Queer Studies

Tortilleras Negotiating Intimacy: Love, Friendship, and Sex in Queer Mexico City is the first ethnography in English to focus primarily on women's sexual and intimate cultures in Mexico. The book shows the transformation of intimacy in the lives of three generations of women in queer spaces in contemporary Mexico City, as their sexual citizenship changes, including references to same-sex marriage and anti-discrimination laws. The book shows how these individuals reconfigure relationships through marriage, polyamory, friendship, and sex. Tortilleras Negotiating Intimacy suggests that "new" intimate cartographies are emerging in Mexico City, ultimately redefining relationships, gender, and mexicanidad. Building on ethnographic data collected over the past decade, including forty-five in-depth interviews with women between the ages of twenty-two and sixty-five participating in LGBT spaces, Tortilleras Negotiating Intimacy shows how lesbian women (mainly cis, but some trans) negotiate friendship, same-sex marriage, polyamory, and sexual practices, reinventing love, eroticism, friendship, and ultimately the social organization of Latin American societies.

Studies have shown that married couples have better mental and physical health than unmarried people. Leading scholars and policy makers propose that marriage can provide similar benefits to people in both same-sex and different-sex relationships. Though research on the health and well-being of same-sex couples is a new and growing field, Marriage and Health: The Well-Being of Same-Sex Couples represents the forefront of marriage and health research and the far-reaching policy implications for the health of same-sex couples. This collection of essays presents new perspectives that address current opportunities and challenges faced by people in same-sex unions in multiple domains of well-being, including physical and mental health, social support, socialized behaviors, and stigmas. The book offers a broad view of same-sex couples’ experiences by examining not only marriage and civil unions, but also dating and cohabiting relationships as well as same-sex sexual experiences outside of relationships.<BR>  

Medical Entanglements uses intersectional feminist, queer, and crip theory to move beyond “for or against” approaches to medical intervention. Using a series of case studies – sex-confirmation surgery, pharmaceutical treatments for sexual dissatisfaction, and weight loss interventions – the book argues that, because of systemic inequality, most mainstream medical interventions will simultaneously reinforce social inequality and alleviate some individual suffering. The book demonstrates that there is no way to think ourselves out of this conundrum as the contradictions are a product of unjust systems. Thus, Gupta argues that feminist activists and theorists should allow individuals to choose whether to use a particular intervention, while directing their social justice efforts at dismantling systems of oppression and at ensuring that all people, regardless of race, gender, sexuality, class, or ability, have access to the basic resources required to flourish.<BR>

Get a feminist perspective on important changes in psychoanalysis!<BR><BR> Lesbians, Feminism, and Psychoanalysis: The Second Wave examines recent changes in psychoanalysis that have opened the door for new perspectives on same-sex desire. Authors from a variety of disciplines and theoretical orientations combine feminism with psychoanalytic and postmodern theories to celebrate diversity in gender and sexual experience. This collection of lesbian-affirmative writings addresses transference and countertransference, gender subjectivities, privilege and racism, therapist homophobia, and violence in lesbian relationships.<BR><BR> In the past decade, psychoanalysis has undergone changes in clinical theory that have led to views on human sexuality that are less focused on what is normal and therapy practices that resist attempts to fit individuals into prescribed developmental models. Lesbians, Feminism, and Psychoanalysis presents a variety of backgrounds (psychiatry, psychology, and social work), analytic training (formal institute training, study groups, supervision), and theoretical perspectives (self-psychology, object relations, relational psychoanalysis, feminist theory, queer theory, postmodernism, Lacanian theory) unified by the healing power of psychoanalytically informed theory and practice.<BR><BR> The book is divided into three sectionsCommunity: Personal and Political, Ongoing Clinical Issues, and New Thinking on Sexuality and Gender, addressing lesbian tomboy development, the queering of relational psychoanalysis, how attachment theory and intersubjectivity can contribute to newer gender theory, and including: - interviews with lesbian psychoanalytic foremothers Joanne Spina, Lee Crespi, and Judy Levitz - Dr. Darla Bjork's account of her journey to becoming an openly lesbian therapist - contrasting views on transference and countertransference from gay and lesbian therapists - and much more! Lesbians, Feminism, and Psychoanalysis: The Second Wave is an essential practical resource for clinicians and a vital classroom tool for academics working in psychology, social work, psychoanalysis, gender and women's studies, queer studies, and lesbian and gay studies.