Victoria Brooks - Böcker

The figure of the mistress is undoubtedly controversial. She provokes intense reactions, ranging from fear, to disgust and revulsion, to excitement and titillation, to sadness and perhaps to some, love. The mistress is conventionally depicted as a threat to moral living and someone whose sexuality is considered defective and toxic. Of course, she is a woman that you would not have as your friend, and certainly not your wife, since her ethical sense, if she even has one, is dubious at best. This book subverts these traditional judgements and offers an unflinching look at the lived experience of the mistress. Here she is recast as a potentially loving, free, intimate ‘other’ woman. Drawing upon feminist philosophy, contemporary sexual ethics and the current cultural moment of #MeToo, Mistress Ethics moves beyond a narrative of infidelity, conventional judgment, the safeguarding of monogamy and conventional heterosex that permeates our society. It asks what happens when we let go of our insecurities, judgments and moralistic relationship philosophies and opt, instead, for an ethics of kindness. This kindness – underpinned by engaging with those deemed 'other' and learning from mistresses, both straight and queer – will teach us new ways of thinking about ethics and sex, and reveal how we have better sex, and how we can be better to each other.

The figure of the mistress is undoubtedly controversial. She provokes intense reactions, ranging from fear, to disgust and revulsion, to excitement and titillation, to sadness and perhaps to some, love. The mistress is conventionally depicted as a threat to moral living and someone whose sexuality is considered defective and toxic. Of course, she is a woman that you would not have as your friend, and certainly not your wife, since her ethical sense, if she even has one, is dubious at best. This book subverts these traditional judgements and offers an unflinching look at the lived experience of the mistress. Here she is recast as a potentially loving, free, intimate ‘other’ woman. Drawing upon feminist philosophy, contemporary sexual ethics and the current cultural moment of #MeToo, Mistress Ethics moves beyond a narrative of infidelity, conventional judgment, the safeguarding of monogamy and conventional heterosex that permeates our society. It asks what happens when we let go of our insecurities, judgments and moralistic relationship philosophies and opt, instead, for an ethics of kindness. This kindness – underpinned by engaging with those deemed 'other' and learning from mistresses, both straight and queer – will teach us new ways of thinking about ethics and sex, and reveal how we have better sex, and how we can be better to each other.

This timely Handbook brings together a collection of innovative interdisciplinary approaches to explore the use of research methods in environmental law. With chapters on topics ranging from sustainability, climate change and activism to education, actor-network theory and non-human ontologies, this Handbook provides a theoretically informed analysis of methodological approaches to this important field. Taking into consideration issues such as non-human agency, the Anthropocene, and spatial and material turns in law this book builds on key concepts in the subject. The book also considers how environmental law must adapt to the new and urgent needs of a variety of bodies, both human and non-human, that require its protection. It argues that traditional ways of conceiving environmental law, and of accounting for problems brought about through anthropocentric means, have led to the reinstatement of the problem of environmental degradation without imagining different avenues to resolve it. This Handbook is a key addition to the existing literature and provides an invaluable contribution to practical critique and to the reimagining of environmental law. It will be a crucial compendium for graduate students and researchers in the field of environmental law wishing to explore critical approaches.Contributors include: R. Bartel, I. Braverman, V. Brooks, P. Burdon, E. Cloatre, L. Finchett-Maddock, J. Gillespie, A. Grear, J. Holder, A. Kotsakis, L. Kotze, B. Lange, D. Mandic, J. Martel, D. McGillivray, K. Morrow, E. Mussawir, U. Natarajan, M. Nikolic, Y. Otomo, J. Paterson, A. Pavoni, A. Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos, I.-J. Sand, F. Venter, B. Woodard

Fucking Law is an urgent call for everyone, not just academics and researchers, to find inventive ways to question the ethics of sexuality. Since a sex life is full of so many diverse moments of joy and suffering, for each and everybody, the book attempts to bridge a gap between philosophical and non-philosophical questioning. Central to the book is the reality that everyone can challenge the ethics and laws of sexuality and ask questions, even where they seem frightening, or worse, even when we are told not to – by institutions and lovers alike. Non-philosophical and accessible, Fucking Law is risky, explicit and provocative as it bridges the gap between academic and every-day questioning of sexual encounters.