Ironic Freedom: Personal Choice, Public Policy, and the Paradox of Reform PDF
Preview Ironic Freedom: Personal Choice, Public Policy, and the Paradox of Reform
Ironic Freedom This page intentionally left blank Ironic Freedom Personal Choice, Public Policy, and the Paradox of Reform Judith A. Baer ironic freedom Copyright © Judith A. Baer, 2013. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 All rights reserved. First published in 2013 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-44066-5 ISBN 978-1-137-03100-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137031006 Library of Congress Cataloging-i n-P ublication Data Baer, Judith A. Ironic freedom: personal choice, public policy, and the paradox of reform / by Judith A. Baer. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1 -1 37-0 3095-5 (alk. paper) 1. Liberty. 2. Social choice. 3. Social policy. I. Title. JC585.B22 2013 323.44—d c23 2013019039 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Scribe Inc. First edition: October 2013 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 IN MEMORIAM Dorothy Smith Baer, 1921–2 009 The first woman I ever met Theodore Stevenson Baer, 1922–1 974 The first scholar I ever met This page intentionally left blank Contents Preface ix Acknowledgments xi 1 An Introduction to Ironic Freedom 1 2 Right to Die, Right to Live: Assisted Suicide 19 3 Ironic Freedom and Occupational Choice: Sex Work and Military Service 37 4 Path to Liberation or Stigma as Social Policy? Same-S ex Marriage 57 5 Whose Right? Whose Duty?: Sexual Choice and Gender Equality 75 6 Winners and Losers: Class Privilege and Economic Justice 97 7 Conclusion: Ironic Freedom and Feminist Postliberalism 109 Notes 121 Bibliography 157 Index 17 This page intentionally left blank Preface I was raised a liberal, and I became a feminist. A second- generation academic, I grew up in Harvard married-s tudent housing after World War II. The neighborhood was full of families with young children. Most of the men would not have been at Harvard without the GI Bill, a fact that predisposed them to New Deal liberalism. Words like con- servative, Marxist, or Communist were spoken in tones ranging from the derisive to the contemptuous. The death in 1957 of Senator Joseph McCarthy, the notorious Red-b aiter, provoked an impromptu adult block party. The Supreme Court decision outlawing de jure racial seg- regation; the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama; the integration of state universities; and other events in the civil rights movement were greeted with enthusiasm. Nobody found it necessary to defend freedom of expression, the sepa- ration of state and religion, the exclusionary rule, or workers’ right to strike, but if you asked, answers were forthcoming. Adding the words “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance sent a hostile message to non- believers. Laws that prohibited birth control were as ludicrous as the idea of any duty to obey them. Capital punishment was wrong because someone might be convicted in error. People who disagreed with these positions were considered too stupid to understand. Reason trumped emotion, as far as public policy was concerned. The brain trumped the heart, the gut, the hunch, the instinct, the inclination, and the revelation. These principles did not fully apply to children. Families that cel- ebrated Christmas taught their children to believe in Santa Claus—a nd woe betide any child who enlightened younger siblings. We learned about freedom of speech in school, where we were seldom allowed to exercise it. I conceived of adulthood as a stage of life when these rights would be mine, too. But liberal individualism was not all I absorbed.
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