Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Progress And Progression In Family Law, Martha Albertson Fineman

Faculty Articles

The process and nature of change in our family formation seems unlikely to be derailed. The policy question for those concerned with the institution of the family in today's world should not be how we can resuscitate marriage and thus save society, but rather how we can support all individuals who create intimate, caring relationships, regardless of the form of those relationships. Continued inattention to the social and economic dislocations and the emerging family needs produced in the wake of changes in family formation can be disastrous, not only to individual families, but also to society.

Of particular importance for …

Why Marriage?, Martha Albertson Fineman

Faculty Articles

Reflection on the prospect of varied, individualized possibilities for the meaning of marriage suggests, that in order to answer the question "why marriage?" we must first consider "what marriage?" or more succinctly, "what is marriage?" Questioning what marriage actually is calls attention to the institution's individualized and malleable nature. By contrast, a focus on "why marriage" highlights the societal function and rationale for the institution. I will discuss each question-the "what" as well as the "why" of marriage.

Beyond The Rhetoric Of Dirty Laundry: Examining The Value Of Internal Criticism Within Progressive Social Movements And Oppressed Communities, Darren L. Hutchinson

Faculty Articles

Several historical reasons explain opposition to the airing of internal criticism by scholars and activists within progressive social movements and by members of subordinate communities. Opponents often contend that such criticism might reinforce negative stereotypes of subordinate individuals and that reactionary movements and activists might appropriate and misuse negative portrayals of the oppressed. A related fear holds that internal criticism will dismantle political unity within oppressed communities and progressive social movements, thereby forestalling social change. While these concerns provide some context for understanding the resistance to internal criticism within progressive social movements, I argue in this essay that they do …

Out Yet Unseen: A Racial Critique Of Gay And Lesbian Legal Theory And Political Discourse, Darren L. Hutchinson

Faculty Articles

The symbolic meaning of the phrase "tongues untied" has grown to identify a small, yet expanding, cultural, intellectual, and artistic "movement" aimed at revealing - or ending the silence around - the interactions of race, class, gender, and sexuality, what one participant in the movement described as "the transformation of silence into language and action." The work of this movement contrasts starkly with that of the "dominant" gay and lesbian culture and scholarship, where issues of racial and class subordination are neglected or rejected and where a universal gay and lesbian experience is assumed. The work of this movement highlights …