Description: In her provocative article "The Male Lesbian and the Postmodern Body", Jacqueline Zita explored the tension between the physical body and the constructed psyche. By questioning the assumptions of "normal" heterosexual society, "queer theorists", and lesbian feminists, Zita compelled a reevaluation of the relationship of sexual identity to the "material body".

Body Talk: Philosophical Reflections on Sex and Gender includes a revised version of "The Male Lesbian" and continues Zita's discourse on gender and sexual identity. This collection features essays on such topics as Magic Johnson's body and the way in which a celebrity can transcend his HIV-positive status and maintain his masculine image in the face of overwhelmingly negative attitudes toward people with the "gay disease"; queer hatred and heterosexual society's antipathy toward homosexuality; "Prozac Feminism", a discussion of whether the culture of Prozac sustains the construct of the superwoman preferred by male-dominated society; and "Anzalduan Body", Zita's reading of Gloria Anzaldua's Borderlands/La Frontera.

Body Talk is a sophisticated and insightful exploration of the body as a physical, psychological, anti cultural construct that will both challenge and inform the academic and general reader.

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