An Essay on \u3cem\u3eThe Piano\u3c/em\u3e, Law, and the Search for Women\u27s Desire

The thesis of this essay is a simple one: to have a measure of control over her destiny, to have any choices, a woman must be a sexual agent, a subject of desire rather than an object. How can women exercise any autonomy in any other realms if in their most intimate lives they are unable to voice their desires? I do not mean to suggest that sexuality has unlimited explanatory power or that everything about women\u27s domination can be explained by a rearticulation of desire. I do believe, however, that although the issue of sexuality is much discussed, feminist legal theorists have been saying too much about too little. In this essay I propose that we cannot even know the explanatory power of sexuality as long as women do not have the words to express their own desires

An Essay on \u3cem\u3eThe Piano\u3c/em\u3e, Law, and the Search for Women\u27s Desire

The thesis of this essay is a simple one: to have a measure of control over her destiny, to have any choices, a woman must be a sexual agent, a subject of desire rather than an object. How can women exercise any autonomy in any other realms if in their most intimate lives they are unable to voice their desires? I do not mean to suggest that sexuality has unlimited explanatory power or that everything about women\u27s domination can be explained by a rearticulation of desire. I do believe, however, that although the issue of sexuality is much discussed, feminist legal theorists have been saying too much about too little. In this essay I propose that we cannot even know the explanatory power of sexuality as long as women do not have the words to express their own desires

Homologizing Pregnancy and Motherhood: A Consideration of Abortion

In this essay I reconsider abortion in order to bridge what initially seem to be two opposing frameworks: first, the conception of abortion as an issue of women\u27s bodily integrity and liberty, and second, the acknowledgement of the existence and meaning of intrauterine life. The abortion choice is indeed deeply and necessarily tied to women\u27s bodily integrity. I will discuss how taking away women\u27s ability to control their decision not to become mothers can be severely damaging to their very sense of self, for this denial of decisionmaking divides women from their wombs and uses their wombs for a purpose unrelated to women\u27s own aspirations. By interfering in unique ways with women\u27s bodily integrity in the guise of regulation of procreative decisionmaking, law both facilitates and justifies that violation of bodily integrity. Because bodily integrity is necessary for the formation of selfhood, it is essential that law recognize women\u27s subjectivity in its construction of women\u27s procreative lives. The legal regulation of procreation, in this sense, defines women\u27s very boundaries

A randomized trial of planned cesarean or vaginal delivery for twin pregnancy

Background: Twin birth is associated with a higher risk of adverse perinatal outcomes than singleton birth. It is unclear whether planned cesarean section results in a lower risk of adverse outcomes than planned vaginal delivery in twin pregnancy.\ud \ud Methods: We randomly assigned women between 32 weeks 0 days and 38 weeks 6 days of gestation with twin pregnancy and with the first twin in the cephalic presentation to planned cesarean section or planned vaginal delivery with cesarean only if indicated. Elective delivery was planned between 37 weeks 5 days and 38 weeks 6 days of gestation. The primary outcome was a composite of fetal or neonatal death or serious neonatal morbidity, with the fetus or infant as the unit of analysis for the statistical comparison.\ud \ud Results: A total of 1398 women (2795 fetuses) were randomly assigned to planned cesarean delivery and 1406 women (2812 fetuses) to planned vaginal delivery. The rate of cesarean delivery was 90.7% in the planned-cesarean-delivery group and 43.8% in the planned-vaginal-delivery group. Women in the planned-cesarean-delivery group delivered earlier than did those in the planned-vaginal-delivery group (mean number of days from randomization to delivery, 12.4 vs. 13.3; P = 0.04). There was no significant difference in the composite primary outcome between the planned-cesarean-delivery group and the planned-vaginal-delivery group (2.2% and 1.9%, respectively; odds ratio with planned cesarean delivery, 1.16; 95% confidence interval, 0.77 to 1.74; P = 0.49).\ud \ud Conclusion: In twin pregnancy between 32 weeks 0 days and 38 weeks 6 days of gestation, with the first twin in the cephalic presentation, planned cesarean delivery did not significantly decrease or increase the risk of fetal or neonatal death or serious neonatal morbidity, as compared with planned vaginal delivery