Female Masculinities and the Gender Wars: The Politics of Sex - Hardcover

by Finn MacKay (Author)

"Thoughtful and often moving." Gaby Hinsliff, The Guardian

Female Masculinities and the Gender Wars provides important theoretical background and context to the 'gender wars' or 'TERF wars' - the fracture at the forefront of the LGBTQ international conversation. Using queer and female masculinities as a lens, Finn Mackay investigates the current generational shift that is refusing the previous assumed fixity of sex, gender and sexual identity. Transgender and trans rights movements are currently experiencing political backlash from within certain lesbian and lesbian feminist groups, resulting in a situation in which these two minority communities are frequently pitted against one another or perceived as diametrically opposed.

Uniquely, Finn Mackay approaches this debate through the context of female masculinity, butch and transmasculine lesbian masculinities. There has been increasing interest in the study of masculinity, influenced by a popular discourse around so-called 'toxic masculinity', the rise of men's rights activism and theory and critical work on Trump's America and the MeToo movement.

An increasingly important topic in political science and sociological academia, this book aims to break new ground in the discussion of the politics of gender and identity.

Author Biography

Finn Mackay is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of the West of England and completed a PhD in the Centre for Gender & Violence Research at the University of Bristol. A longstanding feminist activist, Finn founded the London Feminist Network in 2004; and is a frequent media commentator on feminist and LGBTQI+ topics.