Feminism's emphasis on birth control is challenged in a study which reveals the masculine and mechanistic assumptions underlying arguments for birth control and abortion, and the belief that women's freedom comes from control of their bodies and their fertility. Writing as an ecofeminist, not as an anti-abortionist, she argues that the control of fertility denigrates women's bodies and exploitation of the earth, and that the West's preoccupation with population control in the Third World is both racist and imperialist.

Although Michel Foucault's ideas on sexuality, ideology, and power have established him as one of this century's most influential thinkers, the implications of his work for feminists continue to be the subject of heated debate. This book fosters an unprecedented dialogue between Foucault and the fertile ground of contemporary feminism and explores the many ways these disparate approaches to cultural analysis converge and interact.