Maria de Lourdes Borges, Cinara Nahra Body and Justice

Annotation

Body and Justice is written by two female Brazilian philosophers, in language which is at the same time academic and accessible to the wider public. It is a must read for anyone interested in subjects connected with the body, justice, sexual morality, ethics and philosophy. Body and Justice insightfully looks at the western woman today: their bodies, sexuality and where we stand at the start of this new millennium. The book asks the questions: How far have we advanced in terms of fairness and justice? How fair is a world where women are still being forced into extreme measures such as dieting, plastic surgery or even bulimia or anorexia to conform to certain traditional patterns of beauty in order to be loved by men? Are we still submitting to male desire, and is this submission still the destiny of women?Drawing on diverse examples from popular culture and history, the authors also look at the moral issues related to sexuality. Is prostitution immoral? Is sado-masochism wrong? Where do we draw the line in our quest for the ultimate sexual experience? Or does anything go?The issues of fairness, justice, freedom, and autonomy raised in Body and Justice culminate with a call for a profound reflection on the way that we make our moral judgments and the urgent need to establish a morality for the third millennium - a morality that could steer us through the future, helping us to build a world where we free our bodies from all kinds of oppressions, reaching the fair and just world that we have all always strived for.