Sexed Up
How Society Sexualizes Us, and How We Can Fight Back
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- $22.99
Publisher Description
The author of landmark manifesto Whipping Girl exposes the violent ways we are all sexualized–then offers a bold path for resistance
Feminists have long challenged the ways in which men tend to sexualize women. But pioneering activist, biologist, and trans woman Julia Serano argues that sexualization is a far more pervasive problem, as it’s something that we all do to other people, often without being aware of it.
Why do we perceive men as sexual predators and women as sexual objects? Why are LGBTQ+ people stereotyped as being sexually indiscriminate and deceptive? Why are people of color still being hypersexualized? These stereotypes push minorities farther into the margins, and even the privileged are policed from transgressing, lest they also become targets. Many view sexualization as a mere component of sexism, racism, or queerphobia, but Serano argues that liberation from sexual violence comes through collectively confronting sexualization itself.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Biologist and transgender activist Serano (99 Erics) explores in this lucid account the dangers of nonconsensual sexualization, or "when an individual is reduced to their sexual body or behaviors rather than viewed as a whole person." Attitudes that feed sexualization, according to Serano, include the "two filing cabinet" mindset, in which people categorize others as male or female and ignore cues that challenge that categorization, and the "unmarked/marked" mindset, in which variations from the "default status" attract unwanted attention and foster assumptions that the person has an agenda. Serano also addresses the intersections between sexualization and racism; reflects on her experiences of society's gendered expectations as a bisexual trans woman; and discusses the "potential pitfalls" of destigmatizing trans people, including "ostensibly sex-positive portrayals of sexual diversity sensationalize our supposedly taboo or transgressive nature." Her advice for combatting sexualization includes treating others "as distinct individuals with desires of their own" and "moving away from judging sex and sexuality in terms of good versus bad." Serano succeeds in explicating a wide range of complex ideas about gender, sexuality, and identity, and offers incisive new frameworks for reckoning with some of the most discussed issues in contemporary feminism and queer culture. The result is a nuanced and approachable guide to "making sex more equitable."
