I recently attended the Population Association conference in Dallas and, as I do for all conference trips, I make sure to pack a book to read, usually one written by an NCFR member.

For my latest trip, I brought along a new book co-edited by NCFR member Lis Maurer, CFLE (pictured at right) and her co-editor Rebecca Plante: Doing Gender Diversity: Readings in Theory and Real-world Experience.  It's an anthology of articles on gender, sexuality, identity, sociology and relationships. It has the most amazing breadth of articles. Anyone would benefit from reading this book, because the reader is guaranteed to read about the life of at least one person who's lived a unique and sometimes uncommon life much different than his or her own. I'm a frustrated anthropologist who just loves to read about how other people live. This book is a "keeper" for me.

The study of identity has been around since "I think, therefore, I am." What this book uncovers is how identity affects the human experience across an astonishing range of populations. Here are just a few topics covered in this reader:

• Cheerleaders: are they objects? Or athletes?
• The intersectionality of gender as experienced by ethnic minorities and other viewpoints
• Articles by and about the lives of LGBT persons
• The uneasy reality of skin tone and perceived beauty
• How breast loss due to cancer affects women and their self-image
• Many articles on aspects of body image, including one about genital cosmetic surgery
• An article on pornography and its meaning, written by a man.

Have you ever read about the lives of exotic dancers? I hadn't. Ever wondered how men and women experience garage sales?  How marriage affects the choices women make as to married surname? How construction workers live their masculinity?

One topic I'd like to highlight given NCFR's current activity is intersexuality. There are a couple of great articles on this subject. Intersexuality is a condition in which a person is born with ambiguous genitalia (physically) or ambiguous gender (chromosomally). In approximately 1 in 2000 births, infants present with an ambiguous physical appearance, creating a situation for families in which the moment of "It's a boy!"or "It's a girl!" is one of shock and anguish. At our 2010 conference, a scholar who has studied this population, Sharon Preves from Hamline University, will be speaking about the biology of intersexuality as well as the social implications. Our NCFR conference information is here [Update:  the 2010 conference has taken place since this blog was written-- we now have a recording of Dr. Preves' session available.]

Do you teach a class about marginalized populations, gender or sexuality? Here's a tip: you could spend a year scrounging up articles and getting reprint permissions to assemble into a course packet for your students. Or you could simply assign this book. Plante and Maurer have done the leg work for you.  It can be purchased on our members' On the Bookshelf webpage. Click on "gender" and you'll go right to it.  Thanks to Lis and her colleague for an extremely enlightening read!

Rebecca Plante is an Associate Professor in the Sociology Department at Ithaca College and Lis Maurer is the Program Director of the Center for LGBT Education, Outreach & Services at Ithaca College.