Feminism Unmodified: Discourses on Life and Law
by Catherine A. MacKinnon

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Book Reviews of Feminism Unmodified: Discourses on Life and Law

Book Review: A Rosetta of Social Constructivist Radical Feminism
Summary: 5 Stars

She has a requisite versing in philosophy as she appeals to provides epistemological shifts needed to question the meaning of difficult constructs such as gender. Being a lawyer, she is facile in illuminating basic assumptive inequities in Juris Prudence. I was most appreciative at her analysis of rape and shifting the definition of rape from penetration to violence and where rape is not an erotic act but one of dominance. She continues further and looks at how members of gendered class male define the sexuality of members of gendered class woman until we do not know what our sexuality really is.

She provides a variety of diverse topics but ties them together by pinpointing their interrelatedness in patriarchy. She skillfully examines issues of the first amendment vs pornography and aptly illustrates how the Bill of Rights is becoming a legal repository for male priviledge.

Ms. MacKinnon's messages are presented in multiple levels and at varying depths and accessibilities, one thing to know is that there is always another level of understanding to be attained from this book. The reader is assured that there is much here if she avails herself to it. Please do not short change yourself by a cursory reading. Ms. MacKinnon departs from Radical Feminist stereotypes in that she develops an experienced level of vulnerability in her speeches and the reader can actually feel the extent that she cares about women.

How fortunate that the paperback is hardy, because it travels with me often.

Summary of Feminism Unmodified: Discourses on Life and Law

Catharine A. MacKinnon, noted feminist and legal scholar, explores and develops her original theories and practical proposals on sexual politics and law. These discourses, originally delivered as speeches, have been brilliantly woven into a book that retains all the spontaneity and accessibility of a live presentation. MacKinnon offers a unique retrospective on the law of sexual harassment, which she designed and has worked for a decade to establish, and a prospectus on the law of pornography, which she proposes to change in the next ten years. Authentic in voice, sweeping in scope, startling in clarity, urgent, never compromised and often visionary, these discourses advance a new theory of sex inequality and imagine new possibilities for social change.

Through these engaged works on issues such as rape, abortion, athletics, sexual harassment, and pornography, MacKinnon seeks feminism on its own terms, unconstrained by the limits of prior traditions. She argues that viewing gender as a matter of sameness and difference--as virtually all existing theory and law have done--covers up the reality of gender, which is a system of social hierarchy, an imposed inequality of power. She reveals a political system of male dominance and female subordination that sexualizes power for men and powerlessness for women. She analyzes the failure of organized feminism, particularly legal feminism, to alter this condition, exposing the way male supremacy gives women a survival stake in the system that destroys them.

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