The Politics of the Body (eBook)

Gender in a Neoliberal and Neoconservative Age

Alison Phipps (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF | EPUB

2014
John Wiley & Sons (Verlag)
978-0-7456-8275-4 (ISBN)

Infos

Winner of the 2015 FWSA Book Prize

The body is a site of impassioned, fraught and complex debate in
the West today. In one political moment, left-wingers, academics
and feminists have defended powerful men accused of sex crimes,
positioned topless pictures in the tabloids as empowering, and
opposed them for sexualizing breasts and undermining their
natural function. At the same time they have been
criticized by extreme-right groups for ignoring honour killings and
other culture-based forms of violence against women.
How can we make sense of this varied terrain?

In this important and challenging new book, Alison Phipps
constructs a political sociology of women s bodies around key
debates: sexual violence, gender and Islam, sex work and
motherhood. Her analysis uncovers dubious rhetorics and paradoxical
allegiances, and contextualizes these within the powerful coalition
of neoliberal and neoconservative frameworks. She explores how
feminism can be caricatured and vilified at both ends
of the political spectrum, arguing that Western feminisms are now
faced with complex problems of positioning in a world where gender
often comes second to other political priorities.

This book provides a welcome investigation into Western politics
around women s bodies, and will be particularly useful to
scholars and upper-level students of sociology, political science,
gender studies and cultural studies, as well as to anyone
interested in how bodies become politicized.

Autor

Alison Phipps is Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Director of Gender Studies at the University of Sussex, UK. Between 2009 and 2012, she was Chair of the Feminist and Women's Studies Association of the UK and Ireland.

Inhalt

Acknowledgements vii

Introduction 1

1 Neoliberalism and Neoconservatism: Framing the Politics of the Body 7

2 Sexual Violence and the Politics of Victimhood 20

3 Gender and Islam in a Neoconservative World 49

4 The Commodified Politics of the Sex Industry 76

5 The New Reproductive Regimes of Truth 102

Conclusion 132

Notes 139

Bibliography 143

Further Reading 184

Index 200

Rezensionen

"Phipps explores the ways in which modern-day feminist beliefs
intersect with and may even be appropriated by neoliberal and
neoconservative agendas ? As Phipps observes, unless
accompanied by structural change, ?choice? is too often
only meaningful for a small elite."

New Statesman

"Anybody who wants to know about contemporary political confusions
about the body should start here"

Times Higher Education

"Thought-provoking, caustic, and self-reflexive, as its
wide range of themes reflect both breadth and depth in analytic
scope."

Gender and Society

?The Politics of the Body offers valuable insights
into the insidious ways in which neo-conservative and neo-liberal
agendas shape even our most intimate thinking and behaviour?
A rich and provocative set of arguments that could inform efforts
?to revitalise the feminist politics of the body,
reconnecting the personal with the political, instead of
positioning it as an end in itself??

Gender and Development

''This is a brave and important book. Beautifully written, cogently
argued and with vivid up-to-date examples, it shows how a
neoliberal and neoconservative politics is rewriting our common
sense about bodies. A must-read for students and scholars of
gender, sociology and cultural studies.''

Rosalind Gill, City University London

''Alison Phipps revises the old feminist understanding of
?victimhood? in the context of neoliberal and
neoconservative politics. Her analysis shows how mythologies about
victims not only prevail but also are spurred on by the political
and economic agendas of contemporary capitalism.''

Kristin Bumiller, Amherst College

"This book can be useful for a range of different actors, practitioners, and researchers in sociology, especially those working on and for gender issues. The Politics of the Body is a well-documented and responsible must-read account of gender equality challenges in the contemporary Western world."
Bodies in Society

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 10.4.2014
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Politische Theorie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Allgemeine Soziologie
• Schlagworte: Cultural Studies • Feministische Theorien • feminist theory • Gender & Sexuality • Gender Studies • Geschlechterforschung • Geschlecht u. Sexualität • Kulturwissenschaften • sexual violence, rape, feminism, gender, Islam, identity politics, sex work, radical politics, sex, consumer culture, breastfeeding, natural birth, social problems • Sociology • Soziologie
• ISBN-10: 0-7456-8275-8 / 0745682758
• ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-8275-4 / 9780745682754