Sexuality And Democracy

In a book that is both a critical analysis of contemporary society and the record of a feminist intellectual odyssey, Ann Ferguson, one of the most influential socialist-feminist theorists, develops a new theory of social domination. Tracing the development of socialist-feminist theory from its roots in the politics of the New Left to its present p

Drawing on the example set by feminists, this textbook explores the problems of pursuing lesbian and gay political agendas within the present structure of democracy. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the author connects the analysis of lesbian and gay identities in sociology and cultural studies with the analysis of democracy in political theory. This paves the way for a consideration of the implications of sociological theories of sexuality for democratic theory and practice. Engaging with queer theory, the dominant perspective in the area of sexual identity and politics, the author offers a critique of many of the theorists - including Judith Butler and Diana Fuss - and directions within this field. This approach offers a broad focus on the issues of citizenship and legal, social and political policies with which queer theorists are involved. Up to date with current debates, this book reflects the need to return from an inaccessible level of abstract theory. It grounds ideas about sexuality in material and political realities by assessing the possibility of articulating a sociological view of the sexual self which can be translatedinto effective political strategies.

The Palgrave Handbook of Gender, Sexuality, and Canadian Politics offers the first and only handbook in the field of Canadian politics that uses 'gender' (which it interprets broadly, as inclusive of sex, sexualities, and other intersecting identities) as its category of analysis. Its premise is that political actors’ identities frame how Canadian politics is thought, told, and done; in turn, Canadian politics, as a set of ideas, state institutions and decision-making processes, and civil society mobilizations, does and redoes gender. Following the standard structure of mainstream introductory Canadian politics textbooks, this handbook is divided into four sections (ideologies, institutions, civil society, and public policy) each of which contains several chapters on topics commonly taught in Canadian politics classes. The originality of the handbook lies in its approach: each chapter reviews the basics of a given topic from the perspective of gendered/sexualized and other intersectional identities. Such an approach makes the handbook the only one of its kind in Canadian Politics.

In this book, Zillah Eisenstein continues her unforgiving indictment of neoliberal imperial politics. She charts its most recent militarist and masculinist configurations through discussions of the Afghan and Iraq wars, violations at Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib, the 2004 US Presidential election, and Hurricane Katrina. She warns that women’s rights rhetoric is being manipulated, particularly by Condoleezza Rice and other women in the Bush administration, as a ploy for global dominance and a misogynistic capture of democratic discourse. However, Eisenstein also believes that the plural and diverse lives of women will lay the basis for an assault on these fascistic elements. This new politics will both confound and clarify feminisms, and reconfigure democracy across the globe.

Sexuality education in the schools has become a key battleground in the wider social conflict over the sexual norms of Western culture. In Sexual Ideology and Schooling, Alexander McKay conceptualizes the sexuality debates as a battle between two basic but diametrically opposed belief systems about the nature and purpose of sexuality in human life and society—Restrictive and Permissive. He outlines the philosophical/moral foundations of a democratic approach to teaching young people about sexuality and persuasively argues that public institutions, including the schools, should base public policy related to sexuality on democratic principles rather than the dictates of sexual ideology.

First Published in 1997. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

In A Not So Foreign Affair Andrea Slane investigates the influence of images of Nazism on debates about sexuality that are central to contemporary American political rhetoric. By analyzing an array of films, journalism, scholarly theories, melodrama, video, and propaganda literature, Slane describes a common rhetoric that emerged during the 1930s and 1940s as a means of distinguishing “democratic sexuality” from that ascribed to Nazi Germany. World War II marked a turning point in the cultural rhetoric of democracy, Slane claims, because it intensified a preoccupation with the political role of private life and pushed sexuality to the center of democratic discourse. Having created tremendous anxiety—and fascination—in American culture, Nazism became associated with promiscuity, sexual perversionand the destruction of the family. Slane reveals how this particular imprint of fascism is used in progressive as well as conservative imagery and language to further their domestic agendas and shows how our cultural engagement with Nazism reflects the inherent tension in democracy between the value of diversity, individual freedoms national identity, and notions of the common good. Finally, she applies her analysis of wartime narratives to contemporary texts, examining anti-abortion, anti-gay, and anti-federal rhetoric, as well as the psychic life of skinheads, censorship debates, and the contemporary fascination with incest. An invaluable resource for understanding the language we use—both visual and narrative—to describe and debate democracy in the United States today, A Not So Foreign Affair will appeal to those interested in cultural studies, film and video studies, American studies, twentieth century history, German studies, rhetoric, and sexuality studies.

DIVInvestigates the complex histories and conflicting desires that are generally concealed behind the term “democracy.”/div