Dead End Feminism

by Badinter, Elisabeth; Borossa, Julia

• ISBN13: 9780745633817
• ISBN10: 0745633811
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-03-03
• Publisher: Polity

Summary

In this provocative new book, France's leading feminist theorist launches a broadside against the way in which feminism has evolved since the 1990s. After the victories of the previous decades, during which women had made some real advances in social and political life, a new sensibility began to emerge in the 1990s which led to a reversal in the hierarchy of values. The cult of victimhood has become widespread and has affected feminism. Women are viewed as defenceless and oppressed, social violence and sexual violence are treated as the same and a finger is pointed at the guilty one: man in all his guises. But by conflating real and false victims, feminism runs the risk of misunderstanding the battles that need to be waged and of losing all credibility with the younger generation, which doesn't see things see things this way. Preoccupied by putting men on trial, the feminism of the last few years has reactivated old stereotypes and left behind the very battles that have long been its raison d'etre - this, argues Badinter, is a dead end. A huge bestseller in France, this book will be essential reading for anyone interested in the changing relations between the sexes and our ways of thinking about sex and gender today.

Author Biography

E. Badinter, Philosopher and Writer


Translated by J.Borossa

Table of Contents

The Turning Point of the 1990s	1	(6)
The New Discourse on Method	7	(29)
The logic of amalgamation	7	(15)
Philosophical malaise	22	(14)
Omissions	36	(18)
The unthinkable	38	(2)
Women's violence	40	(11)
The abuse of power	51	(3)
Contradiction	54	(30)
Sexual reality	57	(8)
The myth of a domesticated sexuality	65	(9)
The model of female sexuality	74	(10)
Regression	84	(22)
When everyone thinks they are the victim of the other	85	(3)
When the law of difference reigns	88	(7)
The trap	95	(11)
Notes	106	(15)
Index	121