Sex, Culture, and Justice: The Limits of Choice

by Clare Chambers

Autonomy is fundamental to liberalism. But autonomous individuals often choose to do things that harm themselves or undermine their equality. In particular, women often choose to participate in practices of sexual inequality―cosmetic surgery, gendered patterns of work and childcare, makeup, restrictive clothing, or the sexual subordination required by membership in certain religious groups. In this book, Clare Chambers argues that this predicament poses a fundamental challenge to many existing liberal and multicultural theories that dominate contemporary political philosophy. Chambers argues that a theory of justice cannot ignore the influence of culture and the role it plays in shaping choices. If cultures shape choices, it is problematic to use those choices as the measure of the justice of the culture. Drawing upon feminist critiques of gender inequality and poststructuralist theories of social construction, she argues that we should accept some of the multicultural claims about the importance of culture in shaping our actions and identities, but that we should reach the opposite normative conclusion to that of multiculturalists and many liberals. Rather than using the idea of social construction to justify cultural respect or protection, we should use it to ground a critical stance toward cultural norms. The book presents radical proposals for state action to promote sexual and cultural justice.

Genres: Feminism, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Politics

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Clare Chambers is University Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and Fellow of Jesus College, University of Cambridge. Her field is political philosophy, particularly feminist and liberal theories of justice, equality, autonomy, culture, family and the body.

Reviews

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually really like this book, and I think it deserves 4.5 stars, but unfortunately, the copyediting was pretty bad. I lowered the star rating due to someone's poor comma skills.

If you're going to read this, I highly suggest you take notes as your read. There is a lot of information in this book, and some of it is hard to grasp, especially if you're just reading straight through without reflecting on what Chambers is suggesting.

The main argument is that because of social construction, we cannot simply claim that people are free to make whatever choice that want without interference. Unfortunately, society shapes our choices and the consequences of those choices. Chambers suggests that the state needs to politically interfere with choices created by social constructions, but only if the choices lead to injustice. For example, many women get breast implants because they want to feel "normal" and think they need the implants to be attractive for a spouse or to become famous. However, breast implants have lots of side effects that harm women more than help them. Therefore, the state should prohibit breast implants or at least discourage women from seeking them.

I don't think this text can be used for undergrads since the details can get complicated, but grad students and professors may find the ideas thought-inspiring.

I do think Chambers makes an excellent argument against liberalism that doesn't want to limit people's choices even if people don't autonomously seek those choices and those choices can harm the chooser.

[toots · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5, turned into a bit of a slog by the end! i did find it repetitive, and while i understand why going over the same points was necessary to combat different liberal perspectives, this is why the liberal framework is probably not for me. very limiting and while it was valiant for her to try and rework liberalism to make sense for feminism in light of social construction, liberalism doesn’t seem to be the most productive or progressive route for feminist change to occur. so it was frustrating to read the same (correct) points not being able to be taken any further. it did what it set out to do, and provided different conceptions of first and second order autonomy as well as the value of autonomy with equality and justice within a liberal framework, just wasn’t the best cup of tea for me at this moment

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd give this a 3.5. While she makes some very compelling arguments, it's a very challenging read. At times, I found her to be verbose and quite repetitive. Overall, though, her book effectively challenges traditional political liberalism and corresponding concepts of feminism from a Western position.

[Anri · Rating 4 out of 5]

"the phenomenon of social construction should actively affect the legislative agenda when two factors are present: the disadvantage factor and the influence factor. The disadvantage factor occurs when an individual or group of individuals suffer disadvantage as a result of their own choices— particularly (though not only) if the disadvantage is severe, enduring, and related to the advantage of those who choose differently. The influence factor occurs when there are identifiable pressures on the choosers to make the disadvantageous choice. Where both factors are present, the disadvantaged suffer from an injustice, and the liberal state ought to intervene. State intervention in such cases could attempt to mitigate either the disadvantage factor, the influence factor, or both together."