Among numerous ancient Western tropes about gender and procreation the seed and the soil is arguably the oldest most potent and most invisible in its apparent naturalness. The Gender Vendors denaturalizes this prototheory of procreation and deconstructs its contemporary legacy. As metaphor for gender and procreation seedandsoil constructs the father as the sole generating parent and the mother as nurturing medium like soil for the mans seedchild. In other words men give life women merely give birth. The Gender Vendors examines seedandsoil in the context of the psychology of gender honor and chastity codes female genital mutilation the taboo on male femininity femiphobia the fear of being feminine or feminized sexual violence institutionalized abuse the early modern witch hunts the medicalization and criminalization of gender nonconformity and campaigns against womens rights. The examination is structured around particular watersheds in the history of seedandsoil for example Genesis ancient Greece early Christianity the medieval Church the early modern European witch hunts and the campaigns of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries against womens suffrage and education. The neglected story of seedandsoil matters to everyone who cares about gender equality and why it is taking so long to achieve. show more