Branches of Gender Theory

Critical Gender Theory can be divided up into several branches through which these questions (presented in the intro) can be answered in a more focused outlook. There is the Feminist Theory, referring to the analysis of literature and not the equal rights movement, which criticizes the dualism of male/female roles and focuses on the key ideas of equality, difference, and what that difference means in society.

Queer Theory rejects the idea of essential gender or fixed identity and also questions equality and difference when dealing with homosexuality; often critics seek to reveal the author’s sexuality based on his/her works.

Essentialist Theory advocates the pure biology of gender, gender roles, and sexuality, citing hormonal and physiological differences that account for the deep chasm of separation between men and women. A spin off of Essentialist theory is the idea of Heteronormativity or that heterosexuality is institutionalized and integrated into global society – for example the common sight of men's and women's bathrooms, yet the extremely rare sight of spaces for the transgendered or intersex. There are many, many more angles through which one can examine literature from a Gender perspective, but even given these main three, it is easy to see how sensitive and complicated Gender theory is, yet how simple and relevant its ideas are. For instance, the picture used for this post uses blue for the male sign, and pink for the female. Society, somehow, has assigned those colours to those genders. So, one way to look at it is that, despite the message of equality, the image still sends a message of separation defined by these colors.