Langton, Tanya R.

English

University of Denver

Denver Journal of International Law & Policy Volume 25 Number 2 Winter Article 17 May 2020 Subversive Sites: Feminist Engagements with Law in India Tanya R. Langton Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/djilp Recommended Citation Subversive Sites: Feminist Engagements with Law in India, 25 Denv. J. Int'l L. & Pol'y 435 (1997). This Book Note is brought to you for free and open access by the University of Denver Sturm College of Law at Digital Commons @ DU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Denver Journal of International Law & Policy by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ DU. For more information, please contact jennifer.cox@du.edu,dig-commons@du.edu. BOOK NOTESRATNA KAPUR AND BRENDA COSSMAN, SUBVERSIVE SITES:FEMINIST ENGAGEMENTS WITH LAW IN INDIA; Sage Publishing;Thousand Oaks, California (1996); ($28.00); ISBN 0-8039-9815-3; 352pp. (hardcover).Subversive Sites examines the contours of law in light of the femi-nist struggle for social change. The authors recognize the law as amethod for overthrowing the oppression of women, since the law hasthe power to impact the status and discrimination of women. In an ap-parent contradiction, the law can both reinforce and challenge the ster-eotypical roles of women. The authors focus Subversive Sites on thestate of the law and of women in India, however, the principles theyconvey are not confined to that locality. Legal regulation in India iscongruent with the familial ideology that also reinforces notions ofequality. Equality in the law leads to unequal results due to discrimi-natory enforcement and access. Further, informal reinforcement ofroles and inequality stems from the familial ideology. The authors ar-gue that women must resist the familial ideology by not rigidly enforc-ing gender roles, but at the same time affirming the roles and relation-ships chosen by women.The book opens with a discussion of the approaches taken in liter-ature to help explain the dynamic nature of the feminist struggle. Theauthors examine historical feminist movements through the perspec-tive of the displacement of dominant notions of roles and identities forwomen. Their perspective incorporates an understanding of the strug-gle as a discursive one. Chapter two describes the familial ideology in-cluding the sexual division of labor and roles in India. Familial ideol-ogy shapes the moral, economic and criminal laws of India. Moreover,familial ideology influences laws made to protect and benefit women,thus furthering unequal consequences. Chapter three examines howchallenges to the law entrench the projectionist assumptions towardwomen as weak and indifferent, undermining any substantive equality.Chapter four depicts the channel from legal to political discourse. TheHindu Right uses the forum to subvert feminist advances and cat-echize conservative and communalist ideals.In the last chapter of Subversive Sites, the authors characterizelaw as an important site for discursive struggle and empowerment.They urge feminist lawyers to complicate legal arguments made in fur-therance of the struggle. They also urge feminist lawyers to challengethe assumptions on which the law is based, for it is these assumptionsthat influence society. Most importantly, we must understand the lim-its to the use of law as a subversive site. Limitations may dictate thatthe law is an option, but not always the best forum.Tanya R. Langton1997

Subversive Sites: Feminist Engagements with Law in India

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Subversive Sites: Feminist Engagements with Law in India

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