Why Feminism? For Peter WHY FEMINISM? Gender, Psychology, Politics LYNNE SEGAL Polity Press Copyright© Lynne Segall999 The right of Lynne Segal to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Reprinted 2002 , 2005 Polity Press 65 Bridge Street Cambridge CB2 1U R, UK Polity Press 350 Main Street Malden, MA 02148, USA All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. ISBN 0-7456-2346-8 ISBN 0-7456-2347-6 (pbk) A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Typeset in 11 on l3 pt Berling by Ace Filmsetting Ltd, Frome, Somerset Printed and bound in Great Britain by Marston Book Services Limited, Oxford This book is printed on acid-free paper. For further information on Polity, visit our website: www.polity.co.uk Contents Acknowledgements viii Introduction: Why Feminism? 1 1 Generations of Feminism 9 Acts of Memory 10 Dubious Contrasts 12 Rowbotham's 'Seventies' Feminism 17 The Collapse of a Vision 21 A New Fundamentalism 27 The Tum to 'Theory' 29 Political Agendas 33 2 Gender to Queer, and Back Again 38 The Rise of Gender Theory 39 The Allure of Difference 43 The Romance of Otherness 49 The Joys of Queer 55 Transgender Dialogues 60 Back to Gender? 66 The Future of Gender 70 3 Genes and Gender: The Return to Darwin 78 Science versus Culture? 79 Survival and Sexual Selection 81 vi Contents Evolutionary Psychology: The New Contender 86 The Tale of the Female Ape 94 Theoretical Pluralists: The Enemy Within 100 Gene Talk versus Social Change 104 For Epistemic Diversity Ill 4 Psychic Life and its Scandals 116 Tricks of Memory 117 Dilemmas of Science 120 Troubled Vision 123 Feminist Denunciations 124 Fantasy versus Trauma 127 Models of Memory 133 Memory as Narrative 137 Betrayal versus Abuse? 141 Narratives in Context 145 5 Gender Anxieties at the Limits of Psychology 149 Feminism Enters the Academy 150 Still Searching for Sex Differences 152 Feminist Psychology and Social Constructionism 154 Openness to Gender Heterodoxy 156 The Predicament of Men 160 Projects for Reforming Masculinity 164 Deconstructing Gender 170 Subjectivity and Change 171 6 Cautionary Tales: Between Freud and Feminism 174 Opening Skirmishes 176 Imagining the Void 1 79 Oedipal Dramas and the Crisis of Paternal Authority 185 The First Bond and its Consequences 190 Retrenchment versus Renewal? 193 Sexual Difference versus Gender: Accepting Ambiguity 195 Contents vii 7 Only Contradictions on Offer: Feminism at the Millennium 200 Snapshots of Gender 201 The Subject of Dependency 206 Family Values 209 Sweeping Anti-statism 211 Switching to the Subject 215 Activist Challenges 21 7 Disciplinary Feminism 220 Cultural Imperatives 223 Feminism without Politics 225 Political Futures 229 Notes 233 Index 274 Acknowledgements Fewer people than usual helped me with this book, which says something about these times. As pressures to publish from within the administration of academic space encounter the shrinking possibilities for cross-over writing with mainstream publishers, and the fractiousness between feminists is matched by the decline in collective political engagements, I wasn't confident I could manage to write at all any more: no longer sure of whom I would be writing for, or why. But I am still lucky enough to find myself within networks in which femin ism, and often even socialism, are lifetime commitments, which continue to inspire me. I would like to thank John Fletcher, Catherine Hall, Katherine Johnson, Cora Kaplan, Loretta Loach, Mandy Merck, David Newson, Sheila Row botham, Alan Sinfield, Barbara Taylor, Ruth Thackeray and Leonore Tiefer for advice, assistance or encouragement. I am very grateful for the support of my editor David Held. Above all, I value the love, generosity and rigorous red pen of Peter Osborne, without whom ...