Showing titles in Gender Studies

For much of the 20th and 21st centuries, women’s sexuality was an uncharted territory in science, studied far less frequently - and far less seriously - than its male counterpart. That is, until Emily Nagoski’s Come As You Are, which used groundbreaking science and research to prove that the most important factor in creating and sustaining a sex life filled with confidence and joy is not what the parts are or how they’re organized but how you feel about them.

Women in War is a stirring, raw, and profoundly inspiring collection of over twenty true stories about the brave women who served and fought throughout history. Narrated by Julia Whelan, who provided the voice for NY Times best-selling book, The Women by Kristin Hannah.

In this ground-breaking book, Gillian Anderson collects and introduces the anonymous sexual fantasies of hundreds of women from around the world (along with her own anonymous fantasy). The fantasies are extraordinary: they are full of desire, fear, intimacy, shame, satisfaction and, ultimately, liberation. From fantasising about someone off-limits to conjuring a scene with multiple partners, from sex that is gentle and tender to passionate and playful, these letters provide a window into the most secret part of our minds.

Fern Brady was told she couldn't be autistic because she's had loads of boyfriends and is good at eye contact. This is a story of how being female can get in the way of being autistic and how being autistic gets in the way of being the 'right kind' of woman.

When Jo Brand hosted Have I Got News For You late last year, her calm explanation of the effects of sexism on women to a bemused all-male cast turned into a viral phenomenon. There has been a whole tradition of books over hundreds of years where a father shares his wisdom with his son - started by Lord Chesterfield in the 18th century - while women have been silent (aka bullied into thinking their advice wasn't worth writing down). This book puts a stop to all that.

How to Be an Elder presents the culmination of Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés' masterwork, inviting us to “come into our own as wiser and wild souls” through six sessions of teachings, stories, poetry, and blessings. In this fifth and final volume of Dr. Estés' landmark series, we will explore how it is that through the gathering of our years we become a beautiful refuge for ourselves, our Souls, and for those who come after us.

What is femininity? How is it measured? What are its demands? How are women meant to dress, look, think, act, feel, and be, according to the mores of society?

Binary is the ultimate guide for understanding and dismantling the sex spectrum, the new cultural belief that sex exists on a continuum and that male and female are social constructs. By analyzing its 10 most popular arguments, Zachary A. Elliott reveals how the tenets of the sex spectrum deny evolution, development, and genetics. Using the primary biology literature, the book provides the listener with a comprehensive scientific understanding of how the two sexes are universal phenomena and how complex genetic networks consistently result in a simple yet profound outcome: male or female.

Drawing from her work as a psychoanalyst and cantadora (keeper of old stories), Dr. Estes uses myths and folktales to illustrate how societies systematically strip away the feminine spirit. Through an exploration into the nature of the wild woman archetype, Dr. Estes helps listeners rediscover and free their own wild nature.

This is perhaps one of the best-loved of all journals. William Wordsworth's sister, Dorothy, began it in May 1800 and resolved to keep it for a short time. She continued it for nearly three years. In it, she brought the Dove Cottage years to vivid and intimate life. She noted the walks and weather, the friends, country neighbours, and travellers on the roads. She set down accounts of the garden, of Wordsworth's marriage, their concern for Coleridge, and the composition of Wordsworth's poetry.

In this life-changing book that blends myth, memoir, and modern-day mentors, renowned psychologist Dr. Sharon Blackie journeys from the wasteland of modern society to a place of nourishment and connection.

Is there a neverending commentary of things to do on a constant loop in your head? Pick up the kids, book dentist appointments, buy birthday gifts for the in-laws, make the packed lunches, put the laundry away... The mental load; emotional labour; the invisible burden … call it what you want but it’s insidiously impacting women’s lives. Writer, influencer, podcaster, wife and mum Cat Sims knows only too well the toll that the pressure of the mental load can take on our happiness and mental health.

We like to think that we're gradually making progress towards equality. With the advent of ever more high-tech equipment at our fingertips, we tend to assume that progress will be hastened, as new technology is used in positive and democratising ways. But there is a new wave of technologies which threaten this notion. Deepfakes. The metaverse. Cyber brothels. With misogyny being baked into their design, these technologies are dragging women back to the dark ages.

Captain Robert Falcon Scott didn't start out life as a hero. In fact, as a boy he was considered small, frail and shy. So what was it that turned this ordinary man into a legend? Through his gripping account of how this modest naval officer became Scott of the Antarctic, Neil Oliver vividly relates the awe-inspiring tales of brave men that inspired Britain's greatest hero, including Nelson, Sir John Moore and the Demons of Camerone.

The Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), based at the Tavistock and Portman Trust in North London, was set up initially to provide - for the most part - talking therapies to young people who were questioning their gender identity. But in the last decade GIDS has referred more than a thousand children, some as young as nine years old, for medication to block their puberty. In the same period, the number of referrals has exploded, increasing thirty-fold, while the profile of the patients has changed, from largely pre-pubescent boys to mostly adolescent girls.

Sarah Langford is a barrister. Her job is to stand in court representing the mad and the bad, the vulnerable, the heartbroken and the hopeful. She must become their voice: weave their story around the black and white of the law and tell it to the courtroom. These stories may not make headlines, but they will change the lives of ordinary people in extraordinary ways. They are stories which, but for a twist of luck, might have been yours.

In this ground-breaking investigation, Laura traces the roots of misogyny across a complex spiders web of groups extending from men's rights activists and pick-up artists to Men Going Their Own Way, trolls and the Incel movement, in the name of which some men have committed terrorist acts. Drawing parallels with other extremist movements around the world, Bates seeks to understand what attracts men to the movement, how it grooms and radicalises boys, how it operates and what can be done to stop it.

"I was one of 28 children born to my dad and his three wives. Indoctrinated to believe that the outside world was evil, and that I resided among the righteous, I was destined to marry a man chosen for me by the Prophet. I would then live in harmony with my sister-wives, bear many children, and obey and serve my future husband in this life and throughout eternity. But my innocence didn't last long." Flora goes on from there to tell the dramatic true story of how she ultimately escaped and has been rescuing women and children from the FLDS.

For nearly three thousand years, Helen of Troy has been both the embodiment of absolute female beauty and a reminder of the terrible power that it can wield. Held responsible for both the Trojan War and enduring the enmity between East and West, for millennia she has been viewed as an exquisite agent of extermination. But who was she really? Focusing on the 'real' Helen, bestselling historian Bettany Hughes reconstructs the true life for this elusive Green Bronze age princess and places her alongside the heroes and heroines of myth and history.

The relationship between East and West has always been one of turmoil. In this historical tour de force, a renowned historian leads us from the world of classical antiquity, through the Dark Ages, to the Crusades, Europe's resurgence, and the dominance of the Ottoman Empire, which almost shattered Europe entirely.