Examining written texts in English and French, concentrating on those texts which problematize the traditional functioning of the linguistic gender system, this book shows that rather than being cases of misguided envy, battles over gendered language are central to feminist concerns.

"Livia's deft explication of how these texts conceal and queer grammatical gender stands as a compelling contribution not only to the fields designated by the series in which the book appears-Studies in Language and Gender-but to literary study as well."--nterdisciplinary Journal for Germanic Linguistics and Semiotic Analysis "A valuable contribution to the series with a fascinating study of feminist writers' textual strategies surrounding the 'pronoun' problem and the representation of linguistic and cultural gender."--Discourse and Society "This book could be used in Language and Gender classes because of the in-depth explanation and review of works done in language and gender studies. It offers a simple yet informative introduction to pronominal studies in French and English. The translation of French into English is very useful as it allows readers without knowledge [of] French an insight into French language system."--Linguist List "Livia's deft explication of how these texts conceal and queer grammatical gender stands as a compelling contribution not only to the fields designated by the series in which the book appears-Studies in Language and Gender-but to literary study as well."--Interdisciplinary Journal for Germanic Linguistics and Semiotic Analysis