Sheila Jeffreys
| Sheila Jeffreys | |
|---|---|
| Born |
13 May 1948 United Kingdom |
| Nationality | English-Australian |
| Known for | Feminist activism |
| Website | www |
| Academic work | |
| Main interests | Feminist scholar, author, political activist |
Sheila Jeffreys (born 13 May 1948), an English expatriate in Australia, is best known as a lesbian feminist scholar and political activist, for her analysis of the history and politics of human sexuality in the UK, and for her controversial views on transsexuals. She was a professor in political science at the University of Melbourne in Australia. Jeffreys's argument that the "sexual revolution" on men's terms contributed less to women's freedom than to their continued oppression has both commanded respect and attracted intense criticism. Jeffreys argues that transsexuals reproduce oppressive gender roles and mutilate their bodies through sex reassignment surgery, that lesbian culture has been negatively affected by emulating the sexist influence of the gay male subculture of dominant/submissive sexuality, and that women suffering pain in pursuit of beauty is a form of submission to patriarchal sadism.
In 1979, Jeffreys helped write Love Your Enemy? The Debate Between Heterosexual Feminism and Political Lesbianism, along with other members of the Leeds Revolutionary Feminist Group. Its authors stated that, "We do think... that all feminists can and should be lesbians. Our definition of a political lesbian is a woman-identified woman who does not fuck men. It does not mean compulsory sexual activity with women."
Jeffreys was one of several contributors to The Sexual Dynamics of History: Men's Power, Women's Resistance, an anthology of feminist writings about gender relations published in 1983 under the name "London Feminist History Group." Jeffreys wrote the chapter on "Sex reform and anti-feminism in the 1920s".
In The Spinster and Her Enemies: Feminism and Sexuality 1880–1930, published in 1985, Jeffreys examines feminist involvement in the Social Purity movement at the turn of the century. In her 1990 work Anticlimax: A Feminist Perspective on the Sexual Revolution, Jeffreys offered a critique of the sexual revolution of the 1960s.
...
Wikipedia