Deviations
eBook - PDF

Deviations

A Gayle Rubin Reader

  1. English
  2. PDF
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Deviations

A Gayle Rubin Reader

About this book

Deviations is the definitive collection of writing by Gayle S. Rubin, a pioneering theorist and activist in feminist, lesbian and gay, queer, and sexuality studies since the 1970s. Rubin first rose to prominence in 1975 with the publication of "The Traffic in Women," an essay that had a galvanizing effect on feminist thinking and theory. In another landmark piece, "Thinking Sex," she examined how certain sexual behaviors are constructed as moral or natural, and others as unnatural. That essay became one of queer theory's foundational texts. Along with such canonical work, Deviations features less well-known but equally insightful writing on subjects such as lesbian history, the feminist sex wars, the politics of sadomasochism, crusades against prostitution and pornography, and the historical development of sexual knowledge. In the introduction, Rubin traces her intellectual trajectory and discusses the development and reception of some of her most influential essays. Like the book it opens, the introduction highlights the major lines of inquiry pursued for nearly forty years by a singularly important theorist of sex, gender, and culture.

Frequently asked questions

Yes, you can cancel anytime from the Subscription tab in your account settings on the Perlego website. Your subscription will stay active until the end of your current billing period. Learn how to cancel your subscription.
At the moment all of our mobile-responsive ePub books are available to download via the app. Most of our PDFs are also available to download and we're working on making the final remaining ones downloadable now. Learn more here.
Perlego offers two plans: Essential and Complete
  • Essential is ideal for learners and professionals who enjoy exploring a wide range of subjects. Access the Essential Library with 800,000+ trusted titles and best-sellers across business, personal growth, and the humanities. Includes unlimited reading time and Standard Read Aloud voice.
  • Complete: Perfect for advanced learners and researchers needing full, unrestricted access. Unlock 1.4M+ books across hundreds of subjects, including academic and specialized titles. The Complete Plan also includes advanced features like Premium Read Aloud and Research Assistant.
Both plans are available with monthly, semester, or annual billing cycles.
We are an online textbook subscription service, where you can get access to an entire online library for less than the price of a single book per month. With over 1 million books across 1000+ topics, we’ve got you covered! Learn more here.
Look out for the read-aloud symbol on your next book to see if you can listen to it. The read-aloud tool reads text aloud for you, highlighting the text as it is being read. You can pause it, speed it up and slow it down. Learn more here.
Yes! You can use the Perlego app on both iOS or Android devices to read anytime, anywhere — even offline. Perfect for commutes or when you’re on the go.
Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access Deviations by Gayle S. Rubin in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Cultural & Social Anthropology. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
3
Introduction 
to
A 
Woman 
Appeared 
to 
Me
History 
is 
lies 
agreed 
upon 
by 
the 
victors.
—
Anonymous
The 
first 
novel, 
Adam’s 
and 
Eve’s, 
has 
been 
overprinted.
—
Natalie 
Barney,
Pensées 
d’une 
Amazone
I 
know 
that 
these 
are 
the 
women 
our 
fathers 
stole 
us 
from. 
Know 
thy 
women; 
know 
thyself.
—
Bertha 
Harris,
“The 
More 
Profound 
Nationality 
of 
Their 
Lesbianism”
I
It 
is 
notoriously 
diïŹƒcult 
to 
maintain 
the 
memory 
of 
the 
past. 
But 
groups 
which 
are 
socially 
marginal 
are 
particularly 
relegated 
to 
the 
fringes 
of 
historical 
dis-
cussion. 
Lesbians, 
suïŹ€ering 
from 
the 
dual 
disqualiïŹcation 
of 
being 
gay 
and 
female, 
have 
been 
repeatedly 
dispossessed 
of 
their 
history. 
e 
generation 
of 
lesbians 
who 
emerged 
out 
of 
the 
women’s 
movement 
in 
the 
late 
1960s 
had 
to 
discover 
their 
immediate 
predecessors 
of 
the 
1950s, 
who 
had 
already 
under-
taken 
the 
task 
of 
retrieving 
earlier 
ancestors 
from 
scanty 
archives. 
e 
same 
e 
“Introduction” 
in 
Chapter 
3 
was 
originally 
published 
in 
Renée 
Vivien, 
A 
Woman 
Ap-
peared 
to 
Me
(Weatherby 
Lake, 
Miss.: 
Naiad, 
1976), 
iii–xxxi. 
e 
“AïŹ…erword” 
was 
origi-
nally 
published 
in 
the 
reprinted 
edition 
of 
A 
Woman 
Appears 
to 
Me
(Weatherby 
Lake, 
Miss.: 
Naiad, 
1979), 
xxi–xxii.

Table of contents

  1. Contents
  2. Acknowledgments
  3. Introduction: Sex, Gender, Politics
  4. 1. The Traffic in Women: Notes on the “Political Economy” of Sex
  5. 2. The Trouble with Trafficking: Afterthoughts on “The Traffic in Women”
  6. 3. Introduction to A Woman Appeared to Me
  7. 4. The Leather Menace: Comments on Politics and S/M
  8. 5. Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality
  9. 6. Afterword to “Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality”
  10. 7. Postscript to “Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality”
  11. 8. Blood under the Bridge: Reflections on “Thinking Sex”
  12. 9. The Catacombs: A Temple of the Butthole
  13. 10. Of Catamites and Kings: Reflections on Butch, Gender, and Boundaries
  14. 11. Misguided, Dangerous, and Wrong: An Analysis of Antipornography Politics
  15. 12. Sexual Traffic: Interview with Gayle Rubin by Judith Butler
  16. 13. Studying Sexual Subcultures: Excavating the Ethnography of Gay Communities in Urban North America
  17. 14. Geologies of Queer Studies: It’s DĂ©jĂ  Vu All Over Again
  18. Notes
  19. Bibliography
  20. Index