Prof. Susan Whitney is an associate professor of history at 杏吧原创 University, where she served as an associate dean of the faculty of arts and social sciences for five years. She teaches European, youth, and women鈥檚 and gender history, and is the author of Mobilizing Youth: Communists and Catholics in Interwar France (Duke University Press).
Below is an excerpt of her review of Sex and Secularism by Joan Wallach Scott for the Literary Review of Canada entitled ““:
In October 2017, Quebec鈥檚 National Assembly passed legislation prohibiting women from receiving public services while wearing a niqab, which covers the wearer鈥檚 face. Muslim women were among those who objected. Saima Sajid said to Globe and Mail reporter Ingrid Peritz, 鈥淚f you choose to wear a bikini, why can鈥檛 I cover myself?鈥 These contrasting approaches to women鈥檚 bodies and sexuality lie at the heart of gender historian Joan Wallach Scott鈥檚 probing and intentionally provocative new book, Sex and Secularism.
Sex and Secularism is the tenth title to appear in Princeton University Press鈥檚 Public Square series, which aims to 鈥渟howcase some of the world鈥檚 finest public intellectuals writing on topics at the forefront of political discourse.鈥 Other series authors, especially Harvard historian and New Yorker staff writer Jill Lepore and University of Chicago philosopher Martha Nussbaum, will likely be better known to LRC readers. But the internationally renowned Scott has arguably had more influence within the academy. Yale鈥檚 Joanne Meyerowitz called Scott鈥檚 pioneering 1986 article 鈥淕ender: a useful category of historical analysis鈥 a 鈥渇oundational text鈥 of women鈥檚 and gender history. 鈥淕ender鈥 continues to appear on syllabi across North America, and to be used and cited by scholars across the globe. Scott鈥檚 five subsequent single-authored books have been translated into eleven languages and she has received honourary degrees from universities around the world, including Harvard, Princeton, Brown, Concordia, Universit茅 du Qu茅bec 脿 Montr茅al, and the University of Bergen in Norway. France made Scott a chevalier of the L茅gion d鈥橦onneur in 2017.
The seeds of Sex and Secularism were planted in The Politics of the Veil (2007), Scott鈥檚 first Public Square book. Turning her critical feminist historical eye to the heated debates around the headscarf then raging in France, home to western Europe鈥檚 largest Muslim population, Scott asked how it was that one article of Muslim women鈥檚 clothing鈥攖he veil, as the headscarf became known in France鈥攃ould be endowed with such symbolic significance in French political life. How could a 2004 ban on the wearing of 鈥渃onspicuous signs鈥 of religious affiliation in public schools, a term that included large crosses and skullcaps but targeted headscarves, become such an important plank in the French response to the political uncertainties and violence of the post-9/11 world?