Boucher, Lisa Mae

Canadian Woman Studies / les cahiers de la femme (E-Journal, York University)

VOLUME 29,  NUMBER 3 191also inherently assume all workers begin from a privileged position of having their perceived ‘moral worth’ intact and unquestioned. The reality is that many people who occupy marginalized positions do not have this luxury as a starting point—racialized people, indigenous populations, queer people, and those with chronic mental health concerns and physical disabilities have all historically, though differently, had their morality treated as suspect. This recognition, acknowledged but not elaborated upon by the book, further complicates debates around previous constructions of sex workers.Given these considerations, the reframing called for by Sex Work Matters is much needed, and the intervention is an important one. Although many scholars and activists have been contributing to anti-moral-ity and anti-trafficking discourses for some time, there is still a shortage of contemporary academic collections that reflect current research across a variety of disciplines. However, while the intent of Sex Work Matters is clear, the execution is inconsistent. Several pieces in this collection build strong foundations from which to reimagine scholarly engagement with sex work/ers—notably, chapters by Laura Augustín, Jo Weldon, and Maggie O’Neill and Jane Pitcher map out potential alternative frame-works and methodologies in order to ground both the research process and results, and engage the lived experiences of sex workers in more reflective ways. Though each case pre-sented in this book strives to challenge dominant paradigms (disciplinary, socio-cultural, legal, discursive), some do so only while continuing to uphold familiar tropes of sex workers, and/or to reinforce hierarchies of the nonparticipant researcher and the participant researched. With the goals of Sex Work Matters including a creation of more dialogue across research/ers, it seems logical— indeed, perhaps imperative—that an intersectional approach be fostered. Here, a nuanced intersectional ap-proach must mean more than simply looking at interrelating factors of race-class-ability-gender-age-sexual-ity (an equation that is challenging enough for some). Intersectionality in this case should also encompass awareness and understanding of various forms of sex work and the relationships between and among them. While some chapters elucidate these linkages, others stay firmly rooted in their own cases and do not explore broader connections to other employment in the sex industry. Rather than undermine the collec-tion, however, these shortfalls actually serve to support the editors’ call for more dialogue between researchers and activists alike. Reading from a sex-positive and sex work-positive feminist framework, Sex Work Matters ultimately leaves something to be desired. The analysis across chapters is inconsistent, and should be pushed further in order to better reflect debates and activisms that have been occurring outside of the mainstream academy for some time now. While including different viewpoints is important in furthering dialogue, editors must pay careful attention to the ways in which they place differing approaches in conver-sation with one another. Ditmore, Levy and Willman tend to fall back onto a human rights discourse that glosses over differences in geopolitical location in favour of advocating for sex workers to “enjoy the same rights and conditions as anyone else.” They fail to substantially ask the question, however, who is this ‘anyone else’? This is left as an unmarked (highly priv-ileged) group that has full access to legal, state-sanctioned support—one that is, indeed, elusive. With that being said, the collection offers an important step in the right direction, and begins to reframe the terms for engaging research on and with sex work/ers. It is a good resource for those seeking an initial sampling of contemporary research on sex work that does not rely on narrowed visions of trafficking and calls for abolition. Readers should bring an open mind to alternative methodologies and lines of inquiry while keeping a critical eye to potential reproduction of research inequalities. Ideally, the contribu-tions made by Sex Work Matters will encourage more publications of this kind, and will continue to expand the field of sex work studies in ways that are useful to, and inclusive of, sex workers and their demands.Naomi de Szegheo-Lang is a doctoral student in Gender, Feminist, and Women’s Studies at York University. Her research areas include feminist cultural studies, queer theory, sexuality studies, and queer cultural production. Her current work takes up productive tensions between sexual citizenship, homonationalisms, affect, and femi-nist porn. The Women’s Movement: Inside and Outside the State analyses the intersec-tion between social movements and states. Exploring the role of feminist activists located within the state bureaucracy, Lee Ann Banaszak con-siders the important contributions that feminist insiders made to the American women’s movement from 1960-2000. Although she notes the relative weakness of the U.S. women’s policy machinery in comparison with other liberal democracies, Banaszak argues that feminist insiders were dispersed across the bureaucracy and were often able to develop policies and create political opportunities which were consistent with move-ment goals. Critical of scholars who argue that insiders are inevitably co-opted and committed to limited THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT: INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE STATELee Ann BanaszakNew York: Cambridge University Press, 2010reviewed by lisa mae boucherCANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME192reformist goals, Banaszak urges us to move past binary distinctions which create false divisions among activists and hinder our understandings of social movements.Through her analysis of archival data and in-depth interviews with 40 feminist insiders, Banaszak de-velops a theoretical understanding of movement-state intersections. These intersections develop when social movement actors and/or or-ganizations create networks located within the state. Arguing that the state is a complex institution repre-senting multiple and conflicting in-terests, Banaszak focuses on the in-dividuals that work within the state apparatus and their ability to rep-resent their own interests. Although she recognizes that insiders are lim-ited by their dual roles as activists and bureaucrats, as well as by the level of exclusion faced within the state, she contends that their insider status allows them to create oppor-tunities for movements in ways that those working outside the state are unable to. Importantly, Banaszak reminds us that movement-state intersections are fluid, with oppor-tunities and constraints varying ac-cording to the movements in ques-tion and across time. Banaszak explores many im-portant questions throughout her book. For instance, she asks wheth-er feminist bureaucrats were rep-resentative of the larger women’s movement in terms of their class, education, race, and ideology. What was their relationship with women’s organizations and feminist activists outside the state? How did their location within the state influence the goals and tactics chosen? What influence did feminist insiders have over policy development and its implementation? Finally, she ques-tions whether feminist insiders were able to continue their work under hostile administrations, particularly under the Reagan and Bush admin-istrations. Banaszak’s study challenges sev-eral commonly held assumptions in the social movement literature. For instance, although feminist bureau-crats tended to be white, mid-dle-class, and well-educated, they were diverse ideologically, ranging from Republicans to radical femin-ists. Furthermore, feminist insiders employed a combination of conven-tional and confrontational tactics depending on existing opportun-ities and constraints. Indeed, many of the activists interviewed insisted that their insider knowledge of the state made them understand more clearly the need for outside mobil-ization, and allowed them to see when confrontational tactics would be necessary. Banaszak emphasizes the importance of the alliances be-tween feminists working inside and outside the state, rejecting claims which question feminist bureau-crats’ commitment to the women’s movement. Moreover, she reminds us that these groups of activists can-not be so easily separated as many feminist insiders were often simul-taneously engaged in movement activity outside the state.A central goal of Banaszak’s work is to highlight the experien-ces of feminists working within the state. She believes that their stories are often neglected or excluded in histories of the American women’s movement, and she contends that this neglect is often the result of preconceived ideas about the sep-aration between movements and states. Her case study renders a clear division between these two concepts false and the data she pro-vides allows us to see the complex ways that states and movements intersect. Although Banaszak arguably places too much emphasis on the role of individual agency, her re-search makes an important contri-bution to our understandings of states, women’s movements, and social movements more broadly. Supporting her theoretical argu-ments with rich data, Banaszak forces us to re-evaluate our as-sumptions about state-movement relations. Given this, her book is an asset to those with an interest in so-Law and the Borders of Belonging discusses the parameters of legal inclusion and exclusion during a formative phase of American history. This book explores how exclusionary practices are not unrelated precursors to the formation of American society; rather, they are “embedded” in the notions of personhood and citizen-ship that comprise America’s legal and social history and legacy.Like many social and political his-torians, Barbara Young Welke starts with the premise that the founding of the modern American liberal state rests on the concept of individual rights and freedoms. By exploring this ground through the theoretical frame of “belonging,” Welke considers how law constructs individual identity and liberty, within intersections such as race, ethnicity, sex, and ability, in order to demarcate and to divide. Thus, conceptions of belonging require borders—exclusions as much as inclusions—in order to operate through the law. Welke extends her LAW AND THE BORDERS OF BELONGING IN THE LONG NINETEENTH CENTURY UNITED STATESBarbara Young WelkeCambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010reviewed by katharine wrobelcial movements, state feminism or the history of women’s movements. Lisa Boucher is a Ph.D. student in the Women’s Studies department at York University. Her research interests include women’s movements, feminist organizations, state funding, the volun-tary sector, and women’s unpaid labour.

The Women’s Movement: Inside and Outside the State

https://cws.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/cws/article/download/36049/32733

The Women’s Movement: Inside and Outside the State

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Canadian Woman Studies / les cahiers de la femme (E-Journal, York University)