Fixing Gender - by Natasha Distiller (Paperback)

About the Book

Fixing Gender uses psychoanalysis to explore the theoretical implications for the gendering of the human subject that arise from the situation of lesbians raising children from birth. The book engages with feminist psychoanalytic debates about gender development and the role p...

Book Synopsis

Fixing Gender uses psychoanalysis to explore the theoretical implications for the gendering of the human subject that arise from the situation of lesbians raising children from birth. The book engages with feminist psychoanalytic debates about gender development and the role played by the Oedipus complex in the formation of gender identity. Through an examination of literature on homosexuality and pyschoanalysis, it offers a new intervention into the conceptualization and work of gender while using lesbian motherhood as a focal point for the discussion.

Review Quotes

Informed by Freud's Oedipus complex, feminist psychoanalysis, and relational theory, this book explores the subjective possibilities and impossibilities of being a 'lesbian mother.' It does a fine job of discerning and critiquing the inevitable intersections of sex, gender, and sexuality; describing the dilemmas surrounding recognition as lesbian, mother, and lesbian mother; illustrating the roles of others and the impact of others' evaluations of lesbian co-parent family life; and highlighting the paradoxes of being a 'mother, ' a 'lesbian, ' and an 'other mother.' Summing Up: Highly recommended

About the Author

Natasha Distiller is an associate professor of English at the University of Cape Town.