Description
Book SynopsisIn this book, Wendy Lynne Lee sets out to demonstrate how feminist theorizing is relevant to issues that may seem less directly about the status and emancipation of women but that are vital, she argues, to forming connections with other important twenty-first century movements. Lee shows how a feminist approach to crafting these connections can shed light on the economic disparity and entrenched gender inequality of global markets; the role technology plays in our conception of reproductive rights, sexual identity, and gender; the rise of religious fanaticism; and the relationship between our conceptions of gender, nonhuman animals, and the environment. Timely, politically passionate, and forcefully argued, Contemporary Feminist Theory and Activism will reinvigorate feminist thought for the twenty-first century.
Trade Review“With this wonderfully lucid and accessible book, Wendy Lee has done feminism a great public service. Moving gracefully from the politics of sex reassignment, to international surrogacy, to Sarah Palin’s religious and anti-environmental views, to women’s responses to terrorism, she shows how feminist politics vastly exceeds stereotypes to become a truly worldwide and interconnected political movement. Lee’s arguments are well-crafted and shrewd, but her tone never departs from the pragmatic. Rich with examples—from polar bears to microlending, cyborgs to McJobs—her book shows how feminism’s breadth of vision and potential for political action might be realised. Deftly articulated, highly topical, and written with a rare political passion, Contemporary Feminist Theory and Activism will speak to scholars, students, and the general reader alike. For those who think that we have seen the end of feminism, Lee’s book shows that we may be only at the very beginning.” — Cressida Heyes, Canada Research Chair in Philosophy of Gender and Sexuality, University of Alberta
“Contemporary Feminist Theory and Activism: Six Global Issues is an exciting book combining feminist theorizing from within the academy and feminist activism on a range of international issues. Wendy Lee’s book brings together with clear and accessible prose issues that will engage student intellect and enthusiasm. The chapter on sexual identities is especially compelling, but so too is the chapter on ecological feminism. I am excited about the prospect of teaching from this book.” — Samantha Brennan, Professor of Philosophy, University of Western Ontario
“In this brave, intelligent, and eminently readable book, Wendy Lee spins an intricate web of at-first-sight implausible connections through and among the ‘six global issues’ of her title. In readings that are often startling, yet consistently convincing, she gives new meaning to the slogan ‘the personal is political’— and deeply philosophical. Lee demonstrates how a feminist analysis that is both erudite and witty can yield new ways of understanding how racism, sexism, religious fundamentalism, environmentalism, terrorism, and institutionalized inequality are reciprocally constitutive and mutually reinforcing. This book has much to offer feminist scholars and activists: it is it once a stimulating classroom text and a book that will engage—and challenge—readers committed to practising ‘a thinking activism of the ordinary’.” — Lorraine Code, Distinguished Research Professor, Department of Philosophy, York University
Table of ContentsPreface
Acknowledgements
I Introduction: The Future(s) of Feminism
II Sexual Identities: Institutionalized Discrimination, Medical/Technological Possibility, and the (Slow) Death of Binary Nature
III Reproductive Technology and the Global Exploitation of Women’s Sexuality
IV Economic Disparity and the Global Market: Institutionalized Inequality
V The Culture Industry, the Conceptual Economy of Difference, and the Allure of Religion: Feminist Discourses of Resistance
VI Religious Fundamentalism, Terrorism, and the “New” Anti-Feminism
VII Ecological Feminism: A Critical Praxis for the Future as Now
VIII Epilogue: Life as Activism
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