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

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Halley, Janet E., 1952-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Feminist theory.

Feminism.

Sex--Philosophy.

Sex.

Sex--Social aspects.

Sex role.

Sexual orientation.

Physical Description:

xvi, 402 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, [2006]

Summary:

Split Decisions" is a bold and nuanced new approach to questions of feminism and sexuality. In a field that's crowded with politically correct dogma and snide reaction, it stands out as critique in the noblest sense of that tradition: Halley is sensitive to feminism's contributions but she also refuses to apologize for its contradictions and its limitations. "Split Decisions" is more than a critique; it initiates a paradigm shift--Halley offers insights into the intersection of law and feminism that have never been seen in print before."--Richard T. Ford, Stanford Law School

"This is a wide-ranging, vastly original, knowing, and challenging book; there is nothing like it in any of the antinormative challenges of the last two decades. What's more, its cheerful polemic is a pleasure to read."--Lauren Berlant, University of Chicago, author of "The Queen of America Goes to Washington City: Essays on Sex and Citizenship

Contents:

Part 1 Taking a Break from Feminism

The Argument 3

My Complete and Total Lack of Objectivity 11

Taxonomies and Terms 16

m/f, m > f, and Carrying a Brief for f 17

Governance Feminism 20

Feminism, Sexual and Reproductive 22

A Sex Lexicon 23

Convergentism and Divergentism 25

A Story of Sexual-Subordination Feminism and Its Others 27

Liberation and Responsibility 31

Part 2 The Political/Theoretical Struggle over Taking a Break

Before the Break: Some Feminist Priors 41

Power Feminism 41

Early and Late / Catharine A. MacKinnon 41

Cultural Feminism 58

Caring for Justice / Robin West 60

MacKinnon/West 76

Liberal Feminism 79

Convergentist and Divergentist Hybrid Feminism 81

The Combahee River Collective Statement 82

The Combahee River Collective Statement/ The Combahee River Collective Statement 89

"Can the Subaltern Speak?" / Gayatri Spivak 91

MacKinnon/West/Combahee River Collective/Spivak 102

The Break 106

Gay Identity/Feminism/Queer Theory 107

"Thinking Sex" / Gayle Rubin 114

Receiving French Social Theory 119

Volume One / Michel Foucault 119

Foucault/Mackinnon/West/Gay Identity Politics 124

The Split, from Feminism and within It 132

Epistemology of the Closet / Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick 133

Gender Trouble / Judith Butler 136

Butler/Mackinnon 139

"Imitation" / Butler 140

"Interview" / Rubin 146

Feminism from Its Outside: Queer Theory by Men 150

"Is the Rectum a Grave?" / Leo Bersani 151

Bersani/Taking a Break 165

Sexy Dressing / Duncan Kennedy 167

Kennedy/Taking a Break 181

Feminism and Its Others 187

Feminist "Paralysis" 187

Paranoid Structuralism and the Moralized Mandate to Converge 188

An Experiment in Political Stylistics (do try this at home) 192

1990-2000: From Political to Ethical Feminism 207

Conflicts in Feminism; Feminist Consequences / Marianne Hirsch, Evelyn Fox Keller, Elisabeth Bronfen, Misha Kavka 208

1990-95: Getting to Deadlock 221

Feminists Theorize the Political; Feminist Contentions / Judith Butler, Joan W. Scott, Seyla Benhabib et al. 221

Around 1993: Mapping Feminism and Queer Theory 227

The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader / Henry Abelove, Michele Aina Barale, David M. Halperin 228

Tendencies; Fear of a Queer Planet / Sedgwick, Michael Warner 230

Mackinnon/Spivak/Warner/Sedgwick 237

Feminism meets queer theory / Elizabeth Weed, Naomi Schor 244

1998: Trans Theory Splits While Staying in Place 260

Second Skins / Jay Prosser 261

Prosser/Butler/Rubin 273

Part 3 How and Why to Take a Break from Feminism

Taking a Break to Decide (I) 283

The Costs of "Making Difference Costless" 285

Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services 290

The Costs and Benefits of Taking a Break from Feminism 304

The Costs 304

Getting Rid of Feminism 304

Silencing Women 306

Flight from Feminism, Imagined as Limits, to the "Queer Utopia," Imagined as Libertine, Unbounded or Libertarian 308

Definitional Violence; the Foreclosure of Critique; and the Reinscription of Heterosexism in Queer Theory 309

Reifying Mere Terminology 312

Matricide, Misogyny, and Male Identification 312

Weakening Feminism and So Harming Real Women 316

The Benefits 319

Breaking with the Politics of Injury/Seeing around Corners of Our Own Construction 319

Seeing the Brain Drain as a Good Thing 340

Resisting Bad Faith 341

Minimizing Moral Perfectionism and Magic Realism 344

Deconstituting Women's Suffering 345

Taking a Break to Decide (II) 348

Twyman v. Twyman 348.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [365]-389) and index.

ISBN:

0691127379

OCLC:

62782235

Publisher Number:

9780691127378

Online:

Publisher description