Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

2000

Source Publication

Law as a Gendering Practice, Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Abstract

My title derives its inspiration in part from the end-of-day watch sounded for my daughter by another child at her day-care centre when I arrived to pick her up:'. . . your mother's here-the other one.' As I think back to that moment more than half a decade ago, I remember with fondness the ease with which my daughter's little friends were able to assimilate that she didn't have a daddy, but rather two mommies-even the competitive little girl who said, 'Oh yeah, well I have about 10 mommies.'

Too, I recall a yet earlier conversation with one of my feminist intellectual heroes (who was then on the cusp of a post-modern turn). I shared with my colleague that I found it interesting yet odd that I, a lawyer turned legal academic, did not have what I regarded as a legal relations hip with the new baby in my life. My colleague responded that perhaps that was a good thing, perhaps that was better; after all, why would I want to, need to, acquiesce to law 's power to define and regulate. To be frank, as unsettled as I was by the contradictory nature of my own position, I was troubled by her response. I muttered my well-worn rejoinder that I thought legal relations and regulation were more complicated than that.

Comments

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