In Black Feminist Thought, Patricia Hill Collins explores the words and ideas of Black feminist intellectuals as well as those African-American women outside academe. She not only provides an interpretive framework for the work of such prominent Black feminist thinkers as Angela Davis, Alice Walker, and Audre Lorde, but she shows the importance of self-defined knowledge for group empowerment. In the tenth anniversary edition of this award-winning work, Patricia Hill Collins expands the basic arguments of the first edition by adding (...) several important new themes. A new discussion of heterosexism as a system of power, an expanded treatment of images of Black womanhood, U.S. Black feminism's connections to Black Diasporic feminisms, and more attention to the importance of social class and nationalism all appear in the new edition. In addition, the new edition includes recent developments in black cultural studies, especially black popular culture, as well as recent events and trends such as the Anita Hill hearings and the backlash against affirmative action. (shrink)

Whether in characterizing Catharine MacKinnon's theory of gender as itself pornographic or in identifying liberalism as unable to make good on its promises, Wendy Brown pursues a central question: how does a sense of woundedness become the basis for a sense of identity? Brown argues that efforts to outlaw hate speech and pornography powerfully legitimize the state: such apparently well-intentioned attempts harm victims further by portraying them as so helpless as to be in continuing need of governmental protection. "Whether one (...) is dealing with the state, the Mafia, parents, pimps, police, or husbands," writes Brown, "the heavy price of institutionalized protection is always a measure of dependence and agreement to abide by the protector's rules." True democracy, she insists, requires sharing power, not regulation by it; freedom, not protection.Refusing any facile identification with one political position or another, Brown applies her argument to a panoply of topics, from the basis of litigiousness in political life to the appearance on the academic Left of themes of revenge and a thwarted will to power. These and other provocations in contemporary political thought and political life provide an occasion for rethinking the value of several of the last two centuries' most compelling theoretical critiques of modern political life, including the positions of Nietzsche, Marx, Weber, and Foucault. (shrink)

"Toward a Feminist Theory of the State" presents Catharine MacKinnon's powerful analysis of politics, sexuality, and the law from the perspective of women.

Catharine MacKinnon makes it clear that she believes there is an important and close connection between her epistemological views and her theory of gender. What remains unclear, however, are: the content of MacKinnon's epistemological views, the nature of the connection that purportedly holds between those views and her theory of gender, and whether or not MacKinnon is right to posit such a connection. The aim of this writing is, therefore, three-fold. First, I explain MacKinnon's "feminist epistemology" and her theory of (...) gender. Second, I unearth from MacKinnon's philosophically murky discussion a two-pronged argument against "representational" epistemology and in favor of "hermeneutics." And finally, I argue that, even when rendered in their strongest form, MacKinnon's epistemological considerations fail to link up meaningfully with her theory of gender. Presenting considerations strikingly similar to those raised by Richard Rorty in Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature, MacKinnon argues that abandoning representational epistemology and embracing "feminist epistemology" both dissolves a vexing philosophical puzzle and creates a more receptive space in political debate for the voices of oppressed groups . There is a small, though growing, cadre of thinkers persuaded by the sorts of philosophical considerations raised by MacKinnon. It is not belief in the soundness of such purely philosophical considerations, however, that primarily motivates MacKinnon's commitment to "feminist epistemology." Rather, it is MacKinnon's conviction that such an epistemology has advantageous political consequences for women. I can find no ground for thinking, however, that advantageous political repercussions would be forthcoming for women should representational epistemology be abandoned and MacKinnon's feminist epistemology widely embraced. MacKinnon's over-arching goal is the liberation of women from sexist oppression, and she regards the popular acceptance of her theory of gender as an important step toward that goal. By complicating her discussion of gender with discussion of irrelevant epistemological issues, MacKinnon hinders rather than assists progress toward her over-arching objective. Accordingly, I conclude that MacKinnon would have done well to excise all discussion of epistemology from her work. (shrink)