335. Theory 09: Feminism
Feminism is the movement or belief in the social, economic and political quality and rights of all genders. The social life was only reserved for the men. There were no economic or political rights given to women. Men could sell their wives in some parts of the world, eg- Germany. Even countries like UK and USA denied such rights. Thinkers like Rousseau thought women as idiots. Aristotle and Kautilya described women on similar lines. French Revolution witnessed women's participation too. But, no rights were declared for the same women. French author, Olympe de gouges's book "Declaration of the rights of Women" (1791) was the first to remind that women were equal partners with men. Mary Wollstonecraft's book came the next year. Soujourner Truth's book "Ain't i a woman?" talked about the equal rights of the black woman.
Feminism is used in two premises:
1. Gender difference is the foundation of a structural inequality between men and women due to which women suffer social injustice.
2. The inequality between the sexes (male & female) is not because of biological necessity but is produced by the cultural construction of gender differences.
The first wave of Feminism occurred in the 19th & early 20th century. It was mostly concerned with women's right to vote. It promoted equal property rights for women, opposing ownership of married women by their husbands. This wave was mainly limited to UK, USA and New Zealand. J. S. Mill was the first in the House of Commons in UK to utter about voting rights for women too. But, it was rejected. New Zealand got women's voting rights in 1893, UK in 1918 and USA in 1920. Voting rights was more very new for other countries.
The Second Wave of feminism occurred in 1960s and 1970s. It refers to women's liberation movement for equal legal & social rights. The wave's slogan was-"The Personal is Political." It criticised the idea that women could find fulfillment only through child rearing & home making.
The Third Wave began in early 1990s. It argued that the Second Wave over-emphasised the experiences of upper middle class white women. It focused on women's lives as intersectional- Demonstrating how race, ethnicity, class, religion, gender & nationality are all significant factors when discussing Feminism.
The Fourth Wave began around 2012. It focussed on empowerment of women and the use of internet tools. It seeks greater gender equality. It argues for equal pay for equal work. It opposes sexual harassment, body shaming & sexist imagery in media.
Margaret Fuller:
J. S. Mill:
Virginia Woolf:
Simon de Beauvoir:
Kate Millet:
Judith Butler:
Elaine Showalter:
Helene Cixous :
Sandra & Susan Gilbert:
Shulamith Firestone:
Culture in Babylon was written by Afro-American Hazel V. Carby. The book shows her essays on women and migration, black feminism and multiculturalism in "Black Britain" and African America. She writes quite similar to bell hooks. She writes another book called Reconstructing Womanhood. The subtitle is The Emergence of the Afro-American Woman Novelist. For her, feminist perspective should be more inclusive study of contemporary Western cultures. Her other book is Race Men. Race Men which is about black gay women and men, begins with a critique of W.E.B Du Bois' The Souls of Black Folk.
A Professor of -History of Consciousness is Teresa de Lauretis who also writes on cinematic works. She is crossroads of gender studies and film studies. She wrote in Italian on novelist Umberto Eco. Alice Doesn't: Feminism, Semiotics, Cinema of 1984 is her book on feminism and film studies. She critiques the male gaze using Lacanian psychoanalysis to formulate a conception of feminist gazing that "Looks Back" at the male subject whose voyeuristic perspective characteristics Western art and culture. Technologies of Gender (1987) is her most influential work, counters Michel Foucault s tendency to distinguish bodies and pleasure from the discourse of sexuality. In 1994 de Lauretis published a work on queer theoryThe Practice of Love. Figures of Resistance is her another work.
Henry Louis Gates was one of the first blacks to receive PhD from Cambridge in 1979. In Cambridge he became friend of Wole Soyinka who tutored him in cultural traditions and language of the Yoruba tribe. Figures in Black, Race Writing and Difference are his books. He was responsible for Microsoft Encarta Africana 2000 which was an electronic resource for African literature. He made his reputation with the republication of Harriet E Wilson's Our Nig. The Signifying Monkey (1988) is an in-depth study of a native black rhetorical tradition of Signifying rooted in the mythologies and story telling practices of West Africa. In 1990s he was making an important anthology of black feminist writings and wrote or edited many volumes on African American autobiography. Langston Hughes, Richard Wright and Zora Neale Hurston were in his autobiographies. His other work is Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man - a series of interviews of prominent black men who reflect on their experiences with race and racism. Wonders of the African World (1999) was also his work. In Search of our Roots and Stony the Road are his works too.
bell hooks or nee Gloria Watkins says theory is only passionate politics. Her first book is Ain't I A Woman (1981) argues that sexism and racism have the same cause-White Patriarchy- against which feminists and anti racist groups need to forge a shared position. Feminist Theory: From MARGIN to CENTER (1984) hooks atically critiques mainstream European and US Feminism for neglecting the issue of racism and feminism. Talking Black (1989) and Black Look (1992) hooks emphasizes education as both an institutional impediment and a possible site of resistance to institutional power. Outlaw Culture (1994) is her another book. hooks examines the interplay of sex and class in film Reel to Real (1996). For hooks the nature and direction of theory should tend towards a PASSIONATE POLITICS a point she argues in Feminism is for Everybody (2000). The will to change:Men, Masculinity and Love is and feminist theory-from margin to center are another books.