Hedonistic Utilitarianism and Feminist Politics

Abstract

Hedonistic utilitarianism – the theory that one should act so as to maximize pleasure and minimize pain – has not attracted much interest from feminist scholars. In this article, however, it is claimed that many policies advocated by feminists could also reasonably be advocated by hedonists. Thus, hedonism can normally not be called a non-feminist (much less an anti-feminist) moral theory, and this is not surprising since hedonism avoids many of the critical points that have been directed at other "malestream" theories.