From Publishers Weekly
In Diamond's far-reaching eco-feminist vision, the struggle for women's rights is inseparable from the struggle for ecological sanity, the eradication of militarism and opposition to the industrialized, wealthy nations' exploitation of poor countries. Her passionate, challenging manifesto critiques mainstream feminism which, she contends, has become stalemated by its contention that women's freedom resides in gaining control over women's bodies and sexuality. Diamond, who teaches in the University of Oregon's political science department, views new genetic screening techniques as part of a masculinist "medical heroics" that threatens the well-being and dignity of women. After scanning the damaging effects of agribusiness and Western-style development on traditional societies and their ecosystems, she outlines a diversity of alternative practices and protests--organic farming, small dam projects, community-based child care networks, campaigns for land redistribution in India, a women's "peace camp" on an English military base--that offer the possibility of sustainable social justice and democratic empowerment. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
In one of the most provocative and original feminist books in years, Diamond steps back from contemporary controveries over abortion, surrogacy, and pornography to gain a sharp new philosophical and moral perspective. Her arguments can be easily caricatured, far less easily summarized. She is a subtle and complex thinker who questions the unquestioned assumption of a woman's right to control her body. Ultimately, she says, we do not, any of us, control our bodies, for we are part of the flux of nature, and arguing for women's rights should not be divorced from a willingness to engage with the mysteries of birth, life, and death. Weaving in her personal history, reports on Third World women's movements, and critiques of contemporary thinkers, Diamond poses important questions and breaks ground for new thought about them. Pat Monaghan


From Kirkus Reviews
Diamond parallels the abuse of nature and the abuse of women to challenge ecological and feminist assumptions about population control and fertility. Though ``not questioning the basic feminist insistence that men have long controlled women in a variety of damaging ways,'' Diamond (Political Science/Univ. of Oregon) does question the ways in which feminist discourse has focused on owning and controlling the body. She proposes that western feminism has developed within the masculinist ideology of power, including control of nature and the earth. Thus, much of the discourse of women's liberation reinforces the will toward technological mastery by emphasizing ownership of bodies and control of fertility. Diamond demonstrates the need for diversity, both ecologically and culturally, if we are to renew our relationship with the earth, beginning with respect for local and culturally specific connections to the environment. Relying heavily on the work of Foucault, Diamond develops the idea of the sexuated body, ``the body defined exclusively by sex,'' as the root of the western focus on owning our bodies. Although her notion of the sexuated body is appealing, Diamond never quite develops its significance for her argument. Recognizing the conflicts of living in a technologically driven society, but not recognizing the tremendous gains women have made, Diamond does convincingly argue that we need to challenge the language of power: She advocates focusing on and celebrating fertility of both women and the earth, and challenging technology that provides sex without consequences, reproduction without sex, and food without sweat. However, she doesn't follow through on the consequences of her argument or offer specific means of accomplishing this new existence. Avoiding romantic calls to return to the wilderness and arguments about women's inherent alliance with nature, Diamond directs attention to the cyclical nature of life and death, and provides a stepping stone for future ecofeminist efforts. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


From Book News, Inc.
In a wide-ranging critique of Western thought and practice, ecofeminist Diamond (political science and women's studies, U. of Oregon) questions the ethic of control that governs contemporary understandings of the body, of sexuality, and of the regenerative capacities of the soil. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.


Book Description
Irene Diamond challenges Western feminism's emphasis on fertility control and reveals the masculine and mechanistic assumptions that underlie it. She makes an urgent call for feminists and environmentalists to recognize the dangers of technological control over women's bodies and the earth.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Irene Diamond challenges Western feminism's emphasis on fertility control and reveals the masculine and mechanistic assumptions that underlie it. She makes an urgent call for feminists and environmentalists to recognize the dangers of technological control over women's bodies and the earth.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

In Diamond's far-reaching eco-feminist vision, the struggle for women's rights is inseparable from the struggle for ecological sanity, the eradication of militarism and opposition to the industrialized, wealthy nations' exploitation of poor countries. Her passionate, challenging manifesto critiques mainstream feminism which, she contends, has become stalemated by its contention that women's freedom resides in gaining control over women's bodies and sexuality. Diamond, who teaches in the University of Oregon's political science department, views new genetic screening techniques as part of a masculinist ``medical heroics'' that threatens the well-being and dignity of women. After scanning the damaging effects of agribusiness and Western-style development on traditional societies and their ecosystems, she outlines a diversity of alternative practices and protests--organic farming, small dam projects, community-based child care networks, campaigns for land redistribution in India, a women's ``peace camp'' on an English military base--that offer the possibility of sustainable social justice and democratic empowerment. (July)

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