Everything about Feminist Theory totally explained
Feminist theory is the extension of
feminism into theoretical, or
philosophical, ground. It encompasses work done in a broad variety of disciplines, prominently including the approaches to women's roles and lives and feminist politics in
anthropology and
sociology,
psychoanalysis,
economics,
women's and
gender studies,
feminist literary criticism, and
philosophy especially
Continental philosophy.Feminist theory aims to understand the nature of inequality and focuses on gender politics, power relations and sexuality. While generally providing a critique of
social relations, much of feminist theory also focuses on analyzing gender inequality and the promotion of women's rights, interests, and issues. Themes explored in feminism include
art history and
contemporary art, aesthetics,
discrimination,
stereotyping,
objectification (especially
sexual objectification),
oppression, and
patriarchy.
History
Nancy Cott makes a distinction between
modern feminism and its antecedents, particularly the
struggle for suffrage. In the
United States she places the turning point in the decades before and after women obtained the vote in 1920 (1910-1930). She argues that the prior
woman movement was primarily about woman as a
universal entity, whereas over this 20 year period it transformed itself into one primarily concerned with social differentiation, attentive to
individuality and diversity. New issues dealt more with woman's condition as a
social construct, gender identity, and relationships within and between genders. Politically this represented a shift from an ideological alignment comfortable with the right, to one more radically associated with the left.
Susan Kingsley Kent says that Freudian patriarchy was responsible for the diminished profile of feminism in the inter-war years, others such as
Juliet Mitchell consider this to be
overly simplistic since
Freudian theory isn't wholly incompatible with feminism. Some feminist scholarship shifted away from the need to establish the origins of
family, and towards analyzing the process of
patriarchy. In the immediate postwar period,
Simone de Beauvoir stood in opposition to an image of "the woman in the home". De Beauvoir provided an
existentialist dimension to feminism with the publication of
Le Deuxième Sexe (
The Second Sex) in 1949.
As the title implies, the starting point is the implicit inferiority of women, and the first question de Beauvoir asks is "what is a woman"?.
Woman she realises is always perceived of as "other", "
she is defined and differentiated with reference to man and not he with reference to her". In this book and her essay, "
Woman: Myth & Reality", de Beauvoir anticipates
Betty Friedan in seeking to demythologise the male concept of woman. "
A myth invented by men to confine women to their oppressed`state. For women it isn't a question of asserting themselves as women, but of becoming full-scale human beings." "One isn't born, but rather becomes, a woman", or as
Toril Moi puts it "a woman defines herself through the way she lives her embodied situation in the world, or in other words, through the way in which she makes something of what the world makes of her". Therefore, woman must regain subject, to escape her defined role as "other", as a
Cartesian point of departure.
In her examination of myth, she appears as one who doesn't accept any special privileges for women. Ironically, feminist philosophers have had to extract de Beauvoir herself from out of the shadow of
Jean-Paul Sartre to fully appreciate her. While more philosopher and novelist than activist, she did sign one of the
Mouvement de Libération des Femmes manifestos.
The resurgence of feminist activism in the late 1960s was accompanied by an emerging literature of what might be considered female associated issues, such as concerns for the earth and spirituality, and environmental activism.
This in turn created an atmosphere conducive to reigniting the study of and debate on matricentricity,
as a rejection of
determinism, such as
Adrienne Rich
and
Marilyn French
while for
socialist feminists like
Evelyn Reed,
patriarchy held the properties of capitalism.
Elaine Showalter describes the development of Feminist theory as having a number of phases. The first she calls "feminist critique" - where the feminist reader examines the ideologies behind literary phenomena. The second Showalter calls
"Gynocritics" - where the "woman is producer of textual meaning" including "the
psychodynamics of female creativity;
linguistics and the problem of a female language; the trajectory of the individual or collective female literary career [and]
literary history". The last phase she calls "gender theory" - where the "ideological inscription and the literary effects of the
sex/gender system" are explored." This model has been criticized by Toril Moi who sees it as an
essentialist and
deterministic model for female subjectivity. She also criticized it for not taking account of the situation for women outside the west.
From the 1970s onwards, psychoanalytical ideas that has been arising in the field of
French feminism has gained a decisive influence on feminist theory. Feminist psychoanalysis deconstructed the phallic hypotheses regarding the Unconscious.
Julia Kristeva,
Luce Irigaray and
Bracha Ettinger developed specific notions concerning unconscious sexual difference, the feminine and motherhood, with wide implications for film and literature analysis.
Feminist disciplines
There are a number of distinct feminist disciplines, in which experts in other areas apply feminist techniques and principles to their own fields.
Feminist psychoanalysis
Psychoanalytic feminism is based on
Freud and his
psychoanalytic theories. It maintains that
gender isn't biological but is based on the psycho-sexual development of the individual. Psychoanalytical feminists believe that
gender inequality comes from early childhood experiences, which lead men to believe themselves to be
masculine, and women to believe themselves
feminine. It is further maintained that gender leads to a social system that's dominated by males, which in turn influences the individual psycho-sexual development. As a solution it was suggested to avoid the gender-specific structuring of the society by male-female
coeducation,
Luce Irigaray and
Bracha L. Ettinger, has largely influenced not only feminist theory but also the understanding of the subject in philosophy and the general field of psychoanalysis itself
. Other feminist psychoanalysts whose contribution enriched the field are
Jessica Benjamin and
Jacqueline Rose.
Feminist literary theory
Feminist literary criticism is
literary criticism informed by feminist theories or politics. Its history has been varied, from classic works of female authors such as
George Eliot,
Virginia Woolf, and
Margaret Fuller to cutting-edge theoretical work in
women's studies and
gender studies by "
third-wave" authors.
In the most general, feminist literary criticism before the 1970s was concerned with the politics of women's authorship and the representation of women's condition within literature.. Feminist film theory of the last twenty years is heavily influenced by the general transformation in the field of aesthetics, including the new options of articulating the
gaze, offered by psychoanalytical
French feminism, and in particular by the Ettingerian notion of the matrixial gaze.
Feminist art history
Linda Nochlin and
Griselda Pollock are prominent art historians writing on contemporary and modern artists and articulating
Art history from a feminist perspective since the 1970s. Pollock works with French psychoanalysis, and in particular with Kristeva's and Ettinger's theories, to offer new insights into art history and contemporary art with special regard to questions of trauma and trans-generation memory in the works of women artists.
Feminist history
Feminist history refers to the re-reading and re-interpretation of history from a feminist
perspective. It isn't the same as the
history of feminism, which outlines the origins and evolution of the
feminist movement. It also differs from
women's history, which focuses on the role of women in historical events. The goal of feminist history is to explore and illuminate the female viewpoint of history through rediscovery of female writers, artists, philosophers, etc, in order to recover and demonstrate the significance of women's voices and choices in the past.
Feminist geography
Feminist geography is often considered part of a broader
postmodern approach to the subject which isn't primarily concerned with the development of conceptual theory in itself but rather focuses on the real experiences of individuals and groups in their own localities, upon the geographies that they live in within their own communities. In addition to its analysis of the real world, it also critiques existing geographical and
social studies, arguing that academic traditions are delineated by
patriarchy, and that contemporary studies which don't confront the nature of previous work reinforce the male bias of academic study.
Feminist philosophy
Feminist philosophy refers to philosophy approached from a feminist perspective. Feminist philosophy involves both attempts to use the methods of philosophy to further the cause of the feminist movements, and attempts to criticise or re-evaluate the ideas of traditional philosophy from within a feminist framework.
There is no one school of feminist philosophy: feminist philosophers, as philosophers, are found in both the
analytic and
Continental traditions, and the myriad different viewpoints taken on philosophical issues within those traditions; and feminist philosophers, as feminists, are found belonging to the many different varieties of feminism.
Rosi Braidotti and
Donna Harawayare most significant psychoanalytically informed influences on contemporary feminist philosophy.
Feminist sexology
Feminist sexology is an offshoot of traditional studies of
sexology that focuses on the
intersectionality of sex and gender in relation to the sexual lives of women. Feminist sexology shares many principles with the wider field of sexology; in particular, it doesn't try to prescribe a certain path or “normality” for women's sexuality, but only observe and note the different and varied ways in which women express their sexuality. Looking at sexuality from a feminist point of view creates connections between the different aspects of a person's sexual life.
Feminist economics
Feminist economics broadly refers to a developing branch of
economics that applies feminist insights and critiques to economics. Research under this heading is often interdisciplinary, critical, or
heterodox. It encompasses debates about the relationship between feminism and economics on many levels: from applying mainstream economic methods to under-researched "women's" areas, to questioning how mainstream economics values the reproductive sector, to deeply philosophical critiques of economic
epistemology and methodology.
One prominent issue that feminist economists investigate is how the
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) doesn't adequately measure unpaid labor predominantly performed by women, such as housework, childcare, and eldercare. Feminist economists have also challenged and exposed the rhetorical approach of mainstream economics. They have made critiques of many basic assumptions of mainstream economics, including the
Homo economicus model. They have been instrumental in creating alternative models, such as the
Capability Approach and incorporating gender into the analysis of economic data. Marilyn Power suggests that feminist economic methodology can be broken down into five categories.
Feminist legal theory
The study of feminist legal theory is a school thought based on the common view that law's treatment of women in relation to men hasn't been equal or fair. The goals of feminist legal theory as defined by leading theorist Claire Dalton, consist of understanding and exploring the female experience, figuring out how law and institutions oppose females, and figuring out what changes can be committed to. This is to be accomplished through studying the connections between the law and gender as well as applying feminist analysis to concrete areas of law.
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