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Rating: 
Summary: New ideas about feminism and gay rights
Review: As a women studies librarian, I do a fair bit of reading on both feminism and glbt rights. If you're like me, it's been a while since you've read something truly "new" in this area -- ideas that take you by surprise and that you keep turning it over and over again in your mind for the sheer pleasure of thinking new things. This book, broadly defined, examines the relationship between feminism and lesbianism. Although some have argued that the feminist movement and the movement for glbt rights are synonymous or at least closely aligned, Calhoun reveals places where they are brought into contradiction or tension. One of Calhoun's major arguments revolves around the family -- a place that heterosexual women have traditionally needed freedom FROM but that lesbians are still fighting for freedom TO. She also argues convincingly that fitness for family life is linked to fitness for civic life, and that it is precisely our "unfitness" for family, rather than our sexuality per se, that renders gay and lesbian people second-class citizens today. As someone who has always resisted the idea that marriage and family should be queer movement priorities, I was not an easy sell on this last point, but I found her arguments clearly articulated and ultimately convincing. The book is academic, but accessible to those with some background in feminist thought. Calhoun is a philosopher, and the style of logical argument she employs may take some getting used to for those outside the discipline. As someone who generally reads social science, I found her style a joy at the beginning (how often are we treated to a feminist writer who clearly explains her assumptions in the first chapter?) and a burden by the end (now I will review where we are in my argument so far, and make my next point). Even so, this slim volume makes a major intellectual contribution to queer theory and it deserves far more attention than it has received thus far. Calhoun gives me hope that academic feminism is still alive and kicking and producing new ideas worth thinking about.
Rating:
Summary: New ideas about feminism and gay rights
Review: As a women studies librarian, I do a fair bit of reading on both feminism and glbt rights. If you're like me, it's been a while since you've read something truly "new" in this area -- ideas that take you by surprise and that you keep turning it over and over again in your mind for the sheer pleasure of thinking new things. This book, broadly defined, examines the relationship between feminism and lesbianism. Although some have argued that the feminist movement and the movement for glbt rights are synonymous or at least closely aligned, Calhoun reveals places where they are brought into contradiction or tension. One of Calhoun's major arguments revolves around the family -- a place that heterosexual women have traditionally needed freedom FROM but that lesbians are still fighting for freedom TO. She also argues convincingly that fitness for family life is linked to fitness for civic life, and that it is precisely our "unfitness" for family, rather than our sexuality per se, that renders gay and lesbian people second-class citizens today. As someone who has always resisted the idea that marriage and family should be queer movement priorities, I was not an easy sell on this last point, but I found her arguments clearly articulated and ultimately convincing. The book is academic, but accessible to those with some background in feminist thought. Calhoun is a philosopher, and the style of logical argument she employs may take some getting used to for those outside the discipline. As someone who generally reads social science, I found her style a joy at the beginning (how often are we treated to a feminist writer who clearly explains her assumptions in the first chapter?) and a burden by the end (now I will review where we are in my argument so far, and make my next point). Even so, this slim volume makes a major intellectual contribution to queer theory and it deserves far more attention than it has received thus far. Calhoun gives me hope that academic feminism is still alive and kicking and producing new ideas worth thinking about.
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