Stirring It: Challenges for Feminism(Routledge Revivals)

First published in 1994 Stirring It debates the challenges which confront feminism and Women's Studies in the 1990s. In the face of current worldwide political and social upheavals, Stirring It poses questions about women, their bodies, their identities, and positions which need to be addressed by contemporary feminists. The chapters therefore challenge the orthodoxies and theories which are exploded by contemporary feminist practice. They raise new issues for feminist debate. The volume is divided into four sections: ‘Feminist Politics in Action’ investigates the inter-relationship between politics and action with reference to issues such as the women's movement in Britain and women's position in and in relation to Ireland; ‘Disrupting Sexual Identities’ provides critiques of heterosexuality, monogamy, and conceptualization of the female body; ‘Imaging and Imagining’ explores the politics of women's cultural production and ‘Women's Studies and Feminist Practice’ analyzes the often fraught connections between theory and practice. This is a must read for scholars and researchers of Women's Studies, Sociology, and Gender Studies.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Stirring It: Challenges for Feminism Section I: Feminist Politics in Action Introduction 1. Paying Our Disrespects to the Bloody States We’re In: Women, Violence, Culture and the State 2. History Of Women's Liberation Movements in Britain: A Reflective Personal History 3. Non-Decision Making... A Management Guide to Keeping Women's Interest Issues Off the Political Agenda Section II: Disrupting Sexual and Gender Identities? Introduction 4. Dire Straights? Contemporary Rehabilitations of Heterosexuality 5. Flaunting The Body: Gender and Identity in American Feminist Performance 6. Anti-Monogamy: A Radical Challenge to Compulsory Heterosexuality? Section III: Imaging and Imagining Introduction 7. Angry Young Women? Sex and Class in Neil Dunn's Up the Junction 8. ‘Not Happy but Hopeful’: Readers of Catherine Cookson in the Northeast of England 9. Splitting the Difference: Adventures in the Anatomy and Embodiment of Women Section IV: Women's Studies and Feminist Practice Introduction 10. Interventions in Hostile Territory 11. Eastern European Women with Western Eyes 12. Relations among Women: Using the Group to Unite Theory and Experience Notes on Contributors Index

About the Author :
Gabriele Griffin, Marianne Hester, Shirin Rai, and Sasha Roseneil