Le donne sono umane?

by Catharine A. MacKinnon, Antonella Besussi (editor), Alessandra Facchi (editor)

Nel 1948 la Dichiarazione Universale dei Diritti dell'Uomo ha sancito a cosa un essere umano ha diritto. Sono passati oltre cinquanta anni e sorge un dubbio: anche le donne sono umane? Catharine A. MacKinnon risponde senza esitazioni. Quel che accade alle donne ha poco a che fare con i diritti umani perché, nonostante i buoni propositi, la società, il diritto e la politica restano maschili e a molte, troppe, donne è negato il dominio di sé.
«Originalità di sguardo, pensiero forte, retorica felice. Avvocata e filosofa del diritto, MacKinnon è una pensatrice radicale con mentalità riformatrice, una donna che ha fatto dell'impegno intellettuale una costante di vita. Nel tempo – dai primi scritti degli anni Ottanta agli ultimi del nuovo millennio – cambiano i riferimenti teorici, cambia il quadro storico, ma non cambia l'assunto di base: le donne sono assoggettate agli uomini e la sessualità è il luogo primario di esercizio del potere maschile».

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction, Politics, Law, Philosophy, Essays, Feminist Theory

247 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2006

About the author

Catharine A. MacKinnon is the Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law at the University of Michigan and the James Barr Ames Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School (long-term). She holds a BA from Smith College, a JD from Yale Law School, and a PhD in political science from Yale, and specializes in sex equality issues under international and domestic (including comparative and constitutional) law.

Prof. MacKinnon pioneered the legal claim for sexual harassment and, with Andrea Dworkin, created ordinances recognizing pornography as a civil rights violation and the Swedish model for abolishing prostitution. The Supreme Court of Canada has largely accepted her approaches to equality, pornography, and hate speech, which have been influential internationally as well. Representing Bosnian women survivors of Serbian genocidal sexual atrocities, she won with co-counsel a damage award of $745 million in August 2000 in Kadic v. Karadzic under the Alien Tort Act, the first recognition of rape as an act of genocide.

(source: law.umich.edu)

Reviews

[Alisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

My star rating of this book is tainted by the fact that this is the first serious feminist book I can remember reading (I sadly missed taking femstudies in college), and I suddenly have a huge amount of respect for Catherine MacKinnon, and I get to take her CLASS. I could go on and on about Kadic v. Karadzic, where she won $745 million in damages for survivors of the genocidal rapes in Bosnia. I could also go on and on about new thoughts I am having about the pornography industry, but instead I will just say, read her book. Though, warning, I felt like as a newbie to feminist thought that I probably could have picked a better introductory text. Recommend me one?

[Antonella · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the greatest minds in history. A towering intellect.

[emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

reading this after the past couple of days in my life has made it hit so much harder. Mackinnon is definitely one of the women i look up to the most the way she writes about women, laws and especially pornography is so smart. The last two essays back to back had me staring at my wall.

[l · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poorly compiled - you see sections of one essay repeated verbatim in another.

I picked this up because I wanted to know more about Kadic v. Karadzic. Those essays were interesting though not as informative as I had hoped.

There's also a depressing focus on Canada as a leader in equality rights...

[Asha Heibe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of her essays. Very digestible though found quite a bit of a repetition in some of them.. bound to happen of course. Really great points. MacKinnon is a woman of high intellect and it shows in her work. I would recommend all feminists familiarise themselves with her and Angela Dworkin’s work

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly I didnt read this book cover to cover. I started that way but it is a very info dense book and I felt like it was written in lawyer-speak. I did find that it was informative and worth the time I spent on it.

[Maureen · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a collection of speeches and articles on similar topics, so it gets repetitive in parts. Also, even when I agree with what she's saying, MacKinnon's writing can be a tough slog.

[Ellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Total lack of editing.

[Fadwa Rizek · Rating 3 out of 5]

These were a series of essays by a prominent women's rights attorney, Catherine MacKinnon, on a theme: the treatment of women internationally and locally-- from genocidal rapes in Eastern Europe to pornography within the United States. Though lacking cohesion and at times, coherency in the overall presentation, MacKinnon outlines a devastating image of women's rights, quality of life, and equality. Aside from that, the title has a funny connotation that I'm sure the author didn't intend: that women could possibly be inhumane.

[Courts · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's taken me ages to finish this because I kept reading parts over and over again, making notes, thinking about it, going back and reading it again.

I'm never going to approach feminism the same again.

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read, very informative, although, repetitive in some parts.

[cchrissyy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Valuable book but hard to push through such rough topics.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

There were a couple of minor points on which I disagreed with MacKinnon, but overall I found her thinking original and well reasoned. I enjoyed reading this one.

[Darrel Creary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great exposé of current issues of inequity that face women in our current society. 100% recommended read for those freshly starting in feminist dialouges.

[GingerOrange · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was tough to read.

The subject matter was very real and, at times, quite graphic. I felt so emotional reading about some real-life survivor accounts of the atrocities carried out against women. The book laid out some interesting arguments for reframing violence against women in the international and domestic law context. The author drew from conflicts and compared women’s treatment against other international standards. The author wrote on sexual abuse as a tool in war, pornography, and the general abuse of women collectively the world over and the failings of all government in protecting the group. This book was published in 2006. I don’t think we have made it very far since then.

The language in this book was hard to grasp. Granted, I don’t think this book was meant for the lay audience. I think it was meant for regular readers of law. So I got lost in some arguments and passages. But, I will say, the author did not temper her opinions. At times, her sarcasm and true feelings on a matter came through loud and clear. I thought that was refreshing.

Overall, it’s not a light hearted read and neither is it a light read. But I’m glad that there are people, like the author, that are trying to help right the wrongs against women.

[Kay read by Gloria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Are Women Human? And Other International Dialogues by Catharine A. MacKinnon, published 2006, 419 pages.
Wow! The book capsule says “Exposing the consequences and significance of the systematic maltreatment of women…” Are women individuals or do we wait around to take a man’s last name so we can become an actual person? Does the phrase “Barefoot and pregnant” still hold meaning? Maybe it should be changed to “Ignored and Rubbish”. Globally we are destined to be less because we take it. We allow ourselves to be trampled and pushed aside.
Shame on us, we put up with this. It is time to stand up and be counted. I am so afraid we will just slither off and allow the world to continue to beat on us. Please read this one 5 stars.

[lezhypatia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely repetitive (several sections were repeated in multiple essays— this sort of tedium made it difficult to get through) but on the whole extremely informative. MacKinnon has a way with words that is incisive and incendiary. I’m pretty sure I highlighted half of the book.

[Lydia]

lol no (apparently)

[marzapane · Rating 5 out of 5]

metterei il doppio delle stelline se fosse possibile

[Terese · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very good, very erudite book. Worth both time and thought. My one beef with it is that it's dense in the sense that since it's a compiliation of speeches and essays the themes and language turn out to be kind of repetitive if you read them back to back. The best way to read this book is to read it slowly, taking time and pause between the essays so that you can enjoy them fully.

[Lottie Tyers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Could say so much here. Not sure if it’s a bit much to say this, but it might be my feminist manifesto. It’s not pleasant but if you want a fire in your belly go for it

[Simone · Rating 2 out of 5]

Even if I don't agree with her, it is not what she says, but how she does that's annoying.