Split decisions : how and why to take a break from feminism /

Is it time to take a break from feminism? In this pathbreaking book, Janet Halley reassesses the place of feminism in the law and politics of sexuality. She argues that sexuality involves deeply contested and clashing realities and interests, and that feminism helps us understand only some of them....

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Halley, Janet
Corporate Authors: De Gruyter.
Published: Princeton University Press,
Publisher Address: Princeton, N.J. :
Publication Dates: [2006]
©2006
Literature type: eBook
Language: English
Edition: Course Book.
Subjects:
Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9781400827350
http://www.degruyter.com/doc/cover/9781400827350.jpg
Summary: Is it time to take a break from feminism? In this pathbreaking book, Janet Halley reassesses the place of feminism in the law and politics of sexuality. She argues that sexuality involves deeply contested and clashing realities and interests, and that feminism helps us understand only some of them. To see crucial dimensions of sexuality that feminism does not reveal--the interests of gays and lesbians to be sure, but also those of men, and of constituencies and values beyond the realm of sex and gender--we might need to take a break from feminism. Halley also invites feminism to abandon its uncritical relationship to its own power. Feminists are, in many areas of social and political life, partners in governance. To govern responsibly, even on behalf of women, Halley urges, feminists should try taking a break from their own presuppositions. Halley offers a genealogy of various feminisms and of gay, queer, and trans theories as they split from each other in the United States during the 1980s and 1990s. All these incommensurate theories, she argues, enrich thinking on the left not despite their break from each other but because of it. She concludes by examining legal cases to show how taking a break from feminism can change your very perceptions of what's at stake in a decision and liberate you to decide it anew.
Carrier Form: 1 online resource (424 pages) : illustrations
ISBN: 9781400827350
Index Number: HQ1190
CLC: D440
Contents: Frontmatter --
Contents --
Acknowledgments --
The Argument --
My Complete and Total Lack of Objectivity --
Taxonomies and Terms --
A Story of Sexual-Subordination Feminism and Its Others --
Liberation and Responsibility --
Introduction --
Before the Break: Some Feminist Priors --
The Break --
Feminism and Its Others --
Taking a Break to Decide (I) --
The Costs and Benefits of Taking a Break from Feminism --
Taking a Break to Decide (II) --
Notes --
Index.