Good Girls/Bad Girls: Feminists and Sex Trade Workers Face to Face
edited by Laurie Bell, published by Women's Studies, The Seal Press, P.O. Box 13, Seattle, Washington 98111, USA, price US$9.95
Prostitution and pornography: issues that have sparked fierce controversy in the women's movement. Until recently the most central voices have been left out of the debate — the women in the sex industry themselves. In this groundbreaking book, these women speak out.
Born out of a landmark conference that brought feminists and sex trade workers face to face. Good Girls/Bad Girls captures the interest, energy and drama of this dialogue and its provocative topics: racism in pornographic imagery, censorship, the reclamation of the name "whore". Strippers, dancers and prostitutes tell in their own words about their working conditions and challenge the myths and stereotypes that have stigmatized them as social outcasts. At the center of discussion is the social division and repression that has perpetuated the categories of "good girls" and "bad girls."
A compelling documentation of an unprecedented event, this book presents a forum for an important dialogue between women and explores the profoundly personal and political issue of sex. (from the back cover)
One World Women's Movement
by Chilla Bulbeck, published by Pluto Press, 11-21 Northdown Street, London Nl 9BN, UK
The impediments to an international feminism are the differences between women. The results of colonialism, slavery, racism and imperialism seem to create hierarchies of oppression - hierarchies in which some women benefit
from the oppression of others...
Women of colour and the third world have rightly charged western feminism of ignorance of their specific problems. One goal at least of western feminists movements can be to put a broom through their own house, to gain knowledge of the positions and needs of other women and to excise racism and eurocentrism from their own movement. Not only is this a necessary antidote to the partiality of western feminism that pretends to speak for all women, but it will strengthen and enrich feminism. It will give women more models of action to consider, more puzzles to ponder, more strengths to draw on. (from the back cover)
Beyond Conception: The New Politics of Reproduction
edited by Patricia Spallone, published by Bergin and Garvey Publishers, Inc., 670 Amherst Road, Granby, Mass. 01033, USA
International in scope, this book is a feminist response to the new reproductive technologies and the genetic engineering being used on women - "test tube" fertilization, surrogacy, embryo flushing, sex preselection, and artificial hormones. It is concerned with what these procedures mean for women and with the accountability of the medical scientists who have created the technology. Spallone argues that the result is the subordination of women to the interests of medical scientists, population planners, the family, and the burgeoning biotechnology industry, (from the back cover)
Doing Participatory Research: a Feminist Approach
by Patricia Maguire, published by The Center for International Education, School of Education University of Massachusetts Amherst, Massachusetts, USA
In Doing Participatory Research: A Feminist Approach we trace the evolution of Pat Maguire, from a student researcher grappling to come to an understanding of the bias for traditional research, through the processes of engaging in participatory research with a group of former battered women in GalUup, New Mexico.
Using Paulo Freire's concept of dialogue, Pat talks with former battered women in their kitchens, painstakingly transcribes the interviews and hands the women their own words. Together they move through a cycle of reflections and action, groping towards a solution to their problem —How to move forward after the soul-destroying experiences of living with violent men.
This highly creative work will involve the reader in both theory and practice. Out of her experiences, Pat develops a valuable framework for feminist participatory research, as well as providing unique insights for anyone who has thought about "doing" participatory research, (from the back cover)
Feminist Perspectives on PEACE and Peace Education
by Brigit Brock-Utne, published by Pergamon Press, Inc., Maxwell House, Fairview Park, Elmsford, New York 10523, USA
"This book represents a milestone in the developing discipline of peace research. It is the first in-depth treatment of the field'sc ore concepts, particularly the concepts of power and violence, using the tools of feminist analysis. It will help set the agenda for both peace research and peace education for the coming decades. Readers familiar with Brock-Utne's earlier books on Education for peace will find rich new material, both theoretical and empirical, that clarifies feminist understandings of peace education and puts an end to vague generalizations about the field." (Elise Boulding Secretary General, International Peace Research Association, Boulder, Colorado)