Description
Book SynopsisA groundbreaking study of how concepts of virtue and vice are used to deny American women full political rights
Trade Review"Boryczka addresses categories of virtue and vice that operate to render women 'suspect citizens' in the American political script... The book contains many interesting and provocative juxtapositions. Summing Up: Highly recommended."--Choice, May 2013 "Suspect Citizens is a rich conceptual history tracing the binary opposition between virtue and vice that has structured the gendered nature of citizenship in American political thought... The book successfully weaves together contemporary political issues with their deep and direct roots in historical political ideas and debates."--New Political Science, Vol. 35, Issue 2 "Throughout her analysis the author succeeds in identifying the emergence of the virtue and vice concept, its relation to other theoretical concepts and political arguments, and how the concept is used by political actors to achieve their political goals. This book is necessary reading for anyone interested in political and feminist theories." - Contemporary Sociology
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Moral Guardians but Suspect Citizens: Women, Virtue, and Vice in the Western Political Imaginary Defining Virtue and Vice Virtue and Vice in Contemporary Political Theory: Displacing Women and Politics Methodological Matters The Plan of the Book 1 | Conceptual Locations: Where Virtue, Vice, and Citizenship Intersect Virtue and Vice in Ancient and Medieval Western Political Thought Modern Theoretical Groundings: Alexis de Tocqueville and Mary Wollstonecraft in America Suspect Citizenship: At the Intersection of Morality and Politics 2 | The Religious Roots of Moral Guardianship: American Women as the Daughters of Eve and Zion The Puritan Point of Emergence: Infinite and Finite Virtue and Vce The Infinite as a Necessary Problem: Mary Daly's Gyn/Ecology and Pure Lust Martyrs for Democracy: The Sacred, Profane, and Double Burden of Moral Responsibility 3 | "Back to Virtue" Backlash Politics: Privileging Irresponsibility Debating Women's Education and Moral Guardianship in the Republican Era Debating Contemporary Sex Education: Resurrecting the Daughters of Eve and Zion Scapegoats for Democracy: Trust, Blame, and Irresponsibility in American Citizenship 4 | Suspect Citizenship: From Lowell Mill Girls to Lesbian Feminists and Sadomasochism Lowell Mill Girl Debates: The Trap of True Womanhood The Rebels: Weakening the Bonds of Virtue Lesbian Feminist S/M Debates: The Moral Bondage of Moral Guardianship Fantasy and Imagination in Lesbian S/M and Contemporary Feminist Ethics Suspect Citizens as Innovative Ideologists 5 | "Ozzie and Harriet" Morality: Resetting Liberal Democracy's Moral Compass The Separate Spheres Paradox: Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America A "Curl Back" to Virtue: Neutralizing Gender in Contemporary Morality Habitual Inattention to Democracy: The Power of Vice 6 | The Legacy of Virtue and Vice: Mary Wollstonecraft and Contemporary Feminist Care Ethics Sex, Sexuality, and Suspicion in Mary Wollstonecraft's Political Thought Moral Perfectionism in Feminist Care Ethics: The Problems of Infinite Virtue, Patriarchal Moral Standards, and Omitting Vice Parochialism: Practice and the Limits of Finite Virtues The Vice of Omission: Sex and Sexuality in Feminist Care Ethics Conclusion: Beyond Virtue and Vice: Toward a Democratic Feminist Ethics The Frontiers of Collective Responsibility: Toward a Democratic Feminist Ethics of Belonging Notes References Index
