Family, Law and Sexuality: Feminist Engagements

Abstract

The author explores feminist frameworks within which questions of family, law and sexuality can best be explored, drawing on recent efforts to (re)establish materialist feminist theory. She suggests that in order to make the important link between questions of gender, sexuality, difference, desire, identity and subjectivity on the one hand, and problems of production and exploitation on the other, a materialist feminist theory must incorporate the strengths of Marxist feminism with those of postmodernist feminism. As a way of exploring the politics of current struggles for legal recognition of lesbian and gay relationships as ‘spousal’, she engages with the debate between Nancy Fraser and Judith Butler on the ‘recognition/redistribution’ dichotomy. She argues that neither theorist takes seriously enough the role of the family in the privatisation of the costs of social reproduction within capitalism. She concludes that the important lesbian/gay struggles for legal recognition of ‘spousal’ relationships, such as in the M v H lesbian spousal support case in Canada, should not be seen as sufficient to achieve social equality. Such legal struggles must be accompanied by trenchant critiques of the limits of such recognition in redistributing wealth and well-being.

Welfare Law, Welfare Fraud, and the Moral Regulation of the ‘Never Deserving’ Poor

“…We concur with those who continue to argue for the interconnectedness of the material, social and cultural and the need to look at redistribution as well as identity/self-formation (Collins, 1991;Fraser, 1997;Roberts, 1997;Boyd, 1999;Brenner, 2000;Razack, 2002).…”

Sex and the civil partnership act: the future of (non) conjugality?

“…24). Feminist critiques of this cross-subsidisation of middle-class married couples by those with lower incomes, as well as a concern with the privatisation of financial and social responsibilities within the family, have also been largely silenced SEX AND THE CIVIL PARTNERSHIP ACT in this discourse (see, for example, Barrett & McIntosh 1991;Boyd 1999;Boyd & Young 2003 and see paper in this volume ;Fineman 2004). The aim of the C.P.A.…”

Losing the Feminist Voice? Debates on The Legal Recognition of Same Sex Partnerships in Canada

“…It rests on an assumption that responsibility to redress economic need or dependency should reside in the private sphere of family or charities, rather than be shared with or reside with the collectivity (Boyd 1999;Cossman 2002;Fineman 2000). The policy is also based on an assumption that spouses pool their income and capital, yet pooling does not occur in all relationships by any means (e.g., Phipps & Burton 1995;Vogler & Pahl 1994).…”