Just Advocacy?

by Hesford, Wendy S.; Kozol, Wendy

• ISBN13: 9780813535890
• ISBN10: 0813535891
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-07-25
• Publisher: Rutgers Univ Pr

Summary

In the continuing estrangement between the West and the Muslim Middle East, human rights are becoming increasingly enmeshed with territorial concerns. Marked by both substance and rhetoric, they are situated at the heart of many foreign policy decisions and doctrines of social change, and often serve as a justification for aggressive actions. In humanitarian and political debates about the topic, women and children are frequently considered first. Since the 1990s, human rights have become the most legitimate and legitimizing juridicial and cultural claim made on a woman's behalf. But what are the consequences of equating women's rights with human rights? As the eleven essays in this volume show, the impact is often contradictory. Bringing together some of the most respected scholars in the field, including Inderpal Grewal, Leela Fernandes, Leigh Gilmore, Susan Koshy, Patrice McDermott, and Sidonie Smith, Just Advocacy? sheds light on the often overlooked ways that women and children are further subjugated when political or humanitarian groups represent them solely as victims and portray the individuals that are helping them as paternal saviors. Drawn from a variety of disciplinary perspectives in the humanities, arts, and social sciences, Just Advocacy? promises to advance a more nuanced and politically responsible understanding of human rights both for scholars and activists. Wendy S. Hesford is an associate professor of English at Ohio State University. Wendy Kozol is an associate professor of gender and women's studies at Oberlin College.

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii
Inderpal Grewal
Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction	1	(32)
Wendy S. Hesford
Wendy Kozol
PART ONE Human Rights, Trans/Nationalisms, and Cultures of Security
Claiming Afghan Women: The Challenge of Human Rights Discourse for Transnational Feminism	33	(23)
Amy Farrell
Patrice McDermott
The Boundaries of Terror: Feminism, Human Rights, and the Politics of Global Crisis	56	(19)
Leela Fernandes
The Campaign for Fair Trials Abroad: Long-Distance Nationalism and Post-Imperial Anxiety	75	(24)
Susan Koshy
PART TWO Human Rights and the Evidence of Experience
Autobiography's Wounds	99	(21)
Leigh Gilmore
Belated Narrating: ``Grandmothers'' Telling Stories of Forced Sexual Servitude during World War II	120	(26)
Sidonie Smith
Kairos and the Geopolitical Rhetorics of Global Sex Work and Video Advocacy	146	(27)
Wendy S. Hesford
Misrepresentations of Missing Women in the U.S. Press: The Rhetorical Uses of Disgust, Pity, and Compassion	173	(22)
Arabella Lyon
PART THREE Correspondences: Activist and ``Official'' Networks
Intensifications: Representing Gender and Sexuality at the UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS	195	(26)
Meredith Raimondo
Human Rights, Feminism, and Transnational Labor Solidarity	221	(22)
Mary Margaret Fonow
Feminist Strategic Rethinking of Human Rights Discourses in Education	243	(23)
Jill Blackmore
Piercing the Veil	266	(25)
Madhavi Sunder
List of Contributors	291	(4)
Index	295