Research Catalog

Title

Reluctant bedfellows : feminism, activism and prostitution in the Philippines / Meredith Ralston and Edna Keeble.

Author

Ralston, Meredith L.

Publication

Sterling, VA : Kumarian Press, 2009.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

Keeble, Edna.

Description

xii, 229 pages; 23 cm

Summary

"Reluctant Bedfellows outlines key facets of the authors' five year development project on sex tourism and prostitution in the Philippines, and is a powerful reflection on the raging debates taking place among feminists about the Third World. Ralston and Keeble follow the history of prostitution in former military outpost Angeles City, the women and foreign men who live by the trade and the varied organizations attempting to deal with prostitution. Making a strong call for action, the authors encounter resistance and anger from Western feminists who claim any action by Westerners in developing countries is necessarily neo-colonial and ethnocentric." "Academic feminist theorizing and identity politics, the two argue, has reached the level of "analysis paralysis" where women and women's groups do not act for fear of being pejoratively labeled. This has many negative consequences for rights-seeking groups, as Ralston and Keeble experience firsthand in working to bring Angeles City and Canadian women's organizations together. Both an eye-opening picture of the workings of a community seeped in sex tourism and a sharp review of current feminist theorizing, Reluctant Bedfellows offers much-needed perspective on ways to bring disputing parties together and actually promote change."--BOOK JACKET.

Subject

• Social work with prostitutes > Angeles
• Women in community development > Angeles
• Prostitution > Angeles
• Feminism > Angeles

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 201-213) and index.

Contents

Pt. I. Theoretical Challenges -- 1. "You've Got to Do Something" -- 2. The Problem of Analysis Paralysis -- Pt. II. Practical Challenges -- 3. Philosophical Issues of Prostitution -- 4. Explanations for Prostitution in the Philippines -- 5. Sex Tourism in Angeles City -- 6. Making a Difference -- Pt. III. Theoretical and Practical Prescriptions -- 7. No Conclusions, Just "Continued Somethings" -- App. Project-related Training Programs.

ISBN

• 9781565492691 (pbk. : alk. paper)
• 1565492692 (pbk. : alk. paper)

LCCN

• 2008036909
• 40016162023

OCLC

• ocn227929010
• 227929010
• SCSB-5447558

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries