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(2010) Between feminism and materialism, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.
Conservative or patriarchal justifications of traditional roles often invoke ideas of human nature, "In claiming that women's current social roles and positions are the effects of their essence, nature, biology or universal social position, these theories are guilty of rendering such roles and positions unalterable and necessary and thus of providing them with powerful political justification."1 As a response to this type of argument, cultural theory of the 1980s and 1990s worked to destabilize previously secure categories and encouraged theorists to analyze meaning and relationships of power in a way that would call into question unitary, universal concepts and radically open discussions concerning subjectivity, sex, sexualities, and gender, thereby inaugurating the 'sexual equality versus sexual differences' debate.
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Howie, G. (2010). Essentialism, in Between feminism and materialism, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 87-107.
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