Published in 2015
260 pages
Miranda Kiraly is a lawyer, writer and PhD student. She has authored several publications on law, politics and social science, including her peer-reviewed book: Freedom Fallacy: The Limits of Liberal Feminism with Dr Meagan Tyler (2015). She has also authored ‘Bittersweet Charity’ in Really Dangerous Ideas (2013) and ‘Where Does the Private Domain Start and the Public End’ in Turning Left and Right: Values in Modern Politics (2013). Miranda has previously worked in federal politics as a speechwriter and researcher and had a senior role in the 2013 federal election campaign. From 2009-2013, she was co-discussant for the Liberal Book Club. She currently works as a lecturer and tutor in law and politics. Her research interest areas include Australian political machinery; liberal law reform; critiques of liberal feminism, neoliberalism and sexual libertarianism; systemic and institutionalised structural inequality in public life; radical anti-pornography and anti-sex industry policy; Judeo-Christian moral theology and its relationship with Australian party politics; and broader radical feminist political theory and thought.
Meagan Tyler is a Vice Chancellor’s Research Fellow at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. She is an internationally recognized scholar in the field of gender and sexuality studies. Meagan is the author of Selling Sex Short: The pornographic and sexological construction of women’s sexuality in the West (2011) and the editor of Freedom Fallacy: The limits of liberal feminism (2015), with Miranda Kiraly.
What is this book about?
This sets of essays is grounded in the realization that some cultural phenomena that get labeled as “feminism” today actually represent a neoliberal backlash against feminism.
Feminism is back in fashion. From female celebrities to male politicians, it seems almost everyone is keen to use the f-word. But are there limits to this ‘pop feminist’ approach to liberation? Taking on topics from pornography and prostitution to female genital mutilation, from women’s magazines and marriage to sexual violence, contributors in this collection argue that the kind of liberal feminism currently rising to prominence does little to challenge the status quo. Aiming to revive a more radical analysis, the chapters in this book confront the dangers of reducing feminism to a debate about personal choice and offer the possibility of change through collective action.
Contributors include: Meghan Donevan. Teresa Edwards. Kate Farhall. Shakira Hussein. Natalie Jovanovski. Miranda Kiraly. Julia Long. Finn Mackay. Laura McNally. Meghan Murphy. Caroline Norma. Camille Nurka. Helen Pringle. Kaye Quek. Naela Rose. Laura Tarzia. Margaret Thornton. Meagan Tyler. Rebecca Whisnant.
