Hard Bargains: The Politics of Sex
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Book Overview
Men and women have always bargained for sex. In Hard Bargains, philosopher-lawyer Linda Hirshman and legal historian Jane Larson provide the first complete analysis of power in heterosexual relationships, combining an eye-opening legal history of sexual regulation with thought-provoking predictions of what the future might bring.
Hirshman and Larson tell a riveting tale that spans the centuries--from early accounts of adulterers hanging from the gibbet, to the impact of the Kinsey Reports and Hugh Hefner's playboy philosophy, to the 1960s judge who argued in favor of sex with eleven-year-olds. The book examines the factors that have shaped our notions of sex, from Catholic teaching to the theories of Sigmund Freud, and it explores the Supreme Court decisions of the last few decades that revolutionized the politics of sex. And Hard Bargains not only provides a deep understanding of historical and current disputes, it also offers striking predictions of what sexual bargaining will look like in the future--rape laws replaced by laws of sexual autonomy, adultery subjected to breach of contract action, fornicators responsible for each other's rent, prostitution considered an unfair labor practice. These are a few of the surprising--and surprisingly workable--solutions the authors foresee in the 21st century.
Hard Bargains takes a forthright and level-headed look at all aspects of one of the biggest controversies in contemporary American society--heterosexual sex--and delivers a radically new perspective on the sexual lives of women and men.
Hirshman and Larson tell a riveting tale that spans the centuries--from early accounts of adulterers hanging from the gibbet, to the impact of the Kinsey Reports and Hugh Hefner's playboy philosophy, to the 1960s judge who argued in favor of sex with eleven-year-olds. The book examines the factors that have shaped our notions of sex, from Catholic teaching to the theories of Sigmund Freud, and it explores the Supreme Court decisions of the last few decades that revolutionized the politics of sex. And Hard Bargains not only provides a deep understanding of historical and current disputes, it also offers striking predictions of what sexual bargaining will look like in the future--rape laws replaced by laws of sexual autonomy, adultery subjected to breach of contract action, fornicators responsible for each other's rent, prostitution considered an unfair labor practice. These are a few of the surprising--and surprisingly workable--solutions the authors foresee in the 21st century.
Hard Bargains takes a forthright and level-headed look at all aspects of one of the biggest controversies in contemporary American society--heterosexual sex--and delivers a radically new perspective on the sexual lives of women and men.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0195134206
ISBN13:9780195134209
Release Date:November 1999
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Length:320 Pages
Weight:0.66 lbs.
Dimensions:0.8" x 5.5" x 7.9"
Customer Reviews
1 rating
An historical perspective on the subject of sex and bargains
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 26 years ago
"Hard Bargains: The Politics of Sex" is an eminently readable and fascinating analysis of male/female sexual relationships from a new vantage point--bargaining theory. While there is plenty of research and scholastic documentation covering both historical perspective and fresh and daring contemporary isights, the book reads like a novel. The familiar paradigm of bargaining theory is surprisingly applied to the most personal and intimate of human relationships with logic and insight. The results are rigorous and very provoking This book traces the legal history of women and sex from ancient times forward to the present day. The middle chapters are fundamentally shocking as they show the pervasive extent of misogyny that legal scholars built into the very foundations of our Western legal system. With incredible quotations from the 'fathers' of our modern legal system the reader gets to see the systemic bias -- bordering on evil -- that has colored legal thought to this ver;y day. The combination and intertwining of bargaining theory with a vast historical perspective leads the authors to some dramatic suggestions for legal change. The goal is to give men the legal tools to more adequately negotiate their most personal lives from a more equally balanced bargaining position. This book is powerful in scope and dramatic in its implications for today and the future. Every young person, and not so young person, should read it. Their life and the law will never quite be the same!
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