Sheila Jeffreys

{{Short description|English-Australian activist and author (born 1948)}}

{{Infobox person

| image =

| caption =

| alt =

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1948|5|13|df=y}}

| birth_place = London, England

| nationality = English-Australian

| education =

| occupation = {{hlist|Activist|author}}

| website = {{Official URL}}

}}

Sheila Jeffreys (born 13 May 1948){{cite web |title=Jeffreys, Sheila |url=http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n85015338.html |publisher=Library of Congress |access-date=1 August 2014}} is a former professor of political science at the University of Melbourne, born in England. A lesbian feminist scholar, she analyses the history and politics of human sexuality.

Jeffreys' argument that the "sexual revolution" on men's terms contributed less to women's freedom than to their continued oppression has both commanded respect and attracted intense criticism.{{citation | last = Zoftig | first = Sarah | contribution = Coming out | editor-last = SAMOIS | editor-link = Samois | title = Coming to power: writings and graphics on lesbian S/M: S/M, a form of eroticism based on a consensual exchange of power | page = [https://archive.org/details/comingtopowerwri00samo/page/88 88] | publisher = Alyson Publications | location = Boston, Massachusetts | year = 1982 | isbn = 9780932870285 | edition = 2nd | postscript = . | url = https://archive.org/details/comingtopowerwri00samo/page/88 }}{{cite book | last = Vance | first = Carole S. | title = Pleasure and danger: exploring female sexuality | page = 302 | publisher = Pandora Press | location = London New York | year = 1992 | isbn = 9780044408673 }}{{citation | last = Egerton | first = Jane | contribution = Sheila Jeffreys | editor-last = Gilbert | editor-first = Harriett | editor-link = Harriett Gilbert | title = The sexual imagination from Acker to Zola: a feminist companion | page = [https://archive.org/details/sexualimaginatio0000unse/page/133 133] | publisher = Jonathan Cape | location = London | year = 1993 | isbn = 9780224035354 | postscript = . | url = https://archive.org/details/sexualimaginatio0000unse/page/133 }}{{citation | last = Denfeld | first = Rene | author-link = Rene Denfeld | contribution = The antiphallic campaign: male bashing and sexual politics | editor-last = Denfeld | editor-first = Rene | editor-link = Rene Denfeld | title = The new Victorians: a young woman's challenge to the old feminist order | pages = 35 | publisher = Allen & Unwin | location = St Leonards, New South Wales | year = 1995 | isbn = 9781863737890 | postscript = .}} She argues that women suffering pain in pursuit of beauty is a form of submission to patriarchal sadism; that transgender people reproduce oppressive gender roles and mutilate their bodies through sex reassignment surgery; and that lesbian culture has been negatively affected by emulating the sexist influence of the gay male subculture of dominant/submissive sexuality.

She is the author of several books about feminism and feminist history, including The Spinster and Her Enemies (1985),{{Cite book|last=Jeffreys, Sheila.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/317550580|title=The spinster and her enemies : feminism and sexuality, 1880-1930|date=1997|publisher=Spinifex|isbn=978-1-74219-196-6|location=North Melbourne, Vic.|oclc=317550580}} The Sexuality Debates (1987),{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/46683999|title=The Sexuality debates|date=2001|publisher=New York|others=Jeffreys, Sheila.|isbn=0-415-25691-7|location=London|oclc=46683999}} Anticlimax (1990),{{Cite book|last=Jeffreys, Sheila.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/746316597|title=Anticlimax : a feminist perspective on the sexual revolution|date=2011|publisher=Spinifex Press|isbn=978-1-74219-800-2|edition=2nd|location=North Melbourne, Vic.|oclc=746316597}} Unpacking Queer Politics (2003),{{Cite book|last=Jeffreys, Sheila.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/49805467|title=Unpacking queer politics : a lesbian feminist perspective|date=2003|publisher=Polity Press in association with Blackwell Pub|isbn=0-7456-2837-0|location=Cambridge|oclc=49805467}} Beauty and Misogyny (2005),{{Cite book|last=Jeffreys, Sheila.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/57893498|title=Beauty and misogyny : harmful cultural practices in the West|date=2005|publisher=Routledge|isbn=0-415-35183-9|location=London|oclc=57893498}} and Gender Hurts (2014).{{Cite book|last=Jeffreys, Sheila.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/776535445|title=Gender hurts : a feminist analysis of the politics of transgenderism|year=2014|isbn=978-0-415-53939-5|location=Abingdon, Oxon|oclc=776535445}}

Early life

Jeffreys was born to a working-class army family from London's East End. After attending an all-girls grammar school, she studied at Manchester University, then taught at a girls' boarding school. In 1973, Julie Bindel writes, Jeffreys decided "to abandon both heterosexuality and her feminine appearance".Bindel, Julie (2 July 2005). [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/jul/02/gender.politicsphilosophyandsociety "The ugly side of beauty"], The Guardian. Jeffreys wrote in Beauty and Misogyny (2005):

{{quote|In 1973 I gave up beauty practices as part of [the feminist] movement, supported by the strength of the thousands of heterosexual and lesbian women around me who were also rejecting them. I stopped dyeing my hair 'mid-golden sable' and cut it short. I stopped wearing make-up. I stopped wearing high heels and, eventually, gave up skirts. I stopped shaving my armpits and legs. I did not go back to these practices even during the darkest years of the 1990s and early 2000s, when the strength of the Women's Liberation Movement was no longer there to support the rejection of these cultural requirements."{{cite book | last = Jeffreys | first = Sheila | title = Beauty and Misogyny: Harmful Cultural Practices in the West | publisher = Routledge | location = London and New York | year = 2005 | page = 163| isbn = 9780415351829 }}}}

Works

In 1979, Jeffreys helped write Love Your Enemy? The Debate Between Heterosexual Feminism and Political Lesbianism, along with other members of the Leeds Revolutionary Feminist Group. Its authors stated, "We do think ... that all feminists can and should be lesbians. Our definition of a political lesbian is a woman-identified woman who does not fuck men. It does not mean compulsory sexual activity with women."

Jeffreys was one of several contributors to The Sexual Dynamics of History: Men's Power, Women's Resistance, an anthology of feminist writings about gender relations published in 1983 by the London Feminist History Group. Jeffreys wrote the chapter on "Sex reform and anti-feminism in the 1920s".{{citation | last = Jeffreys | first = Sheila | contribution = Sex reform and anti-feminism in the 1920s | editor-last = London Feminist History Group | title = The Sexual dynamics of history: men's power, women's resistance |page= vi | publisher = Pluto Press | location = London | year = 1983 | isbn = 9780861047116 | postscript = .}}

In The Spinster and Her Enemies: Feminism and Sexuality 1880–1930, published in 1985, Jeffreys examines feminist involvement in the Social Purity movement at the turn of the century. In her 1990 work Anticlimax: A Feminist Perspective on the Sexual Revolution, Jeffreys offered a critique of the sexual revolution of the 1960s.

The Lesbian Heresy was published in 1993.{{cite book | last = Jeffreys | first = Sheila | title = The lesbian heresy: a feminist perspective on the lesbian sexual revolution | publisher = Spinifex | location = North Melbourne, Victoria | year = 1993 | isbn = 9781875559176 }} In it Jeffreys criticises sadomasochistic practices involving women. One author involved in sadomasochism cites Jeffreys' views in this book as an example of the "simplistic and dualistic thinking" among anti-sadomasochism campaigners. Jeffreys describes sadomasochism as "male supremacist", a reenactment of heterosexual male dominance and women's oppression that glorifies violence and uses women's bodies as a sex aid, and as anti-lesbian and fascistic. The author claims that Jeffreys ignores that some heterosexual women may enjoy sadomasochistic activity, and that "tops" may be women who work hard to give their "bottoms" pleasure, rather than the passive recipients of sex in the way she describes.{{citation | last = Stein | first = Atara | contribution = 'Without contraries is no progression': S/M bi-nary thinking, and the lesbian purity test | editor-first = Dawn | editor-last = Atkins | editor-link = Dawn Atkins (anthropologist) | title = Lesbian sex scandals: sexual practices, identities, and politics | publisher = Haworth Press | page = 53 | location = New York | year = 1999 | isbn = 9780789005489 | postscript = .}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=seZp6LNoF60C&pg=PA53 Preview]

The Industrial Vagina: The Political Economy of the Global Sex Trade was published in 2009. In it, Jeffreys describes the globalisation of the sex market, and calls marriage a form of prostitution. Jeffreys writes, "the right of men to women's bodies for sexual use has not gone, but remains an assumption at the basis of heterosexual relationships", and draws links between marriage and prostitution, such as mail-order brides, which she sees as a form of trafficking.{{Cite news | last= Bindel | first= Julie | author-link = Julie Bindel | title= Marriage is a form of prostitution | work = The Guardian | date= 12 November 2008 | url= https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/nov/12/women-prostitution-marriage-sex-trade}}

Views on transgender issues

The University of Melbourne, Jeffreys' employer until her retirement in May 2015,{{cite news | last = Cook | first = Henrietta | title = Radical feminist Sheila Jeffreys retires after 24 years at the University of Melbourne | url = http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/radical-feminist-sheila-jeffreys-retires-after-24-years-at-the-university-of-melbourne-20150522-gh7g1c.html | location = Victoria, Australia | date = 23 May 2015 }} listed her areas of expertise as:

{{quote|Female-to-male transsexualism; Gay pornography; Feminist critiques of queer theory; Queer political agenda; International sex industry. (Western beauty practices as makeup, high heel shoes, cosmetic surgery, as well as pornochic; Misogyny in fashion and transfemininity.){{cite web | title = Prof Sheila Jeffreys | url = http://www.findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/display/person14541 | website = findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au | publisher = University of Melbourne }}}}

In an interview, the writer Julie Bindel explains that Jeffreys believes sex reassignment surgery "is an extension of the beauty industry offering cosmetic solutions to deeper rooted problems" and that in a society without gender this would be unnecessary.{{Cite news | last= Bindel | first= Julie | author-link = Julie Bindel | title= The ugly side of beauty | work = The Guardian | date= 2 July 2005 | url= https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/jul/02/gender.politicsphilosophyandsociety}} Jeffreys has presented these views in various forums. In a 1997 article in the Journal of Lesbian Studies, for example, Jeffreys contended that "transsexualism should be seen as a violation of human rights." Jeffreys also argued that "the vast majority of transsexuals still subscribe to the traditional stereotype of women" and that by transitioning medically and socially, trans women are "constructing a conservative fantasy of what women should be. They are inventing an essence of womanhood which is deeply insulting and restrictive."{{Cite journal | last = Jeffreys | first = Sheila | title = Transgender activism: a lesbian feminist perspective | journal = Journal of Lesbian Studies | volume = 1 | issue = 3–4 | pages = 55–74 | doi = 10.1300/J155v01n03_03 | date = May 1997 }} [http://www.rapereliefshelter.bc.ca/sites/default/files/imce/Transgender%20Activism%20A%20Lesbian%20Feminist%20Perspective%20by%20Sheila%20Jeffreys%2C%20Journal%20of%20Lesbian%20Studies%201997%5B1%5D.pdf Pdf.]

Jeffreys' opinions on these topics have been challenged by some transgender people. Roz Kaveney, a trans woman and critic of Jeffreys, wrote in The Guardian that Jeffreys and radical feminists who share her views are "acting like a cult." Kaveney compared Jeffreys' desire to ban sex reassignment surgery to the Catholic Church's desire to ban abortion, arguing that both proposals bear negative "implications for all women." Kaveney also criticised Jeffreys and her supporters for alleged "anti-intellectualism, emphasis on innate knowledge, fetishisation of tiny ideological differences, heresy hunting, conspiracy theories, rhetorical use of images of disgust, talk of stabs in the back and romantic apocalypticism."{{Cite news | last= Kaveney | first= Roz | author-link = Roz Kaveney | title= Radical feminists are acting like a cult | work = The Guardian | date= 25 May 2012 | url= https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/may/25/radical-feminism-trans-radfem2012?INTCMP=SRCH}} Jeffreys' viewpoints that are critical of rights for transgender people, but justifying them in the defense of rights for women, have led her to be labeled as a TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist).{{cite journal |last1=Moore |first1=Beth |title=Sheila Jeffreys, Gender Hurts: A Feminist Analysis of the Politics of Transgenderism |url=https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460715583452 |journal=Sexualities |pages=765–768 |language=en |doi=10.1177/1363460715583452 |date=September 2015|volume=18 |issue=5–6 |url-access=subscription }}

Gender Hurts: A Feminist Analysis of the Politics of Transgenderism, a book cowritten by Jeffreys and Lorene Gottschalk, was published in April 2014. Timothy Laurie argued that the formalization of social dynamics between men and women in Gender Hurts in terms of "strategies' and dividends" risks "confusing the continued existence of unequal economic exchanges (well documented by R.W. Connell) with the less predictable, but equally important, struggles over what gets labeled 'masculine' and 'feminine' and for what collective purposes".{{Cite journal | last = Laurie | first = Timothy | title = Masculinity studies and the jargon of strategy: hegemony, tautology, sense | journal = Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities| volume = 20 | issue = 1 | pages = 13–30 | doi = 10.1080/0969725X.2015.1017373 | date = 2015 | hdl = 10453/44220 | s2cid = 142704874 | hdl-access = free }} [https://www.academia.edu/10912537 Pdf.]

In May 2014, the philosopher Judith Butler commented on Jeffreys' view that sex reassignment surgery is directly political. To Jeffreys' notion that reassignment surgery is a component of patriarchal control, Butler responded that "One problem with that view of social construction is that it suggests that what trans people feel about what their gender is, and should be, is itself 'constructed' and, therefore, not real. And then the feminist police comes along".{{cite web | last1 = Butler | first1 = Judith | last2 = Williams | first2 = Cristan | author-link1 = Judith Butler | title = Judith Butler addresses TERFs and the work of Sheila Jeffreys and Janice Raymond | url = http://theterfs.com/2014/05/01/judith-butler-addresses-terfs-and-the-work-of-sheila-jeffreys-and-janice-raymond/ | publisher = The TERFS (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists) via WordPress | date = 1 May 2014 }} {{Self published inline|date = February 2017| certain = yes}}

In Gender Hurts (2014), Jeffreys argues that using pronouns reflecting biological sex is important for feminists, as the feminine pronoun represents respect for cisgender women's historical subordination. She believes trans women can't hold this status, as they haven't experienced the same oppression, and using feminine pronouns for them masks their retained masculine privilege.{{cite book|last1=Jeffreys|first1=Sheila|title=Gender Hurts: A Feminist Analysis of the Politics of Transgenderism |pages=5 |date=2014|edition=1st|publisher=Routledge|location=Abingdon-on-Thames, UK|isbn=978-0415539401}} In April 2015, radical feminist legal theorist Catharine A. MacKinnon responded, stating that Jeffreys' stance on pronouns is based on a nature-based moral view, which contradicts feminist achievements, especially from the political analysis of gender politics. {{cite web |last=Williams |first=Cristan |date=7 April 2015 |title=Sex, Gender, and Sexuality: The TransAdvocate interviews Catharine A. MacKinnon |url=http://www.transadvocate.com/sex-gender-and-sexuality-the-transadvocate-interviews-catharine-a-mackinnon_n_15037.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181224025556/http://www.transadvocate.com/sex-gender-and-sexuality-the-transadvocate-interviews-catharine-a-mackinnon_n_15037.htm |archive-date=24 December 2018 |access-date=22 December 2018 |publisher=The TransAdvocate}}

Jeffreys stated in a 2014 ABC Radio "Sunday Night Safran" program that trans women are either "homosexual men who don’t feel they can be homosexual in the bodies of men" or "heterosexual men who have a sexual interest in wearing women’s clothes and having the appearance of women"; in response, there was criticism from members of the trans community for alleged transphobia.{{Cite episode | title = Sunday 16 February 2014 | url = http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/safran/podcast/ | series = Sunday Night Safran | series-link = Sunday Night Safran | first1 = John (co-host) | last1 = Safran | first2 = Bob (co-host) | last2 = Maguire | first3 = Sheila (guest) | last3 = Jeffreys | first4 = Sean (guest) | last4 = Flannery | first5 = Jeff (guest) | last5 = Sparrow | author-link1 = John Safran | author-link2 = Bob Maguire | author-link5 = Jeff Sparrow | network = ABC | station = Triple J | date = 16 February 2014 }}{{cite news |last = Ozturk | first = Serkan | title = Leading feminist launches bizarre 'racist' attack on trans community | url = http://www.starobserver.com.au/news/local-news/leading-feminist-launches-bizarre-racist-attack-on-trans-community/118883 | work = Star Observer | date = 5 March 2014 }} Julia Serano has written that Sheila Jeffreys was an early feminist adopter of Ray Blanchard's autogynephilia theory.{{Cite journal |last=Serano |first=Julia |date=2020 |title=Autogynephilia: A scientific review, feminist analysis, and alternative 'embodiment fantasies' model |journal=The Sociological Review |volume=68 |issue=4 |pages=763–778 |doi=10.1177/0038026120934690 |s2cid=221097198 |issn=0038-0261 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343552498 |via=ResearchGate}} The concept of autogynephilia is used by trans-exclusionary radical feminists, or "gender critical" feminists, to imply that trans women are sexually deviant men.{{Cite web |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/frightening-online-transphobia-has-real-life-consequences-advocates-say-n1089456 |title='Frightening' online transphobia has real-life consequences, advocates say |website=NBC News |last1=Compton |first1=Julie |date=22 November 2019 |access-date=17 October 2022}}

In March 2018, addressing an audience at the House of Commons in a presentation titled “Transgenderism and the Assault on Feminism”, she said "When men claim to be women…and parasitically occupy the bodies of the oppressed, they speak for the oppressed...". Her comments were referred to as a “fascist tactic to dehumanize” trans women by the journalist Shon Faye.{{Cite web|url=https://www.newsweek.com/trans-women-are-parasites-occupying-bodies-oppressed-says-academic-846563|title=Trans women were compared to parasites during an event held in the U.K. Parliament|last=kashmiragander|date=2018-03-15|website=Newsweek|language=en-US|access-date=2019-05-23}}

Jeffreys co-founded the Women's Human Rights Campaign, which has been described as an anti-trans group.{{cite news |title=MPs urged by anti-trans 'women's rights' group to eliminate 'transgenderism' and scrap Gender Recognition Act |url=https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2021/01/27/womens-human-rights-campaign-gender-recognition-act-inquiry-trans-transphobia/ |access-date=2 December 2021 |work=Pink News}}

Selected works

Books

{{cite book | last = Jeffreys | first = Sheila | title = The Sexuality debates | publisher = Routledge & K. Paul | location = New York | year = 1987 | isbn = 9780710209368 }}
{{cite book | last = Jeffreys | first = Sheila | title = Anticlimax: a feminist perspective on the sexual revolution | publisher = Women's Press | location = London | year = 1990 | isbn = 9780704342033 }}
{{cite book | last = Jeffreys | first = Sheila | title = The lesbian heresy a feminist perspective on the lesbian sexual revolution | publisher = Spinifex | location = North Melbourne, Victoria | year = 1993 | isbn = 9781875559176 }}
{{cite book | last = Jeffreys | first = Sheila | title = The spinster and her enemies: feminism and sexuality, 1880–1930 | publisher = Spinifex | location = North Melbourne, Victoria | year = 1997 | isbn = 9781875559633 }}
{{cite book | last = Jeffreys | first = Sheila | title = Unpacking queer politics: a lesbian feminist perspective | publisher = Polity Press in association with Blackwell Pub | location = Cambridge Malden, Massachusetts | year = 2003 | isbn = 9780745628387 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/unpackingqueerpo00jeff }}
{{cite book | last = Jeffreys | first = Sheila | title = Beauty and misogyny: harmful cultural practices in the West | publisher = Routledge | location = London New York | year = 2005 | isbn = 9780415351829 }}
{{cite book | last = Jeffreys | first = Sheila | title = The idea of prostitution | publisher = Spinifex | location = North Melbourne, Victoria | year = 2008 | edition = 2nd | isbn = 9781876756673 }}
{{cite book | last = Jeffreys | first = Sheila | title = The industrial vagina: the political economy of the global sex trade | publisher = Routledge | location = London New York | year = 2009 | isbn = 9780415412339 }}
{{cite book | last = Jeffreys | first = Sheila | title = Man's dominion: religion and the eclipse of women's rights in world politics | publisher = Routledge | location = Abingdon, Oxfordshire New York | year = 2012 | isbn = 9780415596749 }}
{{cite book | last = Jeffreys | first = Sheila | title = Gender hurts: a feminist analysis of the politics of transgenderism | publisher = Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group | location = Abingdon, Oxfordshire | year = 2014 | isbn = 9780415539401 }}
{{cite book | last = Jeffreys | first = Sheila | title = The Lesbian Revolution: Lesbian Feminism in the UK 1970-1990 | publisher = Routledge | location = Oxon | year = 2018 | isbn = 978-1138096561}}
{{cite book | last = Jeffreys | first = Sheila | title = Trigger Warning - My Lesbian Feminist Life | publisher = Spinifex | location = Melbourne, Australia | year = 2020 | isbn = 9781925950205 }}
{{cite book | last = Jeffreys | first = Sheila | title = Penile Imperialism: the male sex right and women's subordination | publisher = Spinifex | location = Mission Beach, Australia | year = 2022 | isbn = 9781925950700 }}

Book chapters

{{Cite book | last = Jeffreys | first = Sheila | contribution = Sexology and Antifeminism | editor1-last = Leidholdt | editor1-first = Dorchen | editor2-last = Raymond | editor2-first = Janice G.| editor-link1 = Dorchen Leidholdt| editor-link2 = Janice Raymond | title = The Sexual Liberals and the Attack on Feminism | publisher = Teachers College Press| location = New York and London | year = 1990 | isbn = 978-0807762387 }}
{{Cite book | last = Jeffreys | first = Sheila | contribution = Pornography: creating the sexual future | editor1-last = Hornsby | editor1-first = Jennifer | editor2-last = Frazer | editor2-first = Elizabeth | editor3-last = Lovibond | editor3-first = Sabina | editor-link1 = Jennifer Hornsby | title = Ethics: a feminist reader | publisher = Blackwell | location = Oxford, UK Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA | year = 1992 | isbn = 9780631178316 }}
{{cite book | last = Jeffreys | first = Sheila | contribution = Women's friendships and lesbianism | editor1-last = Jackson | editor1-first = Stevi | editor2-last = Scott | editor2-first = Sue | editor-link1 = Stevi Jackson | editor-link2 = Sue Scott (sociologist) | title = Feminism and sexuality: a reader | pages = 46–56 | publisher = Columbia University Press | location = New York | year = 1996 | isbn = 9780231107082 }}
{{cite book | last = Jeffreys | first = Sheila | contribution = Sadomasochism | editor1-last = Jackson | editor1-first = Stevi | editor2-last = Scott | editor2-first = Sue | editor-link1 = Stevi Jackson | editor-link2 = Sue Scott (sociologist) | title = Feminism and sexuality: a reader | pages = 238–244 | publisher = Columbia University Press | location = New York | year = 1996 | isbn = 9780231107082 }}
{{Cite book | last = Jeffreys | first = Sheila | contribution = Return to gender: post-modernism and lesbian and gay theory | editor1-last = Bell | editor1-first = Diane | editor2-last = Klein | editor2-first = Renate | editor-link1 = Diane Bell (anthropologist) | pages = 359–374 | title = Radically speaking: feminism reclaimed | publisher = Spinifex Press | location = North Melbourne, Victoria | year = 1996 | isbn = 9781875559381 }}
{{Cite book | last = Jeffreys | first = Sheila | contribution = Heterosexuality and the desire for gender | editor-last = Richardson | editor-first = Diane | title = Theorising heterosexuality: telling it straight | publisher = Open University Press | location = Buckingham Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | year = 1996 | isbn = 9780335195046 }}
{{Cite book | last = Jeffreys | first = Sheila | contribution = The queer disappearance of lesbians | editor1-last = Mintz | editor1-first = Beth | editor2-last = Rothblum | editor2-first = Esther D. | title = Lesbians in academia: degrees of freedom | pages = [https://archive.org/details/lesbiansinacadem0000unse/page/269 269–278] | publisher = Routledge | location = New York | year = 1997 | isbn = 9780415917018 | url = https://archive.org/details/lesbiansinacadem0000unse/page/269 }}
{{Cite book | last = Jeffreys | first = Sheila | contribution = Prostitution as a harmful cultural practice | editor1-last = Whisnant | editor1-first = Rebecca | editor2-last = Stark | editor2-first = Christine | editor-link1 = Rebecca Whisnant | title = Not for sale: feminists resisting prostitution and pornography | pages = 386–399 | publisher = Spinifex Press | location = North Melbourne, Victoria | year = 2004 | isbn = 9781876756499 }}
{{Cite book | last = Jeffreys | first = Sheila | contribution = Live pornography: strip clubs in the international political economy of prostitution | editor1-last = Tankard Reist | editor1-first = Melinda | editor2-last = Bray | editor2-first = Abigail | editor-link1 = Melinda Tankard Reist | title = Big Porn Inc.: exposing the harms of the global pornography industry | pages = 136–143 | publisher = Spinifex Press | location = North Melbourne, Victoria | year = 2011 | isbn = 9781876756895 }}
{{cite book | last = Jeffreys | first = Sheila | contribution = Beyond 'agency' and 'choice' in theorizing prostitution | editor-last = Coy | editor-first = Maddy | editor-link = Maddy Coy | title = Prostitution, harm and gender inequality: theory, research and policy | publisher = Ashgate | pages = 69–86 | location = Farnham, Surrey, England Burlington, Vermont | year = 2012 | isbn = 9781409405450 }}

Essays and pamphlets

{{cite book | last = Onlywomen Press | author-link = Onlywomen Press | title = Love your enemy?: the debate between heterosexual feminism and political lesbianism | publisher = Onlywomen Press | location = London | year = 1981 | isbn = 9780906500088 }} A pamphlet by Leeds Revolutionary Feminist Group. [https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3dD4VR6trTUMzYzZTExNmMtY2FlMC00MjlhLTg1ZjItYjFhNGMzMWNlMGIx/edit?hl=en&authkey=CN6ixb8C&pli=1 Pdf version.]
{{Cite journal | last=Jeffreys | first=Sheila | title = The queer disappearance of lesbians: Sexuality in the academy | journal = Women's Studies International Forum | volume = 17 | issue = 5 | pages = 459–472 | doi = 10.1016/0277-5395(94)00051-4 | date = September–October 1994 }}
{{Cite book | last1 = Jeffreys | first1 = Sheila | last2 = Sullivan | first2 = Mary | title = Legalising prostitution is not the answer: the example of Victoria, Australia | publisher = Coalition Against Trafficking In Women | location = Fitzroy North, Victoria | year = 2001 | url = http://www.catwinternational.org/content/images/article/95/attachment.pdf | oclc = 223634685 | access-date = 6 September 2016 | archive-date = 2 July 2016 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160702080446/http://www.catwinternational.org/content/images/article/95/attachment.pdf | url-status = dead }}
{{cite book | last = Jeffreys | first = Sheila | title = The legalisation of prostitution: a failed social experiment | url = http://sisyphe.org/article.php3?id_article=697 | publisher = Sisyphe.org | date = 15 February 2004 }}