles, interviews and selected links, at www.theoryhead.com

ISBN: 9780415396608

Published March 18 2008 by Routledge.

A Biography of Christine Jorgensen

• No Author/Editor data available

• the supportive and high functioning family in which Christine grew up
  
• Jorgensen’s struggle with homosexual feelings deemed unacceptable by society
  
• Jorgensen’s young adult years while presenting as a man
  
• the steps in his/her transsexual self-identification
  
• Jorgensen’s determination to redefine himself/herself through medical intervention
  
• why Dr. Christian Hamburger in Copenhagen took an interest in Jorgensen’s case
  
• the previously unrevealed story of Jorgensen’s revelations to a news reporter that led to international headlines
  
• how Jorgensen developed a profitable nightclub act
  
• the conflicts that accompanied the writing and publication of her autobiography
  
• Jorgensen’s love/hate personality characteristic and its effect on personal relationships
  
• much more!
  
  

ISBN: 9781560236665

Published February 25 2008 by Routledge.

Psychology, Feminism and Discourse Analysis in the Study of Sexual Violence

• By Irina Anderson, Kathy DohertyJane Ussher
• Series Editor: Jane Ussher

Accounting for Rape presents an original perspective on the subject of rape, focusing on both female and male sexual violence. The authors investigate everyday beliefs about rape, to examine how blaming the victim and the normalization of rape are achieved by people in a discussion about sexual violence. They synthesize discursive psychology and a feminist standpoint to explore precisely how rape and rape victimhood are defined in ways that reflect the social, political and cultural conditions of society.

By analysing conversational data, Anderson and Doherty suggest that the existing social psychological experimental research into rape and rape perception fails to analyse the subtlety and political significance of rape supportive reasoning. Accounting for Rape provides a critical interrogation of the dominant theories and methodologies, focusing on:

• How the gender and sexual orientation of alleged victims and perpetrators is crucial to social participants when making sense of a rape report and in apportioning blame and sympathy
• How arguments that are critical of alleged victims are built in ways that are 'face saving' for the participants in the conversations, and how victim-blaming arguments are presented as 'common sense'.
• The potential of applying this approach in both professional and academic contexts to promote attitude change.

The book will be of great interest to those studying social and clinical psychology, cultural studies, sociology, women's studies and communication studies.

ISBN: 9780415211734

Published November 29 2007 by Routledge.

Radical Approaches to Counselling Sex, Sexualities and Genders

• Edited by Lyndsey Moon

Feeling Queer or Queer Feelings? presents highly innovative and contemporary ideas for counsellors, counselling and clinical psychologists and psychotherapists to consider in their work with non-heterosexual clients.

Ground-breaking ideas are presented by new thinkers in the area for issues such as:

• coming out
• transgender desire
• theoretical modalities in working with HIV
• the role of therapy in bondage and discipline, domination and submission, and sadomasochism
• the use of queer theory in therapeutic research.

Feeling Queer or Queer Feelings? will challenge present ideas about sex, gender and sexuality, and will prove to be invaluable for clinicians in this field.

ISBN: 9780415385206

Published November 08 2007 by Routledge.

Pop-Darwinism and the Debates Over Sex, Violence, and Science

• By Martha McCaughey

Has evolution made men promiscuous skirt chasers? Pop-Darwinian claims about men's irrepressible heterosexuality have become increasingly common, and increasingly common excuses for men's sexual aggression. The Caveman Mystique traces such claims about the hairier sex through evolutionary science and popular culture. After outlining the social and historical context of the rise of pop-Darwinism's assertions about male sexuality and their appeal to many men, Martha McCaughey shows how evolutionary discourse can get lived out as the biological truth of male sexuality.

Although evolutionary scientists want to use their theories to solve social problems, evolutionary narratives get invoked by men looking for a Darwinian defense of bad-boy behaviors. McCaughey argues that evolution has nearly replaced religion as a moral guide for understanding who we are and what we must overcome to be good people.

Bringing together insights from the fields of science studies, body studies, feminist theory and queer theory, The Caveman Mystique offers a fresh understanding of science, science popularization, and the impact of science on men's identities making a convincing case for deconstructing, rather than defending, the caveman.

ISBN: 9780415934749

Published November 01 2007 by Routledge.

Understanding Body Dissatisfaction in Men, Women, and Children

• By Sarah Grogan

Sarah Grogan provides a comprehensive overview of the subject of body image, pulling together diverse research from the fields of psychology, sociology, media, and gender studies in men, women, and children.

This second edition has been thoroughly revised and updated to reflect the significant increase in research on body image since the first edition was published, including new empirical data collected specifically for this text. In addition to examining evidence for sociocultural influences on body image, the book also reviews recent literature and includes new findings on body modification practices (cosmetic surgery, piercing, tattooing, and bodybuilding). It takes a critical look at interventions designed to promote positive body image and also attempts to link body image to physical health, looking in particular at motivations for potentially health-damaging practices such as anabolic steroid use and cosmetic surgery.

The only text to date that examines the issue of body image, focusing on men and children as well as women, Body Image will be invaluable to students and researchers in the area as well as those with an interest in how to promote positive body image.

ISBN: 9780415358224

Published July 26 2007 by Routledge.

Women, Prison, and Therapy

• No Author/Editor data available

• designing and delivering gender-responsive programs for women
  
• developing therapeutic measures to correct and normalize marginalized women
  
• mistreatment of women prisoners in the United States
  
• domestic violence and its connection to criminalization
  
• counseling sexually abused women
  
• motherhood, crime, and prison
  
• the effects of incarceration on children and families
  
• women, addiction, and incarceration
  
• using drama therapy with incarcerated women
  
• feminist support groups
  
• transitioning after release from prison
  
• and much more

ISBN: 9780789034298

Published June 01 2007 by Routledge.

A Psychological Perspective on the Paradoxes and Culture of Research

• By Harriet Gross, Helen Pattison

Pregnancy provides a very public, visual confirmation of femininity. It is a time of rapid physical and psychological adjustment for women and is surrounded by stereotyping, taboos and social expectations. This book seeks to examine these popular attitudes towards pregnancy and to consider how they influence women’s experiences of being pregnant.

Sanctioning Pregnancy offers a unique critique of sociocultural constructions of pregnancy and the ways in which it is represented in contemporary culture, and examines the common myths which exist about diet, exercise and work in pregnancy, alongside notions of risk and media portrayals of pregnant women. Topics covered include:

• Do pregnant women change their diet and why?
• Is memory really impaired in pregnancy?
• How risky behaviour is defined from exercise to employment
• The biomedical domination of pregnancy research.

Different theoretical standpoints are critically examined, including a medico-scientific model, feminist perspectives and bio-psychosocial and psychodynamic approaches.

ISBN: 9780415211598

Published May 03 2007 by Routledge.

Theory, Research, and Activism

• By Christopher Kilmartin, Julie Allison

ISBN: 9780805857702

Published March 28 2007 by Psychology Press (formerly published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates).