shelley park | University of Central Florida (original) (raw)
Papers by shelley park
Hypatia
This essay seeks to unsettle feminist philosophy through an encounter with Aboriginal artist Trac... more This essay seeks to unsettle feminist philosophy through an encounter with Aboriginal artist Tracey Moffatt, whose perspectives on intergenerational relationships between (older) white women and (younger) Indigenous women are shaped by her experiences as the Aboriginal child of a white foster mother growing up in Brisbane, Australia during the 1960s. Moffatt's short experimental film Night Cries provides an important glimpse into the violent intersections of gender, race, and power in intimate life and, in so doing, invites us to see how colonial and neocolonial policies are carried out through women's domestic labor. Seeing cross-generational and cross-racial intimacy through Moffatt's lens, I suggest, helps us to unsettle both feminist theories of motherhood and feminist practices of mentoring.
The Routledge Companion to Motherhood
Cultural, legal, political, and scholarly attention to queer mothering is critically important fo... more Cultural, legal, political, and scholarly attention to queer mothering is critically important for both practical and theoretical reasons. Motherhood has frequently been idealized as a feminine embodiment of moral purity. Mothers with queer sexual desires and practices – for example, lesbians, swingers, BDSM practitioners, and sex workers – directly challenge that ideal by challenging the Madonna/whore dichotomy. Mothers with queer gender identities further trouble cultural ideals of motherhood by troubling the father/mother dichotomy itself. Thus, queer mothers provide a valuable vantage point from which to interrogate harmful constructions of mothers as self-sacrificing asexual women who practice heterosexual monogamy as a matter of reproductive duty. At the same time, queer mothers and those who mother queerly are frequently stigmatized as morally unfit to raise children. This chapter discusses both the perspectives embodied and challenges faced by mothers who are queer including lesbian mothers, butch mothers, trans mothers, intersex mothers, the mothers of queer children, mothers in non-normative families, and others. I conclude with reflections on how the marriage equality movement and advances in reproductive technologies may advance the parental rights and opportunities of some queer mothers at the expense of others.
Hypatia
This special issue on "Contested Terrains" features feminist scholarship that explores the varied... more This special issue on "Contested Terrains" features feminist scholarship that explores the varied geopolitical landscapes on which contestations about feminist theories and practices regarding women of color and Third World women are situated. The experiences and perspectives of women of color and Third World women have been frequently erased, distorted, and manipulated both by dominant feminist discourses and by dominant geopolitical discourses. Long after the proclaimed demise of second-wave feminism in the academy, neoliberal feminist discourses continue to dominate within neocolonial geopolitical regimes. These neoliberal discourses reduce women's liberation to the right to work, to accumulate private property, and to choose lifestyles based on Western patterns of consumption. Such discourses fail to address the pervasive impact of colonialism, structural racism, and Eurocentric cultural imperialism on women's lives in both the so-called First World and the Third World. Within the Western context, dominant feminist discourses highlighting personal choice overshadow discussions of the public good and leave the most vulnerable members of neoliberal states-often women and girls of color-"free" to fend for themselves and responsible for what are deemed their own failures (Davis and Kelley 2012). At the same time, neoliberal feminist perspectives portray women from the Third World as lacking freedom and the ability to self-govern. Portrayed as helpless victims of incorrigible Third World patriarchies, Third World women are constructed as dependent on interventions from the First World for their liberation (Spivak 1996; Abu-Lughod 2002; Urs 2014). In both cases, the role of colonial and neocolonial perspectives and policies in creating, shaping, and sustaining women's oppression is largely ignored. This special issue contests dominant neoliberal discourses by foregrounding the ways in which race, ethnicity, religion, class, gender, sexuality, age, and other forms of difference intersect with geopolitical locations such as colony, nation, and empire. The complex and intersectional oppressions of women of color and Third World women have different histories and engender different needs, aspirations, and struggles. In order to do justice to differences among women of color and Third World women, this special issue starts from the premise that differences and disagreements among women have value. Tensions among women-locally, regionally, nationally, and globally-are a potential source of productive feminist questioning, reflection, knowledge, and practice. By allowing differences to surface and in giving ourselves room to explore those differences, feminists may dispel dangerous illusions of unity, become sensitized to points of view that might otherwise be overlooked, work toward deeper understandings of ourselves and others, open new possibilities for growth, clear
Philosophy in the Contemporary World
In 2008, over 400 children living on the Yearning for Zion Ranch, a rural Texas polygamist commun... more In 2008, over 400 children living on the Yearning for Zion Ranch, a rural Texas polygamist community of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (FLDS), were forcibly removed from their mothers’ care by State troopers responding to allegations of child abuse. Although the children were subsequently returned due to a lack of evidence supporting abuse allegations, many onlookers to these proceedings remain convinced that children on the YFZ ranch (as well as other FLDS children) are imperiled. Here I examine the role of neoliberal ideologies and, more specifically, what some queer theorists have identified as ‘metronormativity’ in solidifying a widespread caricature of the FLDS mother as a ‘bad’ mother. I also examine the intersections of these ideologies with a neo-colonialist discourse that positions the FLDS mother as a subaltern subject unable to effectively speak in her own defense.
Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal
This paper advances the somewhat unphilosophical thesis that “Trump is gross” to draw attention t... more This paper advances the somewhat unphilosophical thesis that “Trump is gross” to draw attention to the need to take matters of taste seriously in politics. I begin by exploring the slipperiness of distinctions between aesthetics, epistemology, and ethics, subsequently suggesting that we may need to pivot toward the aesthetic to understand and respond to the historical moment we inhabit. More specically, I suggest that, in order to understand how Donald Trump was elected President of the United States and in order to stem the damage that preceded this and will ensue from it, we need to understand the power of political taste (and distaste, including disgust) as both a force of resistance and as a force of normalization.
Radical Philosophy Review
This paper critically examines the ways in which dominant poly discourses position polyamorists a... more This paper critically examines the ways in which dominant poly discourses position polyamorists among other queer and feminist-friendly practices while setting polygamists outside of those practices as the heteronormative and hyper-patriarchal antithesis to queer kinship. I begin by examining the interlocking liberal discourses of freedom, secularism and egalitarianism that frame the putative distinction between polyamory and polygamy. I then argue that the discursive antinomies of polyamory/polygamy demarcate a distinction that has greater affective resonance than logical validity—an affective resonance, moreover, that is built on neocolonial framings of polygamy as barbaric and idealizations of polyamory that whitewash its practices.
Journal of the Motherhood Initiative For Research and Community Involvement, Jan 5, 2004
This paper examines a variety of social scientific studies purporting to demonstrate that transra... more This paper examines a variety of social scientific studies purporting to demonstrate that transracial adoption is in the best interests of children. Finding flaws in these studies and the ethical and political arguments based upon such scientific findings, we argue for adoption practices and policies that respect the racial and ethnic identities of children of color and their communities of origin.
Queer Studies in Media & Popular Culture, 2016
Journal of the Motherhood Initiative For Research and Community Involvement, Jan 11, 2002
Florida Philosophical Review has its roots in the Florida Philosophical Association, one of the l... more Florida Philosophical Review has its roots in the Florida Philosophical Association, one of the largest and most active regional philosophy associations in the United States. For several years, the Florida Philosophical Association envisioned a scholarly publication that would support the professional interaction of philosophers in Florida, the enhancement of philosophical education in Florida, and the development of philosophy both within and beyond Florida. Florida Philosophical Review realizes that vision and is committed to respecting and encouraging diverse philosophical interests and diverse philosophical approaches to issues while demonstrating the value of philosophy in the contemporary world.
Journal of the Motherhood Initiative For Research and Community Involvement, Jan 11, 2001
Bridging the gap between feminist studies of motherhood and queer theory, Mothering Queerly, Quee... more Bridging the gap between feminist studies of motherhood and queer theory, Mothering Queerly, Queering Motherhood articulates a provocative philosophy of queer kinship that need not be rooted in lesbian or gay sexual identities. Working from an interdisciplinary framework that incorporates feminist philosophy and queer, psychoanalytic, poststructuralist, and postcolonial theories, Shelley M. Park offers a powerful critique of an ideology she terms monomaternalism. Despite widespread cultural insistence that every child should have one—and only one—“real” mother, many contemporary family constellations do not fit this mandate. Park highlights the negative consequences of this ideology and demonstrates how families created through open adoption, same-sex parenting, divorce, and plural marriage can be sites of resistance. Drawing from personal experiences as both an adoptive and a biological mother and juxtaposing these autobiographical reflections with critical readings of cultural tex...
Explores how practices of mothering are transformed by technology, especially but not exclusively... more Explores how practices of mothering are transformed by technology, especially but not exclusively communication technologies.
In philosophy as in other arenas, the labor of caring about the well-being of others – women, min... more In philosophy as in other arenas, the labor of caring about the well-being of others – women, minorities and the discipline itself – has been largely relegated to women with disadvantages accruing to those who care. These remarks focus on the figuration of two types of women who care about the " diversity problem " in philosophy: the happy woman of reason and the unhappy feminist philosopher.
Asks whether queer parenting is possible and explores what it means to parent queerly.
Thesis (M.A.) -- University of Calgary, 1984. Bibliography: p. 167-169.
Hypatia
This essay seeks to unsettle feminist philosophy through an encounter with Aboriginal artist Trac... more This essay seeks to unsettle feminist philosophy through an encounter with Aboriginal artist Tracey Moffatt, whose perspectives on intergenerational relationships between (older) white women and (younger) Indigenous women are shaped by her experiences as the Aboriginal child of a white foster mother growing up in Brisbane, Australia during the 1960s. Moffatt's short experimental film Night Cries provides an important glimpse into the violent intersections of gender, race, and power in intimate life and, in so doing, invites us to see how colonial and neocolonial policies are carried out through women's domestic labor. Seeing cross-generational and cross-racial intimacy through Moffatt's lens, I suggest, helps us to unsettle both feminist theories of motherhood and feminist practices of mentoring.
The Routledge Companion to Motherhood
Cultural, legal, political, and scholarly attention to queer mothering is critically important fo... more Cultural, legal, political, and scholarly attention to queer mothering is critically important for both practical and theoretical reasons. Motherhood has frequently been idealized as a feminine embodiment of moral purity. Mothers with queer sexual desires and practices – for example, lesbians, swingers, BDSM practitioners, and sex workers – directly challenge that ideal by challenging the Madonna/whore dichotomy. Mothers with queer gender identities further trouble cultural ideals of motherhood by troubling the father/mother dichotomy itself. Thus, queer mothers provide a valuable vantage point from which to interrogate harmful constructions of mothers as self-sacrificing asexual women who practice heterosexual monogamy as a matter of reproductive duty. At the same time, queer mothers and those who mother queerly are frequently stigmatized as morally unfit to raise children. This chapter discusses both the perspectives embodied and challenges faced by mothers who are queer including lesbian mothers, butch mothers, trans mothers, intersex mothers, the mothers of queer children, mothers in non-normative families, and others. I conclude with reflections on how the marriage equality movement and advances in reproductive technologies may advance the parental rights and opportunities of some queer mothers at the expense of others.
Hypatia
This special issue on "Contested Terrains" features feminist scholarship that explores the varied... more This special issue on "Contested Terrains" features feminist scholarship that explores the varied geopolitical landscapes on which contestations about feminist theories and practices regarding women of color and Third World women are situated. The experiences and perspectives of women of color and Third World women have been frequently erased, distorted, and manipulated both by dominant feminist discourses and by dominant geopolitical discourses. Long after the proclaimed demise of second-wave feminism in the academy, neoliberal feminist discourses continue to dominate within neocolonial geopolitical regimes. These neoliberal discourses reduce women's liberation to the right to work, to accumulate private property, and to choose lifestyles based on Western patterns of consumption. Such discourses fail to address the pervasive impact of colonialism, structural racism, and Eurocentric cultural imperialism on women's lives in both the so-called First World and the Third World. Within the Western context, dominant feminist discourses highlighting personal choice overshadow discussions of the public good and leave the most vulnerable members of neoliberal states-often women and girls of color-"free" to fend for themselves and responsible for what are deemed their own failures (Davis and Kelley 2012). At the same time, neoliberal feminist perspectives portray women from the Third World as lacking freedom and the ability to self-govern. Portrayed as helpless victims of incorrigible Third World patriarchies, Third World women are constructed as dependent on interventions from the First World for their liberation (Spivak 1996; Abu-Lughod 2002; Urs 2014). In both cases, the role of colonial and neocolonial perspectives and policies in creating, shaping, and sustaining women's oppression is largely ignored. This special issue contests dominant neoliberal discourses by foregrounding the ways in which race, ethnicity, religion, class, gender, sexuality, age, and other forms of difference intersect with geopolitical locations such as colony, nation, and empire. The complex and intersectional oppressions of women of color and Third World women have different histories and engender different needs, aspirations, and struggles. In order to do justice to differences among women of color and Third World women, this special issue starts from the premise that differences and disagreements among women have value. Tensions among women-locally, regionally, nationally, and globally-are a potential source of productive feminist questioning, reflection, knowledge, and practice. By allowing differences to surface and in giving ourselves room to explore those differences, feminists may dispel dangerous illusions of unity, become sensitized to points of view that might otherwise be overlooked, work toward deeper understandings of ourselves and others, open new possibilities for growth, clear
Philosophy in the Contemporary World
In 2008, over 400 children living on the Yearning for Zion Ranch, a rural Texas polygamist commun... more In 2008, over 400 children living on the Yearning for Zion Ranch, a rural Texas polygamist community of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (FLDS), were forcibly removed from their mothers’ care by State troopers responding to allegations of child abuse. Although the children were subsequently returned due to a lack of evidence supporting abuse allegations, many onlookers to these proceedings remain convinced that children on the YFZ ranch (as well as other FLDS children) are imperiled. Here I examine the role of neoliberal ideologies and, more specifically, what some queer theorists have identified as ‘metronormativity’ in solidifying a widespread caricature of the FLDS mother as a ‘bad’ mother. I also examine the intersections of these ideologies with a neo-colonialist discourse that positions the FLDS mother as a subaltern subject unable to effectively speak in her own defense.
Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal
This paper advances the somewhat unphilosophical thesis that “Trump is gross” to draw attention t... more This paper advances the somewhat unphilosophical thesis that “Trump is gross” to draw attention to the need to take matters of taste seriously in politics. I begin by exploring the slipperiness of distinctions between aesthetics, epistemology, and ethics, subsequently suggesting that we may need to pivot toward the aesthetic to understand and respond to the historical moment we inhabit. More specically, I suggest that, in order to understand how Donald Trump was elected President of the United States and in order to stem the damage that preceded this and will ensue from it, we need to understand the power of political taste (and distaste, including disgust) as both a force of resistance and as a force of normalization.
Radical Philosophy Review
This paper critically examines the ways in which dominant poly discourses position polyamorists a... more This paper critically examines the ways in which dominant poly discourses position polyamorists among other queer and feminist-friendly practices while setting polygamists outside of those practices as the heteronormative and hyper-patriarchal antithesis to queer kinship. I begin by examining the interlocking liberal discourses of freedom, secularism and egalitarianism that frame the putative distinction between polyamory and polygamy. I then argue that the discursive antinomies of polyamory/polygamy demarcate a distinction that has greater affective resonance than logical validity—an affective resonance, moreover, that is built on neocolonial framings of polygamy as barbaric and idealizations of polyamory that whitewash its practices.
Journal of the Motherhood Initiative For Research and Community Involvement, Jan 5, 2004
This paper examines a variety of social scientific studies purporting to demonstrate that transra... more This paper examines a variety of social scientific studies purporting to demonstrate that transracial adoption is in the best interests of children. Finding flaws in these studies and the ethical and political arguments based upon such scientific findings, we argue for adoption practices and policies that respect the racial and ethnic identities of children of color and their communities of origin.
Queer Studies in Media & Popular Culture, 2016
Journal of the Motherhood Initiative For Research and Community Involvement, Jan 11, 2002
Florida Philosophical Review has its roots in the Florida Philosophical Association, one of the l... more Florida Philosophical Review has its roots in the Florida Philosophical Association, one of the largest and most active regional philosophy associations in the United States. For several years, the Florida Philosophical Association envisioned a scholarly publication that would support the professional interaction of philosophers in Florida, the enhancement of philosophical education in Florida, and the development of philosophy both within and beyond Florida. Florida Philosophical Review realizes that vision and is committed to respecting and encouraging diverse philosophical interests and diverse philosophical approaches to issues while demonstrating the value of philosophy in the contemporary world.
Journal of the Motherhood Initiative For Research and Community Involvement, Jan 11, 2001
Bridging the gap between feminist studies of motherhood and queer theory, Mothering Queerly, Quee... more Bridging the gap between feminist studies of motherhood and queer theory, Mothering Queerly, Queering Motherhood articulates a provocative philosophy of queer kinship that need not be rooted in lesbian or gay sexual identities. Working from an interdisciplinary framework that incorporates feminist philosophy and queer, psychoanalytic, poststructuralist, and postcolonial theories, Shelley M. Park offers a powerful critique of an ideology she terms monomaternalism. Despite widespread cultural insistence that every child should have one—and only one—“real” mother, many contemporary family constellations do not fit this mandate. Park highlights the negative consequences of this ideology and demonstrates how families created through open adoption, same-sex parenting, divorce, and plural marriage can be sites of resistance. Drawing from personal experiences as both an adoptive and a biological mother and juxtaposing these autobiographical reflections with critical readings of cultural tex...
Explores how practices of mothering are transformed by technology, especially but not exclusively... more Explores how practices of mothering are transformed by technology, especially but not exclusively communication technologies.
In philosophy as in other arenas, the labor of caring about the well-being of others – women, min... more In philosophy as in other arenas, the labor of caring about the well-being of others – women, minorities and the discipline itself – has been largely relegated to women with disadvantages accruing to those who care. These remarks focus on the figuration of two types of women who care about the " diversity problem " in philosophy: the happy woman of reason and the unhappy feminist philosopher.
Asks whether queer parenting is possible and explores what it means to parent queerly.
Thesis (M.A.) -- University of Calgary, 1984. Bibliography: p. 167-169.