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“O Wind, Remind Him That I Have No Child”: Infertility and Feminist Jurisprudence
Feminists have constructed a "grand theory" of infertility and new reproductive techniques that has little to do with reality. Much of the discussion of reproductive technology is written in highly abstract, philosophical terms, rather than in the more experiential, narrative style which characterizes much of feminist jurisprudence. The infertile woman is generally voiceless and invisible in the telling of this story; when she does appear she is dismissed or criticized. This Article is an attempt to begin dialogue which incorporates her perspective into the discussion.Reproductive Liberty Under the Threat of Care: Deputizing Private Agents and Deconstructing State Action
This Article uncovers the unsettling parallels between feminism and the recent restrictions on reproductive liberty in order to reveal the threat posed by the feminist ethic of care. By critically reexamining feminism's foundation and direction, the need for greater emphasis on female individuality becomes apparent. Kelly’s contention is that such a perspective, aggressively supported by the state, will ensure feminism's progress and encourage the achievement of gender equality.A Feminist Approach to Social Scientific Evidence: Foundations
This Article addresses several aspects of a feminist approach to social scientific evidence, specifically, the interpretive nature of mental states, the feminist attitude toward juries, and the political nature of evidence law.DOMA: An Unconstitutional Establishment of Fundamentalist Christianity
According to the text of the Act, DOMA's purposes are "to define and protect the institution of marriage," where marriage is defined to exclude same-sex partners. To be constitutionally valid under the Establishment Clause, this notion that heterosexual marriages require "protection" from gay and lesbian persons must spring from a secular and not religious source. This Article posits that DOMA has crossed this forbidden line between the secular and the religious. DOMA, motivated and supported by fundamentalist Christian ideology, and lacking any genuine secular goals or justifications, betrays the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution.Legislative Approaches to Reducing the Hegemony of the Priestly Model of Medicine
This Article presents the case that the legal culture in many ways undergirds the priestly model's hegemony over the therapeutic relationship between a woman and her doctor. To the extent that law provides this fundamental support, it legitimizes the mistreatment of women, especially with respect to their reproductive health. The implications are that the movement toward a more just legal culture necessitates the extirpation of this support.Naming the Grotesque Body in the “Nascent Jurisprudence of Transsexualism”
After a description of an analytical framework constructed of theories drawn from the writings of Mikhail Bahktin, Roland Barthes, and Sigmund Freud, this Article discusses the discrepancies in courts' use of medical authority in cases considering the rights of transsexuals and then analyzes courts' ultimate refusal to recognize transsexuals' psychological sex. The thrust of this Article is an examination of the forces compelling such inconsistencies. The result is an analysis which interweaves medical, juridical, psychological and mythic perspectives to disclose the underpinnings of courts' antipathy toward transsexuals.Honesty, Privacy, And Shame: When Gay People Talk About Other Gay People to Nongay People
There is a longstanding convention among lesbians and gay men in the United States: Do not reveal the sexuality of a gay person to a heterosexual person; unless you are certain that the gay person does not regard his sexuality as a secret. Lie if necessary to protect her secret. Violating the convention by "outing" another person is widely considered a serious social sin.Lessons for the United States: A Greek Cypriot Model for Domestic Violence Law
The purpose of this Article is twofold: to view the problem of domestic violence victims not wishing to testify against their abusers through the lenses of different feminist perspectives; and to use the Greek Cypriot experience as a model to test the value of these theories when developing legal policies addressing this issue.An Essay on The Piano, Law, and the Search for Women’s 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's 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.Hostile Environent Sexual Harassment Claims and the Unwelcome Influence of Rape Law
This article considers the unwelcomeness requirement of the plaintiff’s prima facie case. In particular, it examines the discussion of unwelcomeness found in the decision of the Supreme Court in Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, and the content given to this element by the subsequent decisions of lower courts. Such an inquiry reveals several parallels between the approach of courts to sexual harassment claims and their traditional treatment of the criminal offense of rape. The same biases and erroneous assumptions that have hampered an effective response to the physical violation of women have permeated the application of the purported remedy for their psychological violation on the job. The effectiveness of potential remedies for this unfairness should be evaluated in light of the underlying reasons for the errors made to date by the courts. If the framework ultimately chosen for proof of hostile environment sexual harassment claims is constructed in a manner that recognizes the reasons behind the reality of women's experiences at work, it may have transformative potential not only for discrimination claims under Tide VII, but for the treatment of rape by the criminal law.