Doing pre-birth shopping at Baby Gap for our daughter Holly who is expected to be delivered on October 22 gave me the opportunity to reflect on the excellent study written by Tina Chanter.

Chanter is professor of philosophy at DePaul University and has written a number of first rate books including Ethics of Eros: Irigaray's Re-writing of the Philosophers (Routledge, 1995); Time, Death and the Feminine: Levinas with Heidegger (Stanford University Press, 2001); and The Picture of Abjection: Film, Fetish, and the Nature of Difference (Indiana University Press, 2007).

Chanter's work analyzes the main philosophical arguments that surround the questions of gender, sexuality, race and class. She clearly shows how these issues do not fall into neat categories. Chanter's book is clear and cogent. It provides an overview of the main topics explored within gender studies.

Chanter has shown both breadth and depth of knowledge and has written with the clarity required for students and scholars alike. The text not only provides a broad historical perspective of the views on gender of many important philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes and Mill, but also offers insightful analyses of contemporary theorists like Gilligan Butler and Spivak.

Here is an overview of the contents. The introduction examines the challenge of transgendered identities that challenge traditional feminist formulae. Chanter shows how postmodernism "embraces a more nuanced account of gender". Here Chanter argues, "gender is always already lived, gestural, corporeal, culturally mediated and historically constituted".

Chapter 1 is examines the formative moments and concepts in the history of feminism. This chapter includes a very good discussion of Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex. It also maps out various models found throughout the history of philosophy, from Aristotle to Fanon and Foucault. Chanter is interested in showing how questions of gender involve a "political transformation in the name of justice".

Chapter 2 attempts to understand the link between Feminism and Marxism. She argues, "patriarchal ideology has failed to acknowledge the central role that women have played in the relations of production". 

Chapter 3 takes up Foucault's theory of docile bodies and the various techniques used to "administer bodies". This chapter contains an excellent analysis of the digital Panopticon that gives the promise of the machine body "held out as an ideal for us to emulate". In addition to an analysis of Foucault and power, Chanter explores Kristeva's theory of abjection and desire.

Chapter 4 concerns itself with feminist epistemology and the role that ethics plays. Chanter writes, "Taking seriously our responsibility to others thus also constitutes the very notion of our identities". Rather than pursue a universal Platonic and Cartesian quest for knowledge that seeks to eliminate all uncertainty, Chanter argues, "we need to learn the lesson that we should foster the conditions in which theories are open to continual scrutiny and subject to revision".

Chapter 5 studies postcolonial feminist theory and the clash between east and west. This chapter includes a discussion of Deepa Mehta's film Fire that opens  "new ways of imaging female desire". 

Chapter 6 brings in psychoanalytic and poststructuralist insights through the works of Derrida, Kristeva, Deleuze and Guattari. In this chapter, Chanter explores the relevance that Spinoza's work has for gender theory.

Finally, Chapter 7 offers concluding reflections.  Feminist analysis has resulted in rape "now defined as a crime against humanity". In 1996, Bosnian Serb military and police officials were "indicted by the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal in the Hague for the war crime of rape". Given the recent capture of the Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic for crimes against humanity, it will be interesting to follow how his actions in Bosnia will be prosecuted.

Throughout the book, Chanter weaves an ethical imperative. She concludes by saying "feminists need to take responsibility for their own histories and concepts, without finding new targets of discrimination on which to project our own fears, limitations, inadequacies and blindspots".

What is missing from the book is a more comprehensive discussion of how other cultures view the issues of gender. For example, North American First Nations use the term Berdache to refer to a person who is biologically male but changes their gender identity by adopting the behavior, clothing style and occupation of women. This phenomenon can be also seen in Taihiti with the Mahu, in Islam with the Khanith (Xanith) and in India with the Hirjas.

Gender is an excellent resource for readers interested in feminism from a Continental perspective. The book is a useful resource. It provides extensive summaries of complex positions along with an annotated bibliography.  Chanter offers excellent conceptual clarification and has written a very readable and helpful guide.

© 2008 Marko Zlomislic

Marko Zlomislic is professor philosophy at Conestoga College, Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.

Keywords: gender, feminism, philosophy, review