Daring to Be Good: Essays in Feminist Ethico-Politics: Thinking Gender

"Because of the many topics covered and the interdisciplinary emphasis of the collection, this book will serve as a useful addition to courses in feminist philosophy and politics... wonderful... insightful..." -- Marcia Homiak, Signs
"...a fine collection of essays..." -- Ethics
"With compelling analyses and examples, the essays in this collection create ethico-political connections that interrogate philosophy's traditional divisions between ethics and politics. They address matters as diverse as the `disciplined' feminine body, identity politics and `traitorous identities,' aboriginal education, abortion, reproductive technologies, and prostitution. Engaging provocatively with the `justified moral suspicion of the desire to be good (girls!),' the authors contest entrenched conceptions of knowledge, subjectivity, psychology, and agency to produce a daring agenda for a situated feminist ethico-politics that can take experiential multiplicity seriously, while generating significant transformations in public policy. This book will be a fine resource for teachers and students of feminist ethics, politics, and epistemology, and for scholars and activists committed to making a better world." -- Lorraine Code, York University
"These essays help us envision how feminist ethics can become politically effective in new ways and in neglected areas, integrating insights on race and class with those on gender, and paying attention to the epistemology involved. This is important work." -- Virginia Held, CUNY Graduate School & Hunter College

Bat-Ami Bar On teaches philosophy at the State University of New York at Binghamton. She is the editor of Engendering Origins and Modern Engenderings, (both 1994). Ann Ferguson is Professor of Philosophy and Director of Women's Studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She is the author of Sexual Democracy (1991) and Blood at the Root (1989).

Bat-Ami Bar On and Ann Ferguson -- Introduction ONE: MORAL PSYCHOLOGY 1. Cheryl Hall -- Politics, Ethics, and the Uses of the Erotic: Why Feminist Theories need to Think About the Psyche 2. Sandra Lee Bartky -- Skin Deep: Femininity as a Disciplinary Regime 3. Susan Dwyer -- Learning From Experience: Moral Phenomenology and Practice 4. Bat-Ami Bar On -- Everyday Violence and Ethico-Political Crisis TWO: THE ETHICS AND POLITICS OF KNOWLEDGE 5. Becky Ropers-Huilman -- Conceptualizing Truth in Teaching and Learning: Implication of Truth Seeking for Feminist Practice 6. Laurie Anne Whitt -- Resisting Value-Bifurcation: Indigenist Critiques of the Human Genome Diversity Project 7. Lisa Heldke -- On Being a Responsible Traitor: A Primer 8. Victoria Davion -- Listening to Women's Voices: Rape, Epistemic Privilege, and Objectivity 9. Renee Heberle -- Remembering the Resistant Object: A Critique of Feminist Epistemologies THREE: IDENTITIES AND COMMUNITIES 10. Chris J. Cuomo and Lori Gruen -- On Puppies and Pussies: Animals, Intimacy, and Moral Distance 11. Jane Flax -- Displacing Woman: Toward an Ethic of Multiplicity 12. Mara Lugones -- El Pasar Discontinuo de la Cachapera/Tottillera del Barrio a la Barra al Movimiento: The Discontinuous Passing of the Cachapera/Tortillera from the Barrio to the Bar to the Movement 13. Kathryn Pyne Addelson and Helen Watson-Verran -- Inquiry Into a Feminist Way of Life FOUR: POLICY AND ITS ISSUES 14. Dion Farquhar -- Feminist Politics or Hagiography/Demonology?: Reproductive Technologies as Pornography / Sex Works 15. Ann Ferguson -- Prostitution as a Morally Risky Practice 16. Sarah Begus -- Contentious Contraception: Feminist Debates About the Use of Long-Acting Hormonal Contraceptive by Adolescent Urban Women 17. Nancy D. Campbell -- Recovering Public Policy: Beyond Self-Interest to a Situate Feminist Ethics