FEMINISM
SOME NOTES BEFORE WE START
1. ALWAYS START FROM THE MOST TOLERANT STANDPOINT
IF YOU THINK SOMETHING MAY SOUND WRONG, DON’T SAY IT
2. YOU ALWAYS ARE FOR FEMINISM/WOMEN’S RIGHTS
YOU MAY HOWEVER ARGUE OVER THE INTERPRETATION OF FEMINISM, EFFECTIVENESS OF A
METHOD, COMPETING RIGHTS
3. DON’T MAKE ESSENTIALIST ARGUMENTS
(1) MOSTLY NOT TRUE
(2) EVEN IF IT IS, IT IS A HORRIBLE GENERALIZATION
(3) DOESN’T MATTER ANYWAY, IT’S UNJUST IF IT IS TRUE
4. SEXISM IS NOT JUST HOSTILE BELIEF THAT WOMEN ARE LESSER
“WOMEN ARE MORE VULNERABLE”, MORE “PURE” ARE ALSO SEXIST STATEMENTS
5. GENDER=/= SEX=/= SEXUALITY
AGENDA
1. WHAT IS PATRIARCHY?
2. WAVES OF FEMINISM
3. SOME IDEAS IN FEMINISM
4. SPECIFIC ISSUES
WHAT IS PATRIARCHY?
Patriarchy is institutionalized male rule
& subordination of women (and other
genders).
Two key elements:
(1) Dualistic way of thinking
(2) Logic of domination
Implications are broader than just
those related to ‘women’s issues’
1. WHAT IS
PATRIARCHY?
2. WAVES OF FEMINISM
3. SOME IDEAS IN
FEMINISM
4. SPECIFIC ISSUES
WHAT IS FEMINISM?
Feminism is best described as
a critique of patriarchy.
As such feminism, along with critiques of
capitalism, provides the most
comprehensive analysis of oppression.
Pioneers disability ethics, queer and
trans philosophy, critique of
enlightenment reason.
1. WHAT IS
PATRIARCHY?
2. WAVES OF FEMINISM
3. SOME IDEAS IN
FEMINISM
4. SPECIFIC ISSUES
WAVES OF FEMINISM
1ST WAVE: LEGAL EQUALITY
2ND WAVE: POST-GENDER SOCIETY
3RD WAVE: GENDERED, YET EQUAL SOCIETY
1. WHAT IS
PATRIARCHY?
2.WAVES OF FEMINISM
3. SOME IDEAS IN
FEMINISM
4. SPECIFIC ISSUES
WAVES OF FEMINISM
THW MAKE ALL EDUCATION GENDER NEUTRAL
PROP: 2nd wave
1.
Non- privileged gender identities, cannot be
redefined as strong/valuable for two
reasons:
A. Inherent characteristics that are
incompatible with that, e.g.
femininity=passivity, lack of agency
B. Incentive from the privileged to
keep their position will always define
others as lesser
2. Gender identities are limiting. You always
have to fit into a certain box of characteristics
defined as one or the other gender.
1. WHAT IS
PATRIARCHY?
2.WAVES OF FEMINISM
OPP: 3rd wave
1.
All identities are limiting and will stay
that way because we need simplified
(often visual) ways to identify who
people are and how they wish to be
treated. That doesn’t make gender
identity bad or meaningless.
2.
What we need is not a post-gender
society, but a society where both
genders are equally valued. A genderneutral standard will necessarily be
defined by the currently privileged
class.
3. SOME IDEAS IN
FEMINISM
4. SPECIFIC ISSUES
SOME IDEAS IN FEMINISM
PERSPECTIVES ON POWER
1. WHAT IS
PATRIARCHY?
2. WAVES OF FEMINISM
3. SOME IDEAS IN
FEMINISM
4. SPECIFIC ISSUES
SOME IDEAS IN FEMINISM
PERSPECTIVES ON POWER
1. How oppression works:
Being oppressed is not ‘having worse quality of life’ (although
usually that accompanies oppression) it is being systematically
excluded from having power (both within societal powerstructures & personal relations).
(1) Institutionalized exclusion
(2)Exclusion in personal relations
(3)Definition of femininity
1. WHAT IS
PATRIARCHY?
2. WAVES OF FEMINISM
3. SOME IDEAS IN
FEMINISM
4. SPECIFIC ISSUES
SOME IDEAS IN FEMINISM
PERSPECTIVES ON POWER
2. Power as domination vs. power as empowering:
Understanding of power as domination is in
itself a masculine definition of it. Women might
want to be powerful in ways that are not
dominant, but rather enhancing the power of
others, e.g. motherhood.
1. WHAT IS
PATRIARCHY?
2. WAVES OF FEMINISM
3. SOME IDEAS IN
FEMINISM
4. SPECIFIC ISSUES
SOME IDEAS IN FEMINISM
PERSPECTIVES ON POWER
3. Analytic:
Oppressed groups themselves are co-opted
through their own short-run choices to reinforce
the long-run oppression of social groups
1. WHAT IS
PATRIARCHY?
2. WAVES OF FEMINISM
3. SOME IDEAS IN
FEMINISM
4. SPECIFIC ISSUES
SOME IDEAS IN FEMINISM
PERSPECTIVES ON POWER
4. Post-structuralist:
Power should not be always seen as repressive, it is primarily
productive.
Focault: structures are inherently unstable, they
in themselves are accompanied by or even
generating resistance. Conformity gains us
power to create change.
1. WHAT IS
PATRIARCHY?
2. WAVES OF FEMINISM
3. SOME IDEAS IN
FEMINISM
4. SPECIFIC ISSUES
SOME IDEAS IN FEMINISM
PERSPECTIVES ON POWER
THBT SELF-PROCLAIMED FEMINISTS SHOULD NOT ALTER
THEMSELVES (E.G. MAKE-UP, PLASTIC SURGERY)
INTERESTS OF A FEMINIST: (1) EMPOWERMENT OF SELF (2) PROMOTING OPPOSITION
TO OPRESSION
1.
SELF ALTERATION UNDERMINES
SELF-EMPOWEREMENT AS IT IS
SUBMISSION TO AN OPRESSESIVE
NORM
2.
CONTRIBUTES TO THE
PERPETUATION OF BEAUTY
STANDARDS
1. WHAT IS
PATRIARCHY?
2. WAVES OF FEMINISM
1.
PUTTING ON RED-LIPSTICK CAN BE
AN EMPOWERING ACT AND HELP
‘ME’ ASSERT MYSELF MORE
AGGRESIVELY IN OTHER AREAS OF
LIFE
2.
FEMINISM IS ABOUT REDEFINITION OF WHAT IS STRONG,
NOT ABOLISHSMENT OF
FEMININITY. IF I AS A FEMINIST PUT
ON MAKE-UP, IT LOOKS STRONG
3. SOME IDEAS IN
FEMINISM
4. SPECIFIC ISSUES
FEMINIST MOVEMENTS & ANTI-FEMINIST MOVEMENTS
1. WHAT IS
PATRIARCHY?
2. WAVES OF FEMINISM
3. SOME IDEAS IN
FEMINISM
4.SPECIFIC ISSUES
FEMINIST MOVEMENTS & ANTI-FEMINIST MOVEMENTS
WHAT DO ALL MOVEMENTS NEED?
•
SUPPORT FROM THE GROUP THEY REPRESENT- TO BE ABLE TO
REPRESENT THEIR INTERESTS TRULY
•
E.G. MANY YOUNG FEMINISTS MAY NOT BE ANTI-MAKE UP OR THE FASHION
INDUSTRY.
•
POLITICAL SUPPORT
•
SOCIETAL SUPPORT (ALLIES)
•
MEDIA ATTENTION
•
FUNDING
1. WHAT IS
PATRIARCHY?
2. WAVES OF FEMINISM
3. SOME IDEAS IN
FEMINISM
4.SPECIFIC ISSUES
FEMINIST MOVEMENTS
FEMEN
Against:
1) Sexism
2) Religion
3) Dictatorship
4) Sex tourism
*All they see as expression of
oppression. See fundamental
connection between all oppression and
patriarchy.
Intention is NOT to attract attention
by being ‘sexual’, in fact the very
oppositeshowing that women’s bodies are not
there to please you, but can be used as
weapons.
1. WHAT IS
PATRIARCHY?
2. WAVES OF FEMINISM
3. SOME IDEAS IN
FEMINISM
4.SPECIFIC ISSUES
FEMINIST MOVEMENTS
SLUTWALK
Rape Culture
-links sexual violence to culture
and society
-victim blaming (‘she was asking
for it’)
-Teaching women how to ‘not get
raped’
Sexual liberation
-Female sexuality/nudity is not
degrading/discusting/ humiliating
1. WHAT IS
PATRIARCHY?
2. WAVES OF FEMINISM
3. SOME IDEAS IN
FEMINISM
4.SPECIFIC ISSUES
ANTI-FEMINIST MOVEMENTS
MEN’S RIGHTS MOVEMENTS
Believe there is:
(1) Feminist controlled discourse
(2) Female supremacy that is disguised &
maintained by painting women as
“oppressed”
Most brought up issues:
(1) Physical abuse of men
(2) Inequality of custody decisions
(3) Addiction and homelessness
(4) Emotional un-availability of men
(5) Support of ‘rape culture’
(6) Unlimited freedom of speech
(7) ‘Empowering of men’
1. WHAT IS
PATRIARCHY?
2. WAVES OF FEMINISM
3. SOME IDEAS IN
FEMINISM
4.SPECIFIC ISSUES
PORNOGRAPHY
AGAINST
1. Dehumanization. Because sexual desire is irrational and leads us to focus on the sexual
body parts of others, it is often objectifying, dehumanizing, and degrading, especially to
women due to power inequality.
2. Lack of consent. According to MacKinnon, in patriarchal societies, women are often
not free to refuse sex with men, and therefore their participation in sex with men may not
be fully consensual.
3.
Training women into sexual submission. Moreover, pornography is a tool that can
be used to terrorize women viewers, or to obtain their cooperation with their abusers, a
sort of brainwashing.
4. Silencing freedom of expression. The pornographic view of women is: they want it;
they all want it”. So if they say they do not want it, they must be engaging in playful
teasing or deception.
1. WHAT IS
PATRIARCHY?
2. WAVES OF FEMINISM
3. SOME IDEAS IN
FEMINISM
4.SPECIFIC ISSUES
PORNOGRAPHY
FOR
1. Bad narrative for feminism. By treating sexual violence as a product of exposure to
pornography, feminists promote a view that relieves sexual predators of responsibility for
their actions, and blames their actions instead on expressive materials or the pathological
conditions they allegedly cause.
2. Normalizing sex. Pornography succeeds in harming women, in part, because viewers
assume that sex is generally harmful to women, but then pornography is not the problem
and sexual liberation is the goal.
3. Bring the private to the public space. At the very least, such materials make aspects
of human sexuality available for public debate and critique contributing to the idea of
opposing private-public dichotomy.
4. No different than consumers/employees/other socially acceptable things. The
agency of sexual actors does not have a greater potential to immorally objectify others
than the agency of employers, consumers, and numerous agents who exploit the
capacities of people to achieve their own ends.
1. WHAT IS
PATRIARCHY?
2. WAVES OF FEMINISM
3. SOME IDEAS IN
FEMINISM
4.SPECIFIC ISSUES
RESOURCES
DEBATES
Sexual imagery http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oinYCaeq9mg
Slutwalks http://vimeo.com/30034468
Politically active first lady http://vimeo.com/34834587
Cosmetic Surgery http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm3wClAFzUU
Hook-up Culture http://vimeo.com/52977055
Cosmetic Surgery http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm3wClAFzUU
GENERAL RESOURCES
Debate Videos http://debatevideoblog.blogspot.com/
Alfred Snider on Vimeo http://vimeo.com/user1244229
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://plato.stanford.edu/