Skeptical Feminism

In this major work, Carolyn Dever analyzes the politics of feminist theory by looking at its popular, activist, and academic modes, from the liberation movements of the 1970s to gender and queer studies now. Using key moments in the history of modern feminism -- consciousness-raising, best-selling books like Sexual Politics by Kate Millett, and media representations of women's struggle for equality -- Dever outlines heated debates over psychoanalysis, sexuality, and activism, and argues that a fundamental skepticism toward abstraction has been vital to the development of the movement. Powerful, illuminating, and galvanizing, Skeptical Feminism traces the strategies the women's movement has used to make theory matter -- and points toward a new, politically engaged approach to feminist thought. Book jacket.