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Toward a Feminist Theory of the State
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Toward a Feminist Theory of the State presents Catharine MacKinnon's powerful analysis of politics, sexuality, and the law from the perspective of women. Using the debate over Marxism and feminism as a point of departure, MacKinnon develops a theory of gender centered on sexual subordination and applies it to the state. The result is an informed and compelling critique of inequ
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Paperback, 350 pages
Published
September 1st 1991
by Harvard University Press
(first published 1989)
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Showing 1-30
On First Reading Catherine MacKinnon, or, A Middle-Aged White Dude Mansplains Feminist Theory
Before I started this book, I expected it to be a polemic. I was surprised to discover that it is actually a work of philosophy. It has its roots in Marxism - which, unfortunately, I don't know at all - but quickly branches out into its own direction.
I can see from the other reviewers that not everyone likes the idea of starting with Marxism, but the author makes it seem logical. Marxism, ...more
Before I started this book, I expected it to be a polemic. I was surprised to discover that it is actually a work of philosophy. It has its roots in Marxism - which, unfortunately, I don't know at all - but quickly branches out into its own direction.
I can see from the other reviewers that not everyone likes the idea of starting with Marxism, but the author makes it seem logical. Marxism, ...more
This is an incredible book which really brought together many strands of radical feminism I had been pondering for a while, and approaching, if not fully answering, some of the major questions I have had (questions I found sadly eluded in my academic 'gender' courses). The first section is a discussion of the similarities and differences between Marxism and feminism, as well as critiques of socialist feminism and liberal feminism. These comparisons then run throughout the later chapters of the b
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What a difference four years and a lot of reading makes.
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I'm mainly giving this four stars because I LOVED the chapter on methodology. Also the last chapter was great - and, finally, clear! - which left me well disposed towards the book as a whole.
But really, I have come to value clarity above all else, and this was not clear at all, on the whole. I would have loved some sub-headings, and to not have had to experience the feeling that the explanatio ...more
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I'm mainly giving this four stars because I LOVED the chapter on methodology. Also the last chapter was great - and, finally, clear! - which left me well disposed towards the book as a whole.
But really, I have come to value clarity above all else, and this was not clear at all, on the whole. I would have loved some sub-headings, and to not have had to experience the feeling that the explanatio ...more
I was predisposed to dislike this book given my liberal outlook. So my review of three stars means it actually exceeded my expectations. I think overall it offers some valuable insights.
First the good stuff. I appreciated her discussion early in the book about the differences between radical and liberal feminism. The more feminist theory I read the more difficult I find it to distinguish between the two approaches in a way that doesn't leave someone or some topics on the chopping blo ...more
First the good stuff. I appreciated her discussion early in the book about the differences between radical and liberal feminism. The more feminist theory I read the more difficult I find it to distinguish between the two approaches in a way that doesn't leave someone or some topics on the chopping blo ...more
May 12, 2011
Liz
marked it as to-read
I was just writing an essay about the public sphere which reminded me of how much I really really want to read this. I started it a couple of years ago and got sidetracked but it looked awesome. I disagree with MacKinnon on a lot of shit but she's probably the capital-R radical feminist I find the most intellectually stimulating and provocative. there's babies in that bathwater.
MacKinnon's critique of liberal law from a radical feminist perspective. This book had a pivotal influence on my own thinking. Her struggle to both apply and break with her self-described post-Marxism is all in here; and her description of liberal law as positing abstract equality to preserve actual inequality is devastating.
Probably the most depressing book I've ever read.
Alternatively really dead on and not completely convincing, this was definitely worth reading--a pretty extensive, systematic, and provocative theory.
I believe you could hardly find a feminist critique of the world we live in that is more thorough than MacKinnon's. She eloquently describes the different levels of women's oppression under patriarchy, from societal to legal aspects. The book is a collection of texts that touch on a broad range of subjects. The firs part about Marxism and feminism was very interesting, it sheds light on the failure of Marx and Engels to consider women's situation apart from the working class, as women are in fac
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I'll limit my summary to chapter 10: "Abortion: On Public and Private." MacKinnon argues here that the liberal notion of privacy is detrimental to women because it keeps the state from intervening in a privat space that is still very public — or political/social in that patriarchal relations still exist in privacy. She uses abortion court cases to show that there is no inconsistency between abortion being legal because of the right to privacy and the state refusing to intervene to remove impedim
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The theory is extreme but provocative and definitely groundbreaking - written in 1989 but definitely still a must-read for anyone interested in law or trying to understand the structural bases of sex inequality. There is room to challenge and converse with her ideas but they do demand some kind of response. Ideally would be read in conjunction with the theory of black feminists (e.g. bell hooks and Patricia Hill Collins) along with theorists who emphasize the way gender ideologies harm/stratify
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Dec 29, 2015
Roxie Brookshire
added it
This view of feminism does not jive well with my own. I found the first section of the book to be overly dismissive of marxist-feminism and to ready to be foundationalist. The second part of the book seemed to be MacKinnon to ready to be the executor of my morality and I've been down that road too often at the hands of others who would claim to know my heart and mind better than I do.
It is almost impossible to comprehend the depth, patience and content necessary to write such a book. MacKinnon's knowledge on the law, feminism, marxism, liberalism and other ideologies is brilliantly combined to critique and make unprecedented remarks. While third wave feminism has debunked much of MacKinnon's discourse on defining gender/sex, her work (especially on pornography) remains very important to contemporary discussions.
MacKinnon is a revolutionary and I will hold this book dear to ...more
MacKinnon is a revolutionary and I will hold this book dear to ...more
Brilliant and beautifully written. Insightful for me as a lawyer and as a woman. I especially liked the chapters on consciousness raising, methodology, the critique of the liberal state, and those on abortion and sex equality. Not to mention the portion on wages for housewives at the beginning!
I liked her thesis of focusing on hierarchy, dominance, and male supremacy rather than the sameness/difference approach of sex equality law, which still relies on the social reality of sex ineq ...more
I liked her thesis of focusing on hierarchy, dominance, and male supremacy rather than the sameness/difference approach of sex equality law, which still relies on the social reality of sex ineq ...more
Mackinnon is a very intense scholar, and her arguments are incisive and well-researched. While the themes might be a bit dated at times, i still think there is material here that makes an important intervention on matters pertaining to gender, sexuality, and political philosophy. Whether one agrees with her conclusions is one thing, but I think she -at the very least - raises a number of unavoidable questions.
Çeviri inanılmaz derecede kötü, mümkünse ingilizceden okunulmasını salık veriyorum.
Onun haricinde MacKinnon'ın abartı görüşlerinin çoğuna katılmasam da temel feminist kuram okuması gerçekleştirecek insanlar için faydalı olabileceği kanaatindeyim.
Kitabın tümünü okumadım. Okumayı da şimdilik düşünmüyorum.
Onun haricinde MacKinnon'ın abartı görüşlerinin çoğuna katılmasam da temel feminist kuram okuması gerçekleştirecek insanlar için faydalı olabileceği kanaatindeyim.
Kitabın tümünü okumadım. Okumayı da şimdilik düşünmüyorum.
Unsure between rating it with four or five stars I finally decided on five; not so much of MacKinnon’s flawless arguments (which are dubious at times) but because of a coherent and original book. Reading it less like a strictly juridical, and more like a political work proves helpful in accepting the majority of her arguments. Whilst her critique of marxism vis-á-vis feminism is more than adequate, she all too hastily disregards postmodernism and structuralism as wrong, rather than its lack of a
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keşke yasa ve mahkeme kararlarından örnekler vererek anlatsaymış.
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| Blamer Book Club: Toward a feminist theory of the state | 15 | 109 | Feb 28, 2012 11:00AM |
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Catharine A. MacKinnon is the Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law at the University of Michigan and the James Barr Ames Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School (long-term). She holds a BA from Smith College, a JD from Yale Law School, and a PhD in political science from Yale, and specializes in sex equality issues under international and domestic (including comparative and constitutional) l
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“Man fucks woman; subject verb object.”
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“[W]hat is this state, from women's point of view? The state is male in the feminist sense: the law sees and treats women the way men see and treat women. ... The state's formal norms recapitulate the male point of view on the level of design.”
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