This book aims to encourage and develop understanding of the social category of gender, the concept of visual representation, and the relationship between the two, with contributions stimulating discussion within and between disciplines, research paradigms, and methods. By emphasising ‘real world’ issues, drawn from across the globe, the book aims to contribute towards and inspire broader feminist activism.

Inviting readers to approach in an interdisciplinary spirit, the contributions suspend assumptions, and ask us to accept conceptual contradictions and tensions as they may arise, aspiring to (re)centre the concept of representation when considering the social category of gender within our dynamic and changing digital age. This book will be of interest to academics, students, and practitioners from a range of disciplines with an interest in gender studies and in particular the visual representation of gender. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Gender Studies.

Russell Luyt is Head of the Department of Psychology at the University of Greenwich, UK. As lecturer, his specialisms include social psychology, qualitative methods, and the psychology of gender.

Christina Welch is a Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies, and leads the Masters course in Death, Religion and Culture, at the University of Winchester, UK. She is an interdisciplinary scholar with a research interest in the intersection between religions and material/visual culture. Gender is central to much of her work.

Rosemary Lobban is a research student at the University of Greenwich, UK. She has a background in both media and psychology, having studied and worked in both fields. Her specialisms include representations of gender in advertising, as well as masculinities and femininities from a critical, discursive perspective.