Feminisms II
2. History of Feminist Movement,
Radical Feminism & French
Feminism
1. Women's Positions in Patriarchal Society and
Discourses
3. Feminisms and Gender Studies: Post-Feminism,
Lesbian Feminism
4. Examples (Surfacing Included)
5. Group Report & Taiwanese Feminisms
Starting Questions
What does ‘being constructed as Other”
mean?
Is sex the fundamental reason for
patriarchal oppression of women? What
can sexual liberation do?
What is ‘femininity’ or being feminine?
What does it mean to say that ‘in “woman”
something cannot be represented’?
What’s wrong with being logical or rational?
Is being feminine being illogical?
What are the possible problems in ‘image
of women’ approach to literature?
What is ‘the semiotic’? And “feminine
écriture”?
Outline
History of Women’s Movements in
Brief
Zoom in (1): The Second Wave –
Radical Feminism
Zoom in (2): French Feminists;
an example 夏宇
History of Women’s Movements
1.
2.
3.
Some Footnotes First:
The histories and theories we’re introducing
here are “mostly” those of ‘Western’ women and
feminisms.
Sexual discrimination is still a fact of life ‘almost’
everywhere in this world, but it appears in
different forms in different societies. We should
not criticize the other societies (e.g. African,
Islamic) without fully understanding them.
Exceptions to our histories/theories:
中國雲南麗江摩梭族 (e.g.『三個摩梭女子的
故事);
女書（湖南永江﹚
Feminist Movements
1. Liberalist: equality in the public
sphere (e.g. workplace, civil rights,
education, money)
--Mary Wollstonecraft A Vindication of the
Rights of Woman
-- John Stwart Mill “The Subjection of Women”
-- Charlotte Perkin Gilman Herland
-- Virginia Woolf: “A Room of One’s Own” &
Androgy
Feminist Movements: The
Second Wave since 1960’s
Emphases: “the personal is the political” -the politics of reproduction, women's
'experience,' sexual 'difference.'
American Feminists: Radical Feminist,
Psychoanalytic Feminist
French Feminists
Since the 80’s, Lesbianism, Postmodern
Feminism, Postcolonial Feminism,
Transgender Criticism, Ecofeminism, etc.
Central Issues in Contemporary
Feminisms
A. 60’s -70’s -- Women’s Studies:
Women’s
1) biology (this week)
2) experience and social position (last and
this week)
3) writing (this and next week)
B. 80’s – Gender Studies
1) power relations (cultural differences)
2) gender constructions (next week)
3) sexual orientation (next week)
Central Issues in Contemporary
Feminisms (2)
Gender/Sexual Difference
1.(Before the second wave) Deny
difference (difference =
discrimination);
2.Celebrate difference
3.Recognize the arbitrariness of
difference  the fluidity of its
boundaries
I. The Second Wave: the
American Side
Radical Feminism: Background and
Some Major Views;
Feminist Literary Criticism
American Psychoanalytic Feminism
(ref. chap 1: 185-186; chap 2)
Radical Feminism: Background &
Development
Before: Post-War conservatism; (clip 1)
Rise and Fall:
Inspired by the Civil Rights Movement;
The forming of NOW; demonstrations on the
street;
Backlashes (clip 2), The emergence of gay
liberation movement (Woman-IdentifiedWomen) and then fragmentation (clip 3)
Radical — the most basic/fundamental
issues (e.g. sex/gender system)
Some Major Views
The Female Eunuch (女太監) –
infantilization and de-sexualization of
women (chap 2: 234)
The Feminine Mystique -- a false belief
system that requires women to find identity
and meaning in their lives through their
husbands and children.
Sexual Politics （性別政治﹚ – “Sex is
political.”  Resisting male domination in
life and in literature (e.g. Lawrence, H.
Miller & Normal Mailer). (clip 4)
Androgyny redefined – masculine “power
over” + feminine “pleasure with”  ‘power
to’ (權力給予, creating pleasure)
Some Major Views (2)
Rejecting Biological Motherhood (S.
Firestone) (for artificial insemination)
Radical lesbian feminist separatist –
e.g. Mary Daly,
-- Beyond God the Father: attacking
Christianity in Boston College, a
college run by the Jesuit.
-- Pure Lust – calls herself a hag;
promotes separatism.
--barring men from her classes for 25
years.
Main Issues of Debate for Radical
Feminism
Lesbianism or Gay Liberation Movement
Motherhood  Is it a constraint?
Artificial insemination -- male alienation from
reproduction)
A. Rich: Motherhood as Experience and
Institution
Surrogate Mother –exploitation of women’s
bodies?
Sex Industry  to ban or not to ban?
Pornography, banned or not
Prostitute: freedom to work or exploitation of
women's bodies
(II) American Feminist Literary
criticism
1. “Images of Women” Approach; e.g.
Women and the Demon;
The presentation of women in traditional love
poetry;
2. Gynocriticism
Constructs a female framework (in terms of
topics, areas of studies, main concerns);
Re-discovers women’s works and their values.
Discovers new forms
 literature of their own
American Feminist Literary
criticism: gynocriticism (chap 2:
239-40)
1. the contrast in style and subject
matter between masculine and
feminine writings
feminine writing--more concerned with
community, open ending; associational
logic; subjective
male--individualistic, closure, sequential,
objective
(III) Psychoanalytic Feminisms
American: Nancy Chodorow
The Reproduction of Motherhood
(an example of object-relations theory)
1. Males: have fixed ego-boundaries (rigid
and defensive) because they define
themselves through separation from their
mother.
2. Females: have fluid and permeable egoboundaries because they never break up
their relationship with the mother. This
sense of self-in-relationship and need for
connection to others in turn underlies the
desire to “mother” (be a mother).
French Feminism
Some Key Terms:
1. The realm of the proper (Oedipus
complex & fear of castration) vs.
the realm of gift
2. Bi-sexuality or self-touching
3. Penus/phallus vs. chora
4. The imaginary, the symbolic and
the real
Textbook chap 1: 186 – 188; chap 2
243-250)
(III) French Feminism: Feminine
ecriture (chap 2: pp. 243-50)
Biology
feminine writing
Against the psychoanalysts’ emphasis on
Oedipus complex and the Father. Against
seeing woman as Lack.
Against the fixity of male writing and systems
of thoughts
1. Cixous:
phallogocentrism and its
binarism
writing from the body; write in white ink; in the
Realm of the Gift vs. the Realm of the Proper
(property-- appropriate--the fear of castration)
Irigaray
autoeroticism; plural sexuality;
an alternate discourse that is multiple, fluid,
and heterogeneous
feminine style: 1) mimicry; 2) "selftouching" and "self-affection" –
(quote on p. 248: always having “another
‘other meaning’ always in the process of
weaving itself, of embracing itself with
words, but also of getting rid of words in
order not to become fixed. . .” )
Kristeva:
the semiotic
the feminine as the silence of the
unconscious that precedes discourse;
its utterance is a flow or rhythm
instead of an ordered statement;
expression is fluid like the freefloating sea of a womb or the milk of
the breast.
Feminine Writing: an example
夏宇 〈在陣雨之間〉
我正孤獨通過自己行星上的曠野我正
孤獨通過自己行星上的曠野我正孤獨
通過自己行星上的曠野我正孤獨通過
自己行星上的曠野我正孤獨通過自己
行星上的曠野我正孤獨通過自己行星
上的曠野
正孤獨
我正孤獨通過
Feminine Writing: an example
夏宇 〈在陣雨之間〉
我正孤獨通過自己行星上的曠野我正
孤獨通過自己行星上的曠野我正孤獨
通過自己行星上的曠野我正孤獨通過
自己行星上的曠野我正孤獨通過自己
行星上的曠野我正孤獨通過自己行星
上的曠野
It breaks the tradition
正孤獨
of logical, linear writing, a
我正孤獨通過
writing with closure and a
central idea.  the reader
is liberated.