Gender NormsPapers

This essay critically examines evolutionary psychology's claims about gender differences and mate selection, particularly the popular notion that women are 'naturally monogamous' while men are 'naturally polygamous.' Rees reveals how these scientific narratives serve gender essentialism and how feminism responds to evolutionary psychology's challenges.

This influential essay explores gender as a performative act rather than a natural given, drawing on phenomenological theory to argue that gender identity is constituted through repeated stylized acts. Butler challenges essentialist notions of gender and proposes that gender is continuously constructed through performance within regulatory frameworks.