In the latest issue of Studies in Social Justice, an open-access e-journal, Ada S. Jaarsma addresses the “post-secular turn” in feminism with regard to the question of same-sex marriage. “Rather than seeking to overcome the dissonances between the feminist liberal project and queer critical theory,” she writes, “the postsecular turn indicates tremendous value in dissonance itself.”
Abstract: The religious right often aligns its patriarchal opposition to same-sex marriage with the defence of religious freedom. In this article, I identify resources for confronting such prejudicial religiosity by surveying two predominant feminist approaches to same-sex marriage that are often assumed to be at odds: discourse ethics and queer critical theory. This comparative analysis opens to view commitments that may not be fully recognizable from within either feminist framework: commitments to ideals of selfhood, to specific conceptions of justice, and to particular definitions of secularism. I conclude by examining the “postsecular” turn in feminism, suggesting that we can see the same-sex marriage debate not in terms of an impasse between differing feminist approaches, but in terms of shared existential and ethical affinities.
Read “Rethinking the Secular in Feminist Marriage Debates” here.