Patriarchy and the Politics of Beauty

(Hardback)

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Political philosophers from the beginning of history have articulated the significance of beauty. Cooper argues that these writings are coded to justify patriarchal structures of power, and that each epoch of global, history has reflected a paradigm of beauty that rationalizes protocols of gender performance. Patriarchy is a system of knowledge that trains men to become soldiers, but has now come into conflict with contemporary international law governing human rights and-women's rights.

Reviews

In his insightful and expansive review of the relationship between state power, patriarchy, and protocols of female beauty, Professor Cooper demonstrates how at each epoch up to the present, defining and controlling female beauty is critical to the misogynous framework necessary to perpetuate the male-dominated state. The question he leaves the reader contemplating is not the expansive evidence of how women have been subjugated in the past, but how, given contemporary political thought on issues of gender, sexuality, and governance, the future might be radically different. -- Debora Halbert, University of Hawai`i at Mnoa
Reading the history of patriarchy as coeval with the history of consciousness, Alan Cooper presents us with a significant contribution to integral scholarship. This book not only presents a careful study of how the state has undergone a series of dramatic re-structurings`mutationsin its concepts of beauty, but also compels us to consider how tomorrow might be radically different. When we read history through an integral light, as Cooper does here, we can trace the origins of patriarchy. In tracing its origins, however, we also discover its endings, and new futures become possible. -- Jeremy Johnson, President, Jean Gebser Society

Author Bio

Allan D. Cooper is professor of political science at North Carolina Central University.