In Bed with Procrustes: Feminism’s Flirtation with Patriarchy

In Bed with Procrustes: Feminism’s Flirtation with Patriarchy is the second volume in a Hestia Trilogy. It continues Professor Thompson’s exploration of the Hestian/Hermean Dual Systems Paradigm, introduced in The Accidental Theorist: The Double Helix of Everyday Life. Drawing on two ancient Greek mythemes - Hestia, guardian of the homeplace and Hermes, guardian of the marketplace - she introduces a metaphorical language with which to examine the private/public, civic/domestic, familial/political aspects of the human condition to reclaim the family ecosystem as a site for feminist theory. She challenges one size fits all theories based on patriarchal paradigms (the bed of Procrustes) and suggests how a Hestian feminist perspective can be applied to the academic disciplines of classics, philosophy, history, political science, sociology, psychology, economics, and ethics.