Facets of feminism: from social feminism to post feminism

Overview

Facts

the discursive phallocentricity of Western philosophy the linguistic rendering of womens position the conceptualization of womens sex on bases of masculine parameters poststructuralist and postmodernist feminist theorists insisted on the idea of recognizing differences valorisation of the need for the marginalized, silent voice to speak and to be listened to various others should be regarded as different from the white Western heterosexual male who are denied selfhood". Malcolm Bradbury, 1993: 57).

Theories
Woman-as-other in key-concepts: women as a socially distinct group women having their specific single or collective life experiences women being commonly exposed to any kind of oppression the importance of the difference within the self the difficult endeavour of self-identification the importance of difference

Topics

womens sexuality has been obliterated Womens personality has been excluded womens experiences have been neutered as part of the process of differentiation men apparently have everything to gain from maintaining a status quo women writers need of restructuring the ethical/ideological landscape by devising new patterns for assessing moral success or failure

Agenda

artistic working with the potential to circumvent and reformulate existing structures including the categories of experiences feminine subjects foreground because of their difference in of relating, perceiving and expressing creating the framework for a new language and culture initiating changes in the social and political sphere challenging the foundation of the patriarchal and capitalist state changing the topography of ethics/aesthetics shifting the traditional terms about good, justice, supremacy, authority towards a new definition connecting feminism to other concepts co-existing at the same time.

Feminism
At the beginning: advocates the rights of women dates from the mid-19th century in Europe implies the identification of women as being systematically oppressed, in various fields, including arts/literature exposes the patriarchal society as denying womens right to social and cultural self-representation Since the late 1960s explores both the literary and the socio-economic status of women examines power relations in Western societies investigates the image that women had to reshape due to earlier prejudices subverts patterns and motifs that disclosed oppression and marginalization

Feminism
The first wave of feminism: is marked by the campaign of the suffragettes for their right to vote expresses a working class character emphasises social-economical frustrations lasts approximately until 1920s.

Feminism
The second wave is focused on the recognition of equality of all persons includes black people and activists continues the work of womens rights recognition adds to it the side of liberation lays a great emphasis on gender equity.

Feminism
The third wave

goes back to the 1980s emerges from intersections of feminism and racism foregrounds the need of revising feminine subjectivity tries to separate it from the limitations of the western canon more influential in cultural reproduction can command public domain spaces is better at pluralism has difference-biased views attempts to discursively understand and frame gender relations more concerned with the inner self, self-growth and transformation than with society, external oppression or material life.

Feminisms
Varieties of feminism : based on the fact that gender relations are neither inscribed in natural differences nor immutable they are culturally constructed gender is bound up and relative to other markers of social differences including class, or race being woman is variable and context dependent

Feminisms
Different stages of action and perception: regarded as simply womens movements of Western and bourgeois roots seen as womens emancipation awareness of the needFeminisms of reforms a nationalist or anti-capitalist tendency the Third World and Black Womens rises a reformist movement of women wanting power within the patriarchal system a post-feminist stage of bitter satisfaction and no further aims to reach.

Feminisms
Black feminism: opposition to racism fighting sexism opposing ethnocentrism of white-dominated systems and practices, developing methods of analysis for interpreting the ways in which race and gender are inscribed centred on the intersectionality of race and gender working with specific terms like anti-lynching, right to education, civil rights assumption that black women experience a particular, unique form of oppression in discursive and non-discursive practices black women are victims at once of sexism, racism, and by extension, classism

Feminisms
Cultural feminism -the existence of a specific womens culture: mothering spirituality language lesbianism woman-relatedness moral reasoning womens peace movement womens particular art

Feminisms
Lesbian feminism to establish lesbians as a distinct group to liberate the lesbian in every woman to analyse the dominant sex/gender system to develop unique critiques of compulsory heterosexuality and the heterosexual matrix as dominant institutional and ideological practices which are oppressive to all women sexual behaviours and sexual identities are social constructs

Feminisms
Liberal feminism: equal rights Individualism liberty justice equal pay no sex discrimination granted by law Marxist feminism women in the paradigm of production theories of work employment the labour market domestic labour the theory of production and reproduction

Feminisms
Materialist feminism: the paradigm of production all human activities including breast-feeding , seen as a labour the concept of class covers sexual classes as well men and women are distinct social groupings bound together in antagonistic social relationships of gender which have a material basis gender is a specific economic relation in which men and women are located in relations of production which are not capitalist processes

Feminisms
Socialist feminism is 19th-century-originated praised community over atomized individualism equality commitment to the common, collective good envisaged a utopian society free of class exploitation and sexual oppression

Feminisms
Radical feminism ( or womens libbers): emerges from the dissatisfaction with the traditional patriarchal practice uncovers the extent of violence against women exposes domestic violence determines the setting up of womens refuges deals with damaged personal relationships (opening rape-crisis centres) displays the importance of womens health and bodies - a kind of corporeal feminism

Feminisms
Ecofeminism: celebrates a prehistoric era, destroyed by patriarchal scientific culture, an era in which women were held in high esteem demonstrates the relationship existing between women and nature through the revival of ancient rituals centred on goddess worship, on the veneration of the moon observes and links animals and female reproductive systems considering that both womens biology and Nature are sources of female power to resist technology appeals to the recurrent motif of the soil as mother and people as her offspring not her masters

Feminisms
Existentialist feminism and French feminism: study women within the limits of male/female binary opposition focus on the way in which women are pressganged into immanence by mens strong will to become transcendent subjects and also by the treachery of female corporality emphasise the origin of abjection and immanence in the physical body examine the role of transcendence in subduing that body and determining women to collude in their own subordination and to be grateful for the opportunity to avoid the responsibility of transcendence.

Feminisms
French feminism: is associated with the exploration of the systems of language and sexuality (Lacan, Derrida) centres on the status of woman in Western theoretical discourse describes femininity as a subject position in language refers to a feminine specificity and lesbian poetics supports the idea of a specific ecriture feminine / a specific way of expressing themselves maintains the idea that most Western languages are maledominated, male-engendered and discourse is phallogocentric (Derrida)

Feminisms
Post-feminism : investigates cultural forms as against structural analysis examines the role of culture and language in the adoption of freely chosen identities pictures male reactions to womens increasing social power pinpoints the idea that feminist policies now backlash against feminism in its very name displays a feminism without women epitomizes the process through which political struggle has been replaced by the play of images interrogate sexual oppression by problematizing the enjoyment of new pleasures Shows how womens social positioning enable their economic and sexual independence reveals how structural constraints affect some womens opportunities and viewpoints less than others.

Post-feminism

has become evident throughout popular culture film business, advertising, fashion industry, popular psychology, political policies exposes the domination of femininity presents a category of woman interested in her appearance, attractiveness, men revises the concept of motherhood, children, mommy track

Post-feminism

explains that womens achieved legal and social equality cause their present pains shows that their freedom and acknowledged feminism have turned into their enemies monitors how gains have become the site for ironic, pseudo-intellectual critique on the feminist movement, seen now as unfashionable, obsolete, not worthy of serious consideration.

Post-feminism
The post feminist is fun indifferent to politics critical of earlier feminisms cheerfully apathetic sexy Independent

Post-feminism

derives from the previous stages/waves/kinds of feminisms shows their maturation in terms of theory and politics represents pluralism and difference reflects on its position in relation to other philosophical and political movements similarly demanding changes.

Post-feminism
The feminist discourse has expanded includes the image of the body (choice, empowerment, sexualisation, celebration of the body) depends on the media culture (talk shows, beauty pageants, reality shows, makeover shows etc.) monitors the self and the other (controlling ones body, everyday practices, home, finances, careers in magazines, shows, chick lit)

Post-feminism
Icons: Girl Power :assertive, dynamic, unbound from constraints of passive femininity Reviving Ophelia :vulnerable, voiceless, fragile both expressing extreme ambitions for autonomy, respectively for vulnerability, almost threatening extinction.

Post-feminism

might be seen as an anti-feminist movement might symbolize the end of feminism might mean a continuation of earlier feminism, reaching maturity is popular due to the media culture, Hollywood productions and chick lit books where women value autonomy, bodily integrity and the freedom to make individual choices.