Staff Profiles

Sheila Jeffreys Phone: 8344 7162 Email: sheila@unimelb.edu.au Office: Medley Building Room 413   Click here to download a cv

Background

I write and teach in the areas of sexual politics, international gender politics and lesbian and gay politics. I have written 5 books on the history and politics of sexuality. I am originally from the UK and came to University of Melbourne in 1991. I have been actively involved in feminist and lesbian feminist politics, particularly around the issue of sexual violence, since 1973. I am involved through the international non-government organization Coalition Against Trafficking in Women in international organising.

Research

My most recent book is Unpacking Queer Politics: a lesbian feminist perspective, UK: Polity, 2003 and covers female-to-male transsexualism, gay pornography, feminist critiques of queer theory and the queer political agenda. My 1997 book, The Idea of Prostitution, is on the international sex industry and I continue to research and publish in this area including the traffic in women, sex tourism, child prostitution and trafficking, and pornography. My new book, Beauty and Misogyny: Harmful Cultural Practices in the West, will by published by Psychology Press (Brunner Routledge) in 2005 and covers such western beauty practices as makeup, high heel shoes, cosmetic surgery, as well as pornochic, misogyny in fashion and transfemininity. This book is the result of work conducted through an ARC large grant.

Subjects Taught

• 2nd/3rd year: International Gender Politics
• 2nd/3rd year: Sexual Politics
• 5th year: International Feminist Political Thought

Supervision

I supervise PHD and Honours and MA students in all of the areas mentioned above. PHD topics that I supervise or have supervised include work on lesbian identity, prostitution in Victoria, feminism and animal liberation, women and the League of Nations, the construction of female sexuality, sexism in outdoor advertising, the international sex industry, lesbian community. Honours and MA topics have included the outsourcing of domestic work, stalking as a human rights violation, intersexuality, prostitution, trafficking, reproductive technology, arranged marriage, transgenderism.

Recent Publications

Books

Beauty and Misogyny. Harmful Cultural Practices in the West, London and New York: Psychology Press, Brunner/Routledge (forthcoming).

Unpacking Queer Politics. A Lesbian Feminist Perspective, (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2004).

The Idea of Prostitution, (Melbourne:Spinifex Press, 1997).

Book Chapters

'Prostitution as a Harmful Cultural Practice'. In Chris Stark and Rebecca Whisnant (eds), Not for Sale, Melbourne, Australia: Spinifex Press, 2004.

'Western Concepts of Gender and Prostitution as Obstacles to Ending the International Traffic in Women'. In Bird, Delys, Wendy Were and Terri-Ann White (eds), Future Imaginings: Sexualities and Genders in the New Millennium, Perth: University of Western Australia Press.

'Die Erotik der (Un)Gleichheit' (The eroticism of (in)equality), in Alice Schwarzer (ed.), Man Wird Nicht Als Frau Geboren, (Cologne: Kiepenheuer and Witsch, 2000), pp. 57-70.

Journal Articles

Sex Tourism: Do Women Do it Too?', Leisure Studies 22 (July), 223-238.

Winter, Bronwyn, Thompson, Denise and Jeffreys, 'The UN Approach to Harmful Traditional Practices: Some Conceptual Problems', International Feminist Journal of Politics 4:1 (April), 72-94.

'Challenging the child/adult distinction in theory and practice on prostitution', International Feminist Journal of Politics. 2:3 (2000), pp. 359-379.

'"Body art" and social status: cutting, tattooing and piercing from a feminist perspective', Feminism and Psychology. 10 (2000), pp. 409-429.

'Bisexual politics: a superior form of feminism', Women's Studies International Forum. 22 (1999), pp. 273-285.

'Globalizing sexual exploitation: sex tourism and the traffic in women', Leisure Studies. 18 (1999), pp. 179-196.