How can a political or social movement create so many positive changes, while simultaneously developing negative connotations? Such is the central paradox of feminism for the editors of this book.

The dwindling interest of students to continue an academic career after their studies has been called "cooling out" by Burton Clark. The collaborative exhibition project took this term to describe the disinterest of young women toward ideas and forms of feminism, resulting from a lack of palpable aims on the one hand, and the acceptance of existing structures on the other. The exhibition "Cooling Out" examined through the works of contemporary female and male artists the influences of the media, education, and existing social structures on the constitution of a gender identity. Presenting the complexity of influences on the constitution of a gender and social identity, and raising awareness of the potential problems, the publication further pursues the questions raised by the exhibitions, gathering texts by the curators and international authors such as Katy Deepwell, Sonja Eismann, Annie Fletcher, Andrea Geyer, Toril Moi, and Vera Tollmann.