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Micro-Politics: Agency in a Postfeminist Era PDF

265 Pages·1994·15.03 MB·English
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Micro-Politics This page intentionally left blank Micro-Politics Agency in a Postfeminist Era Patricia S. Mann University of Minnesota Press Minneapolis London Copyright 1994 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo- copying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Published by the University of Minnesota Press 2037 University Avenue Southeast, Minneapolis, MN 55455-3092 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Mann, Patricia S. Micro-politics : agency in a postfeminist era / Patricia S. Mann. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8166-2048-2 (alk. paper). - ISBN 0-8166-2049-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Feminist theory. 2. Social sciences —Philosophy. 3. Gender identity — Philosophy. 4. Postmodernism — Social aspects. I. Title. HQ1190.M35 1994 305.42'01-dc20 93-28965 CIP The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer. To the family and friends who have been there for me in so many ways. This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments ix Introductory Reflections 1 i. Origins of This Postmodern, Postfeminist Project 1 ii. Why a Theory of Agency? 5 iii. Toward a Definition of Agency 9 iv. Putting a Theory of Gendered Agency to Work 13 v. Historicizing This Theory of Individual Agency 18 vi. On the Ultra-Social Status of Postfeminist Theory 23 vii. Renegotiating Agency: Seizing the Micro-Political Moment 25 viii. Summary Thoughts 31 1. Love and Injustice in Families 33 i. Toward a Dynamic Conception of the Private Sphere 34 ii. Equality and Rights within Liberal Families? 37 iii. Marxism and Material Relations of Power in the Family 42 iv. "Women and Children and Slaves," said Plato 44 v. Aristotle and Patriarchal Benefactors 52 vi. Surd Behavior and Problems of Familial Identity 54 vii. Acting beyond Unjust Identities 61 2. Glancing at Pornography: Recognizing Men 62 i. The Feminist Debate over Pornography 63 ii. An Interactive Model of Sexual Agency 67 iii. Freudian Stories, Worldly Mothers, Gendered Disengagement, and Pornography 73 iv. Jacques Lacan and Women's Desires for Recognition 78 v. Vital Feminist Glances: Painting Ourselves into the Picture 86 vii viii Contents 3. Cyborgean Motherhood and Abortion 90 i. Interpersonal Agency: Rethinking Our Paradigms of Action 91 ii. Foundations of the Abortion Controversy 94 iii. Traditional Maternal Narratives Compromise Abortion Justifications 100 iv. Carol Gilligan: Rethinking Gendered Categories of Moral Agency 105 v. A Cyborgean Theory of Procreative Agency 109 vi. The Interpersonal Agency of Cyborgean Parents 114 vii. Postfeminism and the Waning of a Maternal Identity 117 4. A Genealogy of Individualism 120 i. A Gendered Genealogy 120 ii. Reenacting Individualism after a Second Unmooring 124 iii. Public Dimensions of Liberal Agency 131 iv. The Incorporated Male Family Self 136 v. Familial Unmooring: Individuals Reengaging 141 vi. Beyond Liberal Notions of Agency 148 5. Agency and Politics in a Postfeminist Decade 156 i. Toward An Embodied Micro-Politics 156 ii. An Intersectional Analysis of Military Mothers 163 iii. When Anita Hill Went to Washington: Passions Are Political 172 iv. The Micro-Politics of Sexual Harassment 180 v. On Trial: The Patriarchal Grammar of Sexual Desire 189 vi. Becoming Civil about Sex 196 vii. An Ultra-Social Agency 205 Epilogue: Engaging on a Postfeminist Frontier 208 Notes 213 Index 245 Acknowledgments I would like to thank many people for dialogue and encouragement over the years during which I was writing this book. Without the following friends and colleagues my ideas would surely not have evolved into their present form: Jane Roland Martin, Tom Rockmore, Elayne Rapping, Alan Olson, Leonard Harris, Chris Costan, Margaret Walker, Lee Quinby, Mary Katherine Wainwright, Carole Cole, Milton Fisk, Sohnya Sayres, Stanley Aronowitz, David Weissman, Barrie Karp, Betsy Shevey, Rosa- mond Rhodes, Ruth Spitz, Ann Snitow, Terry Cochran, Biodun Iginla, Ann Klefstad, Jane Marcus, and my CUNY Women's Studies graduate students. I would also like to extend thanks to the following groups for provid- ing me with the intellectual give and take without which I might never have figured out my proximate place in the academy: the New York Insti- tute of Humanities Seminar, "Sex, Gender, and Consumer Culture"; the Legal Theory Workshop of Columbia University; the CUNY Women's Studies Colloquium; the NYU Colloquium for the Study of Law, Philos- ophy, and Social Theory; the Society for Philosophy and Public Affairs of NYC; the Philosophy Colloquium of the Graduate Center of CUNY; the Social Text Collective; the Baruch Colloquium for Philosophy, Poli- tics, and the Social Sciences; the New York Institute of Humanities Semi- nar on Psychoanalysis and Sexual Difference; and the Karl Jaspers Society of North America. I am also grateful on a daily basis for the complexly woven micro- political fabric of NYC; I cherish its streets and its schools, its uncountable public and private nooks, spaces, and moments for engaging with strangers and friends. It is my beloved terrain of social analysis, and my home. ix

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