1st Edition
Leaky Bodies and Boundaries Feminism, Postmodernism and (Bio)ethics
Drawing on postmodernist analyses, Leaky Bodies and Boundaries presents a feminist investigation into the marginalization of women within western discourse that denies female moral agency and embodiment. With reference to contemporary and historical issues in biomedicine, the book argues that the boundaries of both the subject and the body are no longer secure. The aim is both to valorise women and to suggest that 'leakiness' may be the very ground for a postmodern feminist ethic.
The contribution made by Leaky Bodies and Boundaries is to go beyond modernist feminisms to radically displace the mechanisms by which women are devalued. The anxiety that postmodernism cannot yield an ethics, nor advance feminist concerns is addressed. This book will provide invaluable reading for those studying feminist philosophy, cultural studies and sociology.
Biography
Margrit Shildrick, formerly Convenor and Lecturer in Women’s Studies at the University of Leeds, is now an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool.
'Sheldrick takes no intellectual prisoners ... the implications of her thesis for medical practice and bioethics are profound.' - Professor Christopher Dowrick, British Medical Journal
'There are I think two features of Shildrick's analysis which mark it out from others which may, on the surface, seem similar. The first is that the book is written in a highly accessible style, no small achievement given the complexity of the issues addressed and the notoriously difficult style of some of the theories covered ... the second is its focus on biomedical ethics. It is the thoroughness and the manner in which Shildrick brings her thesis about leaky bodies to bear on biomedical ethics that signals its originality ... it makes a valuable and important contribution to the fields of biomedical and sexual ethics.' - Women's Philosophy Review No.19 Autumn 1998
