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Despite several decades of feminist activism and scholarship, women's bodies continue to be sites of control and contention both materially and symbolically. Issues such as reproductive technologies, sexual violence, objectification, motherhood, and sex trafficking, among others, constitute ongoing, pressing concerns for women's bodies in our contemporary milieu, arguably exacerbated in a neoliberal world where bodies are instrumentalized as sites of human capital. This book engages with these themes by building on the strong tradition of feminist thought focused on women's bodies, and by making novel contributions that reflect feminists' concerns-both theoretically and empirically-about gender and embodiment in the present context and beyond. The collection brings together essays from a variety of feminist scholars who deploy diverse theoretical approaches, including phenomenology, pragmatism, and new materialisms, in order to examine philosophically the question of the current status of gendered bodies through cutting-edge feminist theory.
About the author
Clara Fischer
is an EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the Centre for Gender, Feminisms, and Sexualities, and Co-director of the John Dewey Research Project at University College Dublin, Ireland.
Luna Dolezal
is a Lecturer in Medical Humanities and Philosophy at the University of Exeter, UK.
Summary
Despite several decades of feminist activism and scholarship, women’s bodies continue to be sites of control and contention both materially and symbolically. Issues such as reproductive technologies, sexual violence, objectification, motherhood, and sex trafficking, among others, constitute ongoing, pressing concerns for women’s bodies in our contemporary milieu, arguably exacerbated in a neoliberal world where bodies are instrumentalized as sites of human capital. This book
engages with these themes by building on the strong tradition of feminist thought focused on women’s bodies, and by making novel contributions that reflect feminists’ concerns—both theoretically and empirically—about gender and embodiment in the present context and beyond. The collection brings together essays from a variety of feminist scholars who deploy diverse theoretical approaches, including phenomenology, pragmatism, and new materialisms, in order to examine philosophically the question of the current status of gendered bodies through cutting-edge feminist theory.
Additional text
“This collection contains a number of insightful essays, some of which are suitable for inclusion in undergraduate feminist philosophy courses and may be of interest to scholars researching related topics. Each essay reveals different ways that ‘women's embodiment still constitutes contested terrain.’” (Erinn Gilson, Hypatia Reviews Online, hypatiareviews.org, April, 2020)
“Reading this collection of chapters is a rewarding and moving experience; the latter a signal that what is being addressed here is about relationship and shared (and differing) humanity and suffering. … what we are dealing with here is a critical and sincere discussion (not the pursuit of mastery); a collective pursuit of both making visible and making a difference, pushing against the tide of crass right-wing and neoliberal ‘rationality’ and rabid patriarchy that so taints our current world.” (Clifford van Ommen, Feminism & Psychology, January 23, 2020)
Report
"This collection contains a number of insightful essays, some of which are suitable for inclusion in undergraduate feminist philosophy courses and may be of interest to scholars researching related topics. Each essay reveals different ways that 'women's embodiment still constitutes contested terrain.'" (Erinn Gilson, Hypatia Reviews Online, hypatiareviews.org, April, 2020)
"Reading this collection of chapters is a rewarding and moving experience; the latter a signal that what is being addressed here is about relationship and shared (and differing) humanity and suffering. ... what we are dealing with here is a critical and sincere discussion (not the pursuit of mastery); a collective pursuit of both making visible and making a difference, pushing against the tide of crass right-wing and neoliberal 'rationality' and rabid patriarchy that so taints our current world." (Clifford van Ommen, Feminism & Psychology, January 23, 2020)
