Feminist Nightmares: Women At Odds : Feminism and the Problems of Sisterhood

Though all women are women, no woman is only a woman, wrote Elizabeth Spelman in The Inessential Woman. Gone are the days when feminism translated simply into the advocacy of equality for women. Women's interests are not always aligned; race, class, and sexuality complicate the equation. In recent years, feminist ideologies have become increasingly diverse. Today, one feminist's most ardent political opponent may well be another feminist. As feminism grows increasingly diverse, the time has come to ask a painful and frequently avoided question: what does it mean for women to oppress women? This pathbreaking, provocative anthology addresses this troublesome dilemma from various feminist perspectives, offering an interdisciplinary collection of writings that widens our understanding of oppression to take into account women who are at odds. The book examines the social, political, and psychological ramifications of this phenomenon, as evidenced in a range of texts, from women's antislavery writing to women's anti-abortion writing, from mother-daughter incest stories to maternal surrogacy narratives, from the Bible to the popular romance nove, from Jane Austen to Alice Walker. The value of the volume is perhaps best summed up by an early response to the idea—This is a book that should never be written; feminists should concentrate on how men oppress women. Ironically, it is precisely because the subject triggers such responses, the authors argue, that a volume such as Feminist Nightmares has become a necessity. U.s. Academics And Third-world Women : Is Ethical Research Possible? / Daphne Patai -- Scolding Lady Mary Wortley Montagu? The Problematics Of Sisterhood In Feminist Criticism / Devoney Looser -- Louisa Susanna Mccord : Spokeswoman Of The Master Class In Antebellum South Carolina / Manisha Sinha -- Womanism Revisited : Women And The (ab)use Of Power In 'the Color Purple' / Tuzyline Jinta Allan -- Mixed Blood Women : The Dynamic Of Women's Relations In The Novels Of Louise Erdrich And Leslie Silko / Jennifer Shaddock -- Mothers And Sisters : The Family Romance Of Antislavery Women Writers / Jennifer Fleischner -- True Crimes Of Motherhood : Mother-daughter Incest, Multiple Personality Disorder, And The True Crime Novel / Rosaria Champagne -- Equality, Oppression, And Abortion : Women Who Oppose Abortion Rights In The Name Of Feminism / Linda C Mcclain -- Politics Of Surrogacy Narratives : Notes Toward A Research Project / E. Ann Kaplan -- Women At Odds : Biblical Paradigms / Judith R. Baskin -- Post-feminist And Anti-woman : The Revolutionary Republican Women In France, 1793-1794 / William Thompson -- Burden Of Mythic Identity : Russian Women At Odds With Themselves / Nancy Ries -- Wonderful-terrible Bitch Figure In Harlequin Novels / Susan Ostrov Weisser -- Problem Of Speaking For Others / Linda Alcoff -- Feminism Meets Post-communism : Case Of The United Germany / Nanette Funk -- Rehabilitating Mary Crawford : 'mansfield Park' And The Relief Of 'throwing Ridicule' / Eileen Gillooly -- Lost In Space Between Center And Margin : Some Thoughts On Lesbian-feminist Discourse, Bisexual Women, And Speculative Fiction / Robin Anne Reid -- In The Zone Of Ambivalence : A Journal Of Competition / Muriel Dimen. Edited By Susan Ostrov Weisser And Jennifer Fleischner. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. A text on oppression among women. Women's interests are not always aligned: race, class and sexuality complicate the equation and one feminist may be a political opponent of another feminist. This anthology addresses the dilemma from various feminist perspectives.