Privacy and the Politics of Intimate LifePatricia Boling investigates the implications of privacy for feminist theory and legal philosophy, examining issues rooted in intimate life which have broad public impact. She draws on Hannah Arendt's work and ordinary language analysis to identify confusions in the way we think about public and private. She then uses the insights she has developed to illuminate issues in contemporary politics, such as the problem of transforming private identities into political ones in the ?outing? of lesbians and gay men. Another such issue is the relevance of the private experience of nurturing small children to the political activity of the citizen. Evenly divided between theoretical and issue-oriented discussion, this book makes clear the practical stakes in both the distinction and the connection between private and public. Boling considers how to translate private experience into public claims with regard to such contentious issues as shared parenting, abortion funding, fetal abuse, sodomy laws, and parental consent for minors seeking abortions. She also analyzes the application of privacy in landmark legal cases including Roe v. Wade, Bowers v. Hardwick, and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. |
Contents
Chapter One Why the Personal Is Not Always Political | 3 |
Chapter Two Privation and Privilege | 37 |
Chapter Three Arendt on Political Approaches to IntimateLife | 60 |
CONTEMPORARY DOMAINS OF THE PUBLICPRIVATE TENSION | 83 |
Chapter Five The Democratic Potential of Mothering | 112 |
The Closet | 132 |
Conclusion Privacy and Democratic Citizenship | 157 |
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abortion action activities approach argues arguments autonomy bisexuals Catharine MacKinnon central Chapter child rearing choice citizens citizenship claims closet concept concern constitutional context criticism crucial decisions democratic Dietz example experience Feminism Feminist Theory freedom gays and lesbians gender groups Hanna Pitkin Hannah Arendt heterosexual homophobia homosexual Human Condition identity politics important individual interests intimacy intimate intimate-life Justice Kaplan Law Review Lesbian and Gay lives MacKinnon maternal thinking means moral mothers notion nurturing Okin one's oppression parents Pariah Pateman personal is political perspectives Political Theory politicize practices pregnant privacy protections private and public privilege problems public and private public-private distinction Rahel Varnhagen realm recognize relations relationships reproductive respect responsibility right to privacy role Ruth Gavison Schoeman sense of privacy sexual Sheldon Wolin Signorile social society suggests Susan Okin talk theorists thinking about public tion transformed vacy values Wendy Brown woman woman's decision women