Brooke Holmes

This book is a good representative of what can be wrong with gender studies, the things that get mocked. There is too much discussion along the line of what is is, and not enough actual meat and potatoes work being done. The various sources she is detailing quibble details that will leave your shaking your head in disbelief as they will stretch the meaning of a word beyond any possible rationality to attempt to demonstrate what they wish to show. The differential between gender and sex is at times mocked and dismissed, and at other times is a crucial part of the overall argument that there was no gender - pardon me, sex - no, make that gender - no, sex again - in the classical period. There is a lot of discussion about the role of gender, while ignoring totally the evidence that women were kept to very gender specific roles (no, they did not call it that, I will give the nitpicking theorists that). The sources were so busy discussing esoterica that no one else would likely see in the work that they couldn't get down to the real question - what has been the role of gender in determining societal roles? The discussion on homosexuality was, if anything, worse, as they attempted to determine whether having sex with members of the same sex was really the same as homosexuality today, and never giving any answer that would make sense to anyone outside of the narrowest definition of their field, and probably not to most in it. And the author glosses without much comment over the fact that she can discuss the writings and activities of numerous males, but when exploring the female role, the only actual examples she was able to come up with were mythological. Oh, she does mention that once in passing, but the significance of that appears to elude everyone. If you are interested in knowing about gender, sex, or anything else, avoid this book.… (altro)