what are some good books on the history of sexuality and gender?

by scottishy

I'm interested on reading more into how concepts of sexuality and gender have changed over time. The only work of this kind that I'm currently familiar with is Foucault's history of sexuality, but I'd be interested to hear more perspectives

Alkibiades415

For ancient Greek homosexuality, the original gangster scholar was Kenneth Dover. His monograph Greek Homosexuality (Harvard 1978, third revised edition 2016) was the first major exploration of the topic with anything approaching a modern objective perspective. The book was both praised and criticized in the following two decades, and was a major influence upon further forays into the topic, notably Foucault's L'Histoire de la sexualité (Gallimard, 4 vols, 1976-2018) in later volumes and Halperin's One hundred years of homosexuality (Routledge 1990). David Cohen closely analyzes the field in his own monograph Law, Sexuality, and Society (Cambridge 1991). See also Larmour, Miller, and Platter, eds, Rethinking sexuality : Foucault and classical antiquity (Princeton 1998).

For a general overview of the topic of Sexuality, see Sexuality (Oxford 1999), edited by Nye (not the Science Guy). The volume edited by Schmidt and Voss is also interesting: Archaeologies of sexuality (Routledge 2000). It ranges from Colonial California to Leathermen in San Francisco to medieval religious women to African American magic to women in convict-era Australia to the Middle Missouri culture to the early Soviet State (yep!).

And many more. It is an extensive bibliography because "sexuality" is a gigantic topic. I didn't even touch on Roman-era sexuality, which is itself a gigantic topic on its own.

aquatermain

Just a bunch from my library, in no particular order.

Latin América:

  • Martínez's Genealogical Fictions: Limpieza de Sangre, Religion, and Gender in Colonial Mexico
  • Davies, Brewster & Owen's South American Independence: Gender, politics, text
  • Dodds Pennock's Bonds of Blood. Gender, Lifecycle, and Sacrifice in Aztec Culture

Europe

  • Broomhall and Spinks' Early Modern Women in the Low Countries. Feminizing Sources and Interpretations of the Past
  • Eales' Women In Early Modern England, 1500-1700
  • Read's Birthing Bodies in Early Modern France (Women and Gender in the Early Modern World)
gendr_bendr

I recommend “How Sex Changed” by Joanne Meyerowitz. It’s a history of trans identities, but how cultures perceive trans people says a lot about how they view sex and gender.

I’ll comment again if I come up with any others.