Feminist Alliances (Value Inquiry Book Series 175)

219 Pages·2006·0.89 MB·English

by  Lynda Burns

FEMINIST ALLIANCES
VIBS
Volume 175
Robert Ginsberg
Founding Editor
Peter A. Redpath
Executive Editor
Associate Editors
G. John M. Abbarno Steven V. Hicks
Mary-Rose Barral Richard T. Hull
Gerhold K. Becker Mark Letteri
Raymond Angelo Belliotti Vincent L. Luizzi
Kenneth A. Bryson Adrianne McEvoy
C. Stephen Byrum Alan Milchman
H. G. Callaway George David Miller
Robert A. Delfino Alan Rosenberg
Rem B. Edwards Arleen L. F. Salles
Andrew Fitz-Gibbon John R. Shook
Francesc Forn i Argimon Eddy Souffrant
William Gay Tuija Takala
Dane R. Gordon Anne Waters
J. Everet Green John R. Welch
Heta Aleksandra Gylling Thomas F. Woods
Matti Häyry
a volume in
Philosophy and Woman
PW
Laura Duhan Kaplan, Editor
FEMINIST ALLIANCES
Edited by
Lynda Burns
Amsterdam - New York, NY 2006
Cover Design: Studio Pollmann
The paper on which this book is printed meets the requirements of “ISO
9706:1994, Information and documentation - Paper for documents -
Requirements for permanence”.
ISBN: 90-420-1728-7
©Editions Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam - New York, NY 2006
Printed in the Netherlands
CONTENTS
Preface vii
Introduction 1
LYNDA BURNS
Part One: Responding to Challenges 9
ONE The Complexities of Coalition 11
IRIS MARION YOUNG
TWO Whose Politics? Who’s Correct? 19
ALISON M. JAGGAR
THREE Speaking of Feminism . . . What Are We Arguing About? 35
CHRIS BEASLEY
Part Two: Rethinking Feminist Alliances 59
FOUR The Purposes of Politics: A Feminist Inquiry 61
JANNA THOMPSON
FIVE Foucault, Feminism, and History 77
LISA FEATHERSTONE
SIX Emasculating Metaphor: Whither the Maleness of Reason? 91
JACQUI BROAD, KAREN GREEN, HELEN PROSSER
SEVEN Care Ethics, Power and Feminist Socioanalysis 109
SUSAN DUGGIN, JASON PUDSEY
EIGHT Pornography and Power 133
NARELLE LYDEAMORE
NINE Splitting the Difference: 151
Between Young and Fraser on Identity Politics
MARGUERITE LA CAZE
vi Contents
Bibliography 165
About the Authors 175
Index 179
PREFACE
This book is a contribution to debates about the prospects for alliance between
feminism and sundry other political positions. The chapters represent a range of
feminist views on alliances. They develop detailed critiques of some alliances.
No unified thesis emerges, but the authors’ distinct perspectives on alliances
contribute to the development of different aspects of feminist theory. The col-
lection isofcentralinterestto readers in the area of feminism and gender studies.
The wide scope of these chapters situates feminism with respect to other
left movements, Liberal theory, Foucauldian power theory, Jacques Derrida’s
conception of philosophy, the sociological theory of Pierre Bourdieu, and to
different theoretical and pragmatic approaches to difference. The broad range
of topics will extend the readership to researchers in other areas in addition to
feminism and gender studies. Readers interested in political theory, sociology
and philosophy of language will find this relevant to their work. Its range in-
cludes topics of relevance to current issues, making it also of interest beyond
a purely academic audience.
The Center for Applied Philosophy at Flinders University provided fi-
nancial support for this project. Ian Hunt, the director of the Center and
Yvonne Corcoran-Nantes of Women’s Studies at Flinders, offered valuable
advice. The book has taken some time to appear. I would like to thank the
contributors for their patience and my family and friends for their encourage-
ment and help. Siobhan Davenport and Gunnar Sivertsen read parts of the text
and made many useful suggestions. A study leave spent in the friendly and
intellectually generous La Trobe Philosophy Department made it possible to
finish the work of editing the volume.
I would also like to thank the Editors of Dissent for permission to re-
print the article by Iris Marion Young entitled “Complexities of Coalitions”
which appeared in Dissent in Winter 1997, Volume 44, issue 1.
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INTRODUCTION
Lynda Burns
Politics is often a matter of alliances. This is a commonplace about the reality
of political practice also reflected in feminist political theory. Often, feminist
activists in the last few decades have forged alliances with those working for
gay rights, with environmentalists, socialists, and other left wing activists.
Also, from its beginning in the 1960s, modern feminist theory has engaged
with a range of Marxist, Liberal, Postmodernist, Foucauldian and Communi-
tarian perspectives. Sometimes these engagements have produced a measure
of compromise or coalition, a combination of elements of feminism with other
nonfeminist platforms or theoretical positions, and sometimes they have
aimed at more solid alliances. Since most feminist theories have developed
either in conjunction with, or in critical response to mainstream theories, theo-
rists often categorize these as “kinds” of feminist theory. These include Lib-
eral Feminism, Marxist Feminism, Psychoanalytic Feminism, Socialist Femi-
nism, Communitarian Feminism, Existentialist Feminism, Ecofeminism, and
Postmodern Feminism and so on. Rosemarie Tong’s Feminist Thought pre-
sents these as alternatives between which feminists can choose.1 The theoreti-
cal and strategic advantages and problems associated with such alliances re-
main a contested area in feminist theory. A central purpose of this volume is
to contribute to a few of the debates generated by alliances.
Presently we need to rethink theoretical alliances because this division
into “kinds” of feminism, which has been so fruitful in the past, no longer
serves the same purposes. As Moira Gatens says, feminist theories are no
longer compelled to assert their allegiances to provide an authority to speak.2
Many feminists, including Gatens, have become skeptical about the useful-
ness of “applications” of nonfeminist theories to women’s situation. There
have been substantial feminist critiques of the prospects for alliances with
Marxism, with Rawlsian contractarianism and with Existentialist theory.3
They claim that reflections of masculine experience masquerade as universal
claims about the human condition, and that accounts of social justice or of
oppression turn out, on examination, to ignore injustices to women.
These are quite serious criticisms but they have not spelled the end of
feminist alliances. On the contrary, feminist separatism appears, at some lev-
els of theory and practice, to be in decline. One practical reason for this has to
do with the strategic advantages of unity with other groups. Where a range of
past gains is under threat (including abortion rights, equal pay and even hu-
man rights), obvious advantages exist in a regrouping and combining of re-
sources. In the current political climate isolationism is not a healthy option.
Another more subtle reason has to do with the impact on both feminist prac-