Breaking Free: The Lie of Equality and the Feminist Fight for Freedom

Marcie Bianco. PublicAffairs, $29 (336p) ISBN 978-1-541-70242-4

Journalist and cultural critic Bianco debuts with a tenacious if incomplete takedown of “equality feminism,” arguing that feminism should instead be oriented toward bringing about a more profoundly transformative collective freedom, one that promotes personal liberty. She contends that the concept of gender equality (which Bianco associates with feminist movements devoted to establishing parity with men within legal, economic, and cultural institutions) limits women by ignoring the realities of their individual situations and linking their standard of progress to the status quo and to the maintenance of broadly oppressive traditions and power structures. Bianco calls for women to relinquish their investment in biological definitions of womanhood in order to embrace a broader project of social transformation, suggesting that the feminist struggle should instead be motivated above all by the practice of freedom, which she defines as “an ongoing process of self-creation and world-building rooted in accountability and care.” Bianco succeeds in provoking thought about the limitations of equality, as well as the selfliberatory potential of an ethic of freedom when held in balance with mutuality, which she characterizes as respect for others’ unique existence, and communityoriented decision-making. However, and perhaps unsurprisingly for a work that is skeptical about the effectiveness of law, policy, and institutions to accomplish social transformation, she offers inspirational imperatives rather than concrete solutions and plans, and is hazy about how the balance between freedom and the needs of the collective will be mediated. Readers will come away frustrated. (Sept.)