UWF Sexuality & Gender Resource Center

Heralded by Geoff Nunberg as "required reading" for anyone interested in the conversation swirling around gender-neutral and nonbinary pronouns, What's Your Pronoun? is an essential work that addresses one of the most pressing cultural questions of our day. Providing much-needed historical context and analysis to the debate around what we call ourselves, pioneering linguist Dennis Baron brings new insight to a centuries-old topic and illuminates how--and why--these pronouns are sparking confusion and prompting new policies in schools, workplaces, and even statehouses.

When we are born, we are each assigned a gender based on our physical anatomy. But why is it that some people experience such dissonance between their biological sex and their inner identity? Is gender something we are or something we do? Is our expression of gender inborn or does it develop as we grow? Are the traditional binary male and female gender roles relevant in an increasingly fluid and flexible world? This intelligent, stimulating volume assesses the connections between gender, psychology, culture and sexuality, and reveals how individual and social attitudes have evolved over the centuries.

Today, in Western countries, we are seeing both the fragmentation of the gender binary (the division of the social world into two and only two genders) and its persistence. Multiple genders, gender-neutral pronouns and bathrooms, X designations, and other manifestations of degendering are becoming common, and yet the two-gender structure of our social world persists. Underneath the persistence of the binary and its discriminatory norms and expectations lurks the continuance of men's power and privilege. So there is the continued need to valorize the accomplishments of women, especially those of denigrated groups.

Is masculinity ‘toxic'? Why are public toilets such a political issue? How has feminism changed the available gender roles – and for whom? Why might we all benefit from challenging binary thinking about sex/gender?In this unique illustrated guide, Meg-John Barker and Jules Scheele travel through our shifting understandings of gender across time and space – from ideas about masculinity and femininity, to non-binary and trans genders, to intersecting experiences of gender, race, sexuality, class, disability and more.

The essays in this book present a revealing picture of gender in the United States today: socially constructed, sometimes fun but almost always problematic, fluid but forced into binaries, deeply ingrained but often misunderstood. Topics range from parenting and sports to inequality and breasts (both men's and women's). Together, these diverse and engaging voices capture the depth and complexity of gender from the sociological perspective.

Gender isn't just about "male" or "female" anymore - if you have any doubts, just turn on your television. RuPaul is as familiar as tomato ketchup with national radio and television shows, and transgendered folk are as common to talk-shows as screaming and yelling. But if the popularization of gender bending is revealing that "male" and "female" aren't enough, where are we supposed to go from here? Cultural theorists have written loads of smart but difficult-to-fathom texts on gender, but none provide a hands-on, accessible guide to having your own unique gender.