From Disgust to Humanity: Sexual Orientation and Constitutional Law (Inalienable Rights) [Hardcover]

Martha C. Nussbaum (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 18, 2010 | ISBN-10: 0195305310 | ISBN-13: 978-0195305319 | Edition: First Edition

A distinguished professor of law and philosophy at the University of Chicago, a prolific writer and award-winning thinker, Martha Nussbaum stands as one of our foremost authorities on law, justice, freedom, morality, and emotion. In From Disgust to Humanity, Nussbaum aims her considerable intellectual firepower at the bulwark of opposition to gay equality: the politics of disgust.

Nussbaum argues that disgust has long been among the fundamental motivations of those who are fighting for legal discrimination against lesbian and gay citizens. When confronted with same-sex acts and relationships, she writes, they experience "a deep aversion akin to that inspired by bodily wastes, slimy insects, and spoiled food--and then cite that very reaction to justify a range of legal restrictions, from sodomy laws to bans on same-sex marriage." Leon Kass, former head of President Bush's President's Council on Bioethics, even argues that this repugnance has an inherent "wisdom," steering us away from destructive choices. Nussbaum believes that the politics of disgust must be confronted directly, for it contradicts the basic principle of the equality of all citizens under the law. "It says that the mere fact that you happen to make me want to vomit is reason enough for me to treat you as a social pariah, denying you some of your most basic entitlements as a citizen." In its place she offers a "politics of humanity," based not merely on respect, but something akin to love, an uplifting imaginative engagement with others, an active effort to see the world from their perspectives, as fellow human beings. Combining rigorous analysis of the leading constitutional cases with philosophical reflection about underlying concepts of privacy, respect, discrimination, and liberty, Nussbaum discusses issues ranging from non-discrimination and same-sex marriage to "public sex." Recent landmark decisions suggest that the views of state and federal courts are shifting toward a humanity-centered vision, and Nussbaum's powerful arguments will undoubtedly advance that cause.

Incisive, rigorous, and deeply humane, From Disgust to Humanity is a stunning contribution to Oxford's distinguished Inalienable Rights series.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A meticulous consideration of the legal issues surrounding same-sex relations grounded in a far-reaching investigation of how the notion of disgust has determined both civil legislation and public opinion. Identifying a politics of disgust that centers on irrational fears of contamination, penetrability, and loss of social solidarity, Nussbaum (Hiding from Humanaity) opposes such problematic foundations for legislation with her own notion of a politics of humanity, based on the need for imaginative engagement with others. Linking imagination with America's founding principles of equality and respect, the author vindicates sexual orientation rights as instrumental to the pursuit of happiness, before engaging with contentious rulings on same-sex marriage, sodomy, and discrimination. An elegant and eloquent defender of sexual freedom, the author is at her best describing the insidious role of disgust in law. However, her frequent recourse to John Stuart Mill would seem to demand a more detailed defense of his ideas on harm, and her reflections on marriage add little to the debate. Nonetheless, as the recent public discourse about empathy among Supreme Court judges indicates, Nussbaum's passionate advocacy of the power of imagination is profound and timely. (Feb.)
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Review

"A meticulous consideration of the legal issues surrounding same-sex relations grounded in a far-reaching investigation of how the notion of disgust has determined both civil legislation and public opinion...as the recent public discourse about empathy among Supreme Court judges indicates, Nussbaum's passionate advocacy of the power of imagination is profound and timely." -- Publishers Weekly

"Pity the enemies of gay equality who find themselves at intellectual odds with America's most prominent, and most prolific, philosopher of public life, Martha C. Nussbaum...Nussbaum presents a cogent and politically charged case against the unconstitutional legal arguments that have inhibited the privacy, marriage and full civil rights of gays and lesbians in the United States." -- San Francisco Chronicle

"Groundbreaking...Her book makes the most hard-and-fast case for the legalization of same-sex marriage..." -- MS Magazine Blog

"In all, From Disgust to Humanity is a must-read for anyone who is interested in the same-sex marriage debate and for those who want to better understand the Constitution's role in our everyday lives." -- Trial Magazine

"A refreshingly candid and insightful stance on the perpetuation of the discrimination against homosexual men and women in the United States, From Disgust to Humanity makes a convincing case for the role of disgust in the formation of both public opinion and law...While [this book] would certainly provide a valuable read to students of constitutional law, this reviewer recommends it also to anyone who has observed with interest and would like to better understand the ebb and flow of progress apropos recent sexual orientation legislation in the United States."--Contemporary Sociology

"Disgust is all around us, but the book presents fresh arguments worth considering...Summing Up: Recommended."--CHOICE

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; First Edition edition (February 18, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195305310
• ISBN-13: 978-0195305319
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #314,302 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #71 in Books > Gay & Lesbian > Nonfiction > Civil Rights

More About the Author

Martha C. Nussbaum is the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago, appointed in Law, Philosophy, and Divinity.

Author photo by Robin Holland

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Cogent, thoughtful, and above all humane March 4, 2010

By J. A Magill VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Into the vitriolic debate about homosexuality and society, esteemed philosopher Martha Nussbaum's "From Disgust to Humanity: Sexual Orientation and Constitutional Law" arrives like a breath of well reasoned air. Combining rigorous logic, thorough research, and humanity, Nussbaum examines our legal tradition to explain how the insidious notion of "disgust" is offered as a basis to deny rights to the "unworthy." Few will read her history of invectives used to demonize "the other," whether black, Jewish, or immigrant by association with disease, bodily fluids, odor, germs, and excrement, without feeling a chill.

Examining the legal status of homosexuality, she contrasts the views of two British thinkers. Philosopher John Stuart Mills, "abhor[ed] the tyranny of public sentiment over personal choice," and thought government had no place in regulating the activities of equal, competent, consenting adults. In opposition to Mills, she offers Lord Patrick Devlin, a British judge and Neo-Burkian, who opposed ending the legal sanction against homosexuality arguing that the state can and should use force to encourage social solidarity and enforce a common morality. Devlin saw sodomy laws as just and necessary, setting bounds on what is acceptable; according to Nussbaum, Mills would have seen them as nothing less than an assault on liberty. And though at times casting Devlin against Mills can feel like an intellectual middleweight taking a beating from Mohammed Ali, one's sympathy quickly passes.

"From Disgust to Humanity" explores the jurisprudential history of our "right to privacy," explaining cogently how the justices grounded it in the Constitution. In matters of privacy in general and homosexuality in particular, she demonstrates how jurists are divide followers of Mills and Devlin. In the case of the latter, arguments always track back to disgust, homosexual being "others" and "deviants," engaging in behavior that exists only in deranged fantasy. Thinkers such as Justice Scalia and Leon Klass, Chair of the Bioethics Council under President Bush, both of a Devlinian bend thinking disgust as a basis for sound ethics, receive an intellectual drubbing. Nussbaum continually beats them with a simple question: given their views of homosexuality, how can they claim they wouldn't have felt the same way in 1967, when the Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia invalidated miscegenation laws, at a time when an overwhelming number of Americans thought interracial marriage wrong and unnatural?

Against various arguments as to why homosexuals should not enjoy their fellow citizens' rights to marriage and intimacy, Nussbaum brings an irresistible vanquishing logic, wielding Equality and Liberty as her foil. In places she demonstrates a sharp sense of humor, as when she muses about why legislators (doubtless mostly men) seem so often preoccupied with gay male sex, but are inclined to give lesbianism a pass.

Yet more thrilling than Nussbaum's rhetorical skills and the soundness of her argument, is how she weds both to an appeal to our basic and essential humanity, to reject the hyperbolic language of hate and oppression in favor of recognizing the essential rights with which we are all endowed.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Moving from the "politics of disgust" to the "politics of humanity" March 11, 2010

By Todd Bartholomew TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

The first half of the title neatly sums up Nussbaum's central argument regarding public opinion and public policy as it relates to the LGBT community, same-sex relations and their push for legal redress though the courts and the legislative process. Nussbaum explores how those opposed to the LGBT community and public policy granting them equal rights have used emotionalism, particularly the disgust and revulsion attached to gay sex to rally supporters to their cause, often using factually incorrect, but emotionally charged statements. Nussbaum includes a number of recent statements made by state legislators, activists, and others that driver her point home. They are by turns irrelevant, childish, bizarre, and often just factually incorrect. In the process those opposed to same-sex rights have created what Nussbaum terms "the politics of disgust". If you can stigmatize, demonize, and otherwise vilify your opponents causing others to share in your revulsion of them, then mission accomplished. As was done to blacks generations before, the "politics of disgust" is bound up in the fear of disease, contagion, and blood, an argument heard in defending segregation in the Jim Crow era.

Nussbaum, a prominent professor of law and philosophy at the University of Chicago and the author of many books, does an outstanding job of explaining the evolution and creation of the "politics of disgust" and that sort of demagoguery is nothing new. But the larger philosophical question Nussbaum poses here is whether pursuit of "the politics of disgust" is a sustainable political tool. Nussbaum points out how societies have eventually transitioned away from the "politics of disgust", such as in India's abandonment of the caste system, the decrease in Antisemitism in some parts of the world, and the ending of legally sanctioned segregation in the USA and South Africa. Nussbaum argues that societies have been able to transform beyond their pasts and transition to what she terms "the politics of humanity". In the process they come to see these vilified "others" as fully human, with similar hopes, fears, and desires. More importantly Nussbaum is probably the clearest thinker on this subject, avoiding the emotionally charged rhetoric of both sides, writing in a manner that is dispassionate and objective. But Nussbaum methodically picks apart the arguments against LGBT rights in such a manner that by the time she's done it's clear that the opponents are exposed as frauds, unsupported by any data, or as hateful demagogues basing their ideology on disgust, fear, and a manipulation of religion and history.

There have been many books written on the subject of gay rights, both pro and con, but of those I've read few have left as great an impact as "From Disgust to Humanity." Nussbaum clearly has hope for the future regarding LGBT equality and points to the changes in public opinion over time. As she points out equality will come in time, but it will require greater understanding of what both groups have in common and to empathize with each other more, ceasing to view each other as "other". In the end a sense of justice will win out although it may take many years as witnessed by the experience of other groups. As Nussbaum points out, making law and public policy out of fear typically never stands.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars What's love got to do with? August 29, 2010

By J. Fried

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I highly recommend this book with only one caveat. Rather than repeating what the previous four reviews have already covered well, i will focus on the one nit i have about the book. This book clearly focusses very much on sex with very little mention of love. I raise this because i think the book misses one of the key elements of homophobic heterosexuality, these people believe that they believe that love is more important than sex, and, that LGBT people do not believe that love is more important than sex. The key point is not the truth of the belief, but that homophobic heterosexuals believe it is true. That homophobes frame everything in terms of sexuality as a way to deny the equality of LGBT people is made clear in this book. However, the book continues to focus on sexual behavior, attempting to justify how LGBT people have sex rather than focussing on how homophobes deny the ability of LGBT people to love, and from that commit to relationships in the same manner that they believe that they do. Love is only covered vaguely under the idea that it is one of the things that people should be allowed to do, rather than as a keystone of our development as individuals and as a society. I think that covering this issue in far more detail would have been a much stronger statement than focussing on sex. We all know the joke about the drunk who searches for his missing keys under the lamppost only because there is more light under the lamppost. I appreciate that it is easier to discuss sex than it is to discuss love and i'm sure that is one of the reasons that we tend to argue for sexual freedom rather than the freedom to love, however, my experience is that love is far more foundational than sex both to the individual and society.

I think that everyone can gain from reading this book for the same reasons the preceding reviewers praised the book. My criticism is not meant to deter you from reading this book, but it is to make clear its limitation. By framing everything in terms of sex, rather than love, the author has allowed the homophobic community (sorry, couldn't think of a better word) to frame the discussion in a manner that will only continue the debate and at best produce little more than tolerance, rather than respect as equals, for members of the LGBT community.