ABSTRACT
The contemporary concept of family is assumed to be a 'natural' or biological arrangement between people based on heterosexual attraction and reproduction that "articulates with governmental structures". In order to define a contemporary notion of gender, it must be considered alongside two other key terms: sex and sexuality. Gender and gender studies have become some of the most important sites of contemporary intersectionality in scholarly work, recognising the impossibility of untangling the multiple strands of individual identity and sociality. Gender scholarship also includes sub-genres such as feminist and masculinity studies. Donna Haraway's Cyborg Manifesto foreshadowed the theoretical frameworks of posthumanism and new materialism through her concept of the cyborg, also known as cyborg feminism or posthuman cyborg feminism. Queer theory indexes the influence of poststructural and post-colonial thought in considerations of the relationships of gender, sexuality and power in the work of de Lauretis.
