Can feminism develop and grow if the room for reasonable divergence between us becomes ever narrower? We need spaces where we can discuss feminist politics to improve all our feminisms. The cheerleading, backslapping and feuding of twitter is not a good substitute. I’ve been wondering how to respond to the social media attacks we’ve been…
Human rights need to be released from the confinements of whiteness and sexism. In a debate that took place in 1993 about the “reinvention of the left”, Tariq Modood highlighted that ethnic diversity and racial equality were new challenges for the left and thus, also, for critical theory in general. Being Pakistani and Muslim, he…
How should queer politics respond to the attachment some people feel to a stable gender identity? This is the question Judith Butler poses in discussion with Sara Ahmed in the current issue of Sexualities. Butler asks: If ‘queer’ means that we are generally people whose gender and sexuality is ‘unfixed’ then what room is there in…
Sometimes, working late at the university, when it’s dark or raining I call my partner (who works there also) to drive and pick me up. She jumps in the car, in her “loungewear”, and is at the university within five minutes. I was reflecting on our own comfort levels, and the distinctions in what we…
Key ConceptLuce Irigaray’s critique of masculine language systems follows logically from her broader critique of history and culture first elaborated 40 years ago in Speculum. Irigaray’s thinking on language is so complex and informed by so many difficult methodological frameworks, when approaching it for the first time I think it helps to look at her corpus…
A recent publication by Greek magazine LiFO clearly shows that on our backs and around gender, strategic games of liberties are to be played. “I have a hard time making my mind take place…” begins the poem Body & Isn’t by Bruce Covey. Indeed, it is hard for the mind to take place when it…
Key ConceptEquality is a concept that has concerned Luce Irigaray, in various guises, throughout her work. In this post I will discuss both her critique of liberal mobilisations of equality, and her rethinking of equality through sexual difference. Irigaray’s work is often divided into three phases. Briefly, in the first phase, or the ‘critical’ phase,…
Are we witnessing a global epidemic of sexual violence against women, or are we simply witnessing a temporary surge in public and media interest in a ubiquitous, endemic problem? I suspect the latter — much as a spectacular famine, or a good earthquake, temporarily piques ‘international’ (i.e. Western or Euro-American) interest in the endemic reality…
The death of the 23 year old woman following the brutal gang rape and assault on a moving bus on 16 December 2012 at a hospital in Singapore early this morning [Ed. Friday 28th December 2013] leaves all of us in states of deep mourning. This is a political death. Rape and murder of women is…
The horrific gang rape incident in Delhi has led to demands for amending the law to provide for more stringent punishment for rape, including introducing the death penalty. Over the last few days, there have been various debates about the advisability of making such changes to the law. An issue that has not been highlighted…
This morning (14 November 2012) the Guardian reports on the case of Savita Halappanavar, who died last month at University College Galway, Ireland. It was, we are told, a case of “sudden maternal death”. The Irish Times sets out the facts of the case as follows: Savita Halappanavar (31), a dentist, presented with back pain at the hospital…
On August 18th, the youtube channel ‘molucca Red,’ ‘[t]he only fully authorised GG channel,’ posted ‘Good night with George Galloway (Episode 5).’ This episode featured Galloway discussing various issues relating to the Wikileaks founder Jullian Assange. In watching the episode, especially at around 21:15 into the video, the viewer may be forgiven for beginning to…
Call me a sissy, but I’ve never particularly cared for being referred to as cisgender. Still, the work of transgendered activists within Occupy Wall Street has been one of things that keep me optimistic. At a November 13th teach-in at Zuccotti Park, just days before the brutal eviction, trans activists took over the people’s mic…
Get your money for nothing And your chicks for free (Dire Straits) My previous contribution on Assange and the Swedish sex scandal drew some ire from feminist bloggers who mostly raised Catherine MacKinnon’s domination politics to refute my arguments relating to sexual consent and the withdrawal of consent. According to some schools of thought, women are…
At Critical Legal Thinking, Narnia Bohler-Muller takes issue with the narrow legalism of the often ‘surreal’ commentaries on the Assange controversy. In amongst the denunciation and counter-denunciation she detects an undercurrent of disciplinary power. On this account, the apparently ‘very broad’ rape laws of Sweden, like efforts in South Africa to force HIV tests on…