Review of Elisabeth Jay Friedman, ed., Seeking Rights from the Left: Gender, Sexuality, and the Latin American Pink Tide. Durham: Duke University Press, 2018. Tables, figures, bibliography, index, 344 pp.; hardcover 104.95,paperback104.95, paperback 104.95,paperback28.95, ebook. (original) (raw)

Seeking Rights from the Left is an original and provocative comparative assessment of eight Pink Tide nations and their engagement with the demands of feminist and queer movements. Elisabeth Jay Friedman has assembled a noteworthy group of distinguished and fresh voices, which outline and analyze the ways the contemporary shift to the left in Latin America has (or has not) addressed gender-and sexualitybased rights. The volume illuminates the paradoxical policies, actions, rhetoric, and relationships among states and social movements in the region from roughly 2000 to 2015. The depth and broad scope of the book make it one of the most comprehensive and innovative publications on the impact of left-leaning governance in Latin America. The book is divided into a foreword, an introduction, and eight chapters, each analyzing national case studies, followed by an afterword. The introduction, written by Friedman and Constanza Tabbush, is a clear and well-formulated overview of the policy arenas covered in the book and includes a detailed section on the conceptual and methodological framework. Although the volume has a total of 16 contributors, the chapters are seamlessly tied together through a common objective of illuminating the complicated and contradictory impact of the Pink Tide on women and queer communities. The national profiles are organized from most to least successful in implementing progressive policies that challenge the heteropatriarchal societal order. Each chapter provides rich historical context specific to the cultural and geographical location in which the analysis takes place without overwhelming the reader with arduous detail. Furthermore, the contributors engage in a refreshingly approachable writing style that is appealing to academics, students, and activists alike. Friedman's volume deepens Latin American studies scholarship by engaging with interdisciplinary methods, concepts, and frameworks that draw from critical development studies, as well as gender and sexuality scholarship. The overarching question that Friedman and the contributors seek to answer is whether left-leaning governance has led to widespread progress in the struggle for gender and sexuality rights in Latin America. The national cases profiled in Seeking Rights from the Left demonstrate that the answer is complex and varied. While the past twenty years have been a period of rapid change for the region, that change has been inconsistent. Ultimately, the relationship between progressive political and conservative religious forces has determined which countries have enjoyed greater transformation and which have suffered "a lost decade" for gender and sexual equality. Several lessons are to be gleaned from this volume. The first and perhaps most salient is that when analyzed through the lens of gender and sexuality, the ties that bind Pink Tide nations as sharing a common political experience quickly disintegrate. Although poor women undoubtedly achieved noteworthy economic advancement as a result of Pink Tide policies, the positive impact on women and queer populations is much more inconsistent, acute, and often paradoxical. Pink Tide nations BOOK REVIEWS 161