Are Women Human?: And Other International Dialogues

Are Women Human?: And Other International Dialogues

by Catharine A. MacKinnon
Are Women Human?: And Other International Dialogues

Are Women Human?: And Other International Dialogues

by Catharine A. MacKinnon

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Overview

More than half a century after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights defined what a human being is and is entitled to, Catharine MacKinnon asks: Are women human yet? If women were regarded as human, would they be sold into sexual slavery worldwide; veiled, silenced, and imprisoned in homes; bred, and worked as menials for little or no pay; stoned for sex outside marriage or burned within it; mutilated genitally, impoverished economically, and mired in illiteracy--all as a matter of course and without effective recourse?

The cutting edge is where law and culture hurts, which is where MacKinnon operates in these essays on the transnational status and treatment of women. Taking her gendered critique of the state to the international plane, ranging widely intellectually and concretely, she exposes the consequences and significance of the systematic maltreatment of women and its systemic condonation. And she points toward fresh ways--social, legal, and political--of targeting its toxic orthodoxies.

MacKinnon takes us inside the workings of nation-states, where the oppression of women defines community life and distributes power in society and government. She takes us to Bosnia-Herzogovina for a harrowing look at how the wholesale rape and murder of women and girls there was an act of genocide, not a side effect of war. She takes us into the heart of the international law of conflict to ask--and reveal--why the international community can rally against terrorists' violence, but not against violence against women. A critique of the transnational status quo that also envisions the transforming possibilities of human rights, this bracing book makes us look as never before at an ongoing war too long undeclared.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780674417878
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Publication date: 11/30/2007
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 431
File size: 3 MB

About the Author

Catharine A. MacKinnon is Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School and the James Barr Ames Visiting Professor of Law (Long-Term) at Harvard Law School.

Table of Contents

part one theory and reality 1 On Torture (1990) 17 2 Human Rights and Global Violence Against Women (1992) 28 3 Theory Is Not a Luxury (1993) 34 4 Are Women Human? (1999) 41 5 Postmodernism and Human Rights (2000) 44 6 The Promise of CEDAW's Optional Protocol (2004) 64 part two struggles within states 7 Making Sex Equality Real (1985) 71 8 Nationbuilding in Canada (1988) 77 9 Misogyny's Cold Heart (1987) 86 10 On Sex and Violence: Introducing the Antipornography Civil Rights Law in Sweden (1990) 91 11 Equality Remade: Violence Against Women (1991) 105 12 Pornography's Empire (1995) 112 13 Sex Equality Under the Constitution of India: Problems, Prospects, and "Personal Laws" (2006) 120 part three .through the bosnian lens 14 Crimes of War, Crimes of Peace (1993) 141 15 Turning Rape into Pornography: Postmodern Genocide (1993) 160 16 Rape as Nation building (1994) 169 17 From Auschwitz to Omarska, Nuremberg to The Hague (1994) 174 18 Rape, Genocide, and Women's Human Rights (1994) 180 19 Gender-Based Crimes in Humanitarian Law (1997) 192 20 War Crimes Remedies at the National Level (1997) 196 21 Collective Harms Under the Alien Tort Statute: A Cautionary Note on Class Actions (1999) 202 22 Genocide's Sexuality (2005) 209 part four - on the cutting edge 23 Defining Rape Internationally: A Comment on Akayesu (2006) 237 24 Pornography as Trafficking (2005) 247 25 Women's September 11th: Rethinking the International Law of Conflict (2006) 259

What People are Saying About This

Any work from Catharine MacKinnon is bound to be provocative and exciting. Here is a feast, a collection of work showing how the author's ideas about women's rights have developed over 20 years. The simple question "are women human?" leads us to see more clearly a male dominated world which, since time immemorial, has tolerated, condoned and even encouraged gender based violence and abuse. No area is spared the damning spotlight, from sexual harassment to pornography, from rape and violence to terrorism and armed conflict. But this is no hand-wringing exercise. The author's passion for true equality, her analytical skills and her creativity shine from these pages. Her new approaches to accountability have inspired many women to assert their rights and have found their way into domestic law and international instruments. All this, and much more in a truly awesome book.

Martha Minow

Why does the war on terrorism after 9/11 offer lessons for struggles against domestic violence? As Catharine MacKinnon explores this and other international legal questions about genocide, rape, and women's status, these essays supply ample evidence for her stature as one of the most original and provocative legal theorists of our age. The essays gathered here are quintessential MacKinnon and reflect her journeys to Bosnia, Canada, Sweden, and across the terrains of international law, and gender politics, and the injustices that lie beyond the power of any single nation.
Martha Minow, Jeremiah Smith, Jr. Professor, Harvard Law School and author of Between Vengeance and Forgiveness: Facing History after Genocide and Mass Violence

Elizabeth Evatt

Any work from Catharine MacKinnon is bound to be provocative and exciting. Here is a feast, a collection of work showing how the author's ideas about women's rights have developed over 20 years. The simple question "are women human?" leads us to see more clearly a male dominated world which, since time immemorial, has tolerated, condoned and even encouraged gender based violence and abuse. No area is spared the damning spotlight, from sexual harassment to pornography, from rape and violence to terrorism and armed conflict. But this is no hand-wringing exercise. The author's passion for true equality, her analytical skills and her creativity shine from these pages. Her new approaches to accountability have inspired many women to assert their rights and have found their way into domestic law and international instruments. All this, and much more in a truly awesome book.
Elizabeth Evatt, former Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and former Member of the Human Rights Committee

José E. Alvarez

MacKinnon's bracing essays globalize her signature ideas--the hidden power behind "neutral" rules, the role of male privilege in the construction of hierarchal rules and law-making processes, the invisibility of those subordinated by the public/private divide, the flaws in Aristotle's concept of equality--with devastating results for the heretofore complacent field of international law. These stinging rebukes to how international law is thought about and practiced, produced over little more than a decade, demonstrate the transformative potential of jurisprudence that seeks to engage (and change) the real world. MacKinnon's thoughtful critiques of matters as diverse as the handling of class actions to the selective choices reflected in the war on terror provide indispensable reading for anyone who cares about how nations (mis)behave. They provide the "shock and awe" that the Bush Administration promised but never delivered.
José E. Alvarez, Hamilton Fish Professor of Law & Diplomacy, Columbia Law School

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