Florida without Borders: Women at the Intersections of the Local and the Global ed. by Kay Masters, Judy A. Hayden, and Kim Vaz (review)

Over the last decade "globalization" and "interdisciplinary" have become increasingly important considerations in scholarly examinations of most social issues, including those under the umbrella of feminism and feminist pedagogy. Florida without Borders moves beyond a mere critique of European and Euro-American biases in articulating feminist goals and principles, and seeks to develop a more inclusive, internationally-applicable reframing of both. This text could be profitably used at the beginning of an introductory women's studies course to get students thinking about the enormous range of concerns pertinent to feminism. Most of the readings are easily accessible and of manageable length for undergraduate students.

As the title of this anthology suggests, writings in this collection attempt to link Florida, and more particularly women's studies scholars who have worked, studied, or visited in Florida, with international feminist projects. However, in many of the essays, the nature of the intersection between the local and the international is not clear. Masters's concluding essay deals with this issue by asserting that economic globalization challenges women's traditional roles and activities in ways that can be both empowering and demeaning, and she gives examples of both types of processes.

This short volume is divided into four parts, each with a title that seems to stretch to include "body" or "bodies"—perhaps in an effort to lend coherence. The first section seeks to expand application of feminist concepts, frameworks, and paradigms; the second focuses on the (ab)uses of gender within the military; the third examines intersections of physical female bodies and culturally restrictive norms within the United States and abroad; and the fourth primarily discusses the work of women visual and performance artists with feminist agendas.

Part I begins with a theoretical piece that highlights the limitations of women's "rights language" in international contexts. Rosemarie Tong asserts that a "feminist care talk" about relationships that improve or diminish well-being would have broader applicability. Although the concept of "care talk" is not well developed, it could be a fruitful beginning point for classroom discussion, especially given the clear examples of how "rights talk" can lead to unintended negative consequences in societies without supportive social conditions.

In the second chapter Jan Roberts claims that a new "relational globalization" that emphasizes the nurturing interpersonal traits developed by women is challenging the older "economic globalization." The critique of using GNP or GDP to measure quality of life can be useful in promoting critical thinking among students and speaks to the feminist goal of opening up new possibilities for analyzing the world.

In the third chapter, ecofeminism is described as combining spirituality and activism, with an emphasis on nonviolence and egalitarian processes. This selection ends with a call to action and a list of "Earth Activism Resources and Links," which provides a nice applied balance to the previous two more theoretical pieces.

In the second part of the book, the first essay provides a feminist critique of women's roles in the military, noting inter alia that because women's positions in the U.S. armed forces are not classified as combat roles, they share the risk but not the benefits of combat service. The next contribution demonstrates how the media have used women as marketing tools in selling the war on terrorism while ignoring the realities of women's daily lives. The third essay in this second section asks the important question of why the sexual violation of men (at Abu Ghraib) received so much attention while that of women is deemed barely noteworthy. Most interesting is what is not publicly discussed regarding this torture and humiliation, specifically, the possibility of "sexual terrorism" committed by Americans, and the way these tactics legitimate homophobia. Each of these essays provides an excellent foundation for classroom discussion in a course with feminist objectives...