{"product_id":"divine-demonic-and-disordered-women-without-men-in-song-dynasty-china-9780295748320","title":"Divine  Demonic  and Disordered: Women without Men in Song Dynasty China","description":"\u003cp\u003eFemale chastity stirs trouble in medieval China  A variety of Chinese writings from the Song period (9601279)medical texts  religious treatises  fiction  and anecdotesdepict women who were considered peculiar because their sexual bodies did not belong to men. These were women who refused to marry  were considered unmarriageable  or were married but denied their husbands sexual access  thereby removing themselves from social constructs of female sexuality defined in relation to men. As elite male authors attempted to make sense of these women whose sexual bodies were unavailable to them  they were forced to contemplate the purpose of womens bodies and lives apart from wifehood and motherhood. This raised troubling new questions about normalcy  desire  sexuality  and identity.  In Divine  Demonic  and Disordered  Hsiao-wen Cheng considers accounts of manless women  many of which depict women who suffered from enchantment disorder or who engaged in intercourse with ghostsconditions with specific symptoms and behavioral patterns. Cheng questions conventional binary gender analyses and shifts attention away from womens reproductive bodies and familial roles. Her innovative study offers historians of China and readers interested in women  gender  sexuality  medicine  and religion a fresh look at the unstable meanings attached to womens behaviors and lives even in a time of codified patriarchy.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45647893266485,"sku":"ByrdShop_029574832X","price":26.65,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780295748320.jpg?v=1781699227","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/divine-demonic-and-disordered-women-without-men-in-song-dynasty-china-9780295748320","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}