Gendered Resistance

The Ahfad University for Women: Gender across Space …, 2005

The strand of feminism that assumes a universality of womanhood, often expressed in activists' phraseology by terms such as 'global sisterhood', has been irreversibly challenged by anthropology on systematic ethnographic and theoretical grounds (see Moore 1988: 7; 10-11; 186-195). Moore convincingly demonstrated that "[A]nthropology is in a position to provide a critique of feminism based on the deconstruction of the category 'woman'" (11). Moore goes on to say that cross-cultural data demonstrate a Westem bias in much mainstream feminist theorizing. She describes how black feminists, for example, regarded the focus of 'women as women' in politics and writing which assumes a necessary unity and solidarity aniong all women "privileges one particular discourse about women or 'womanhood' over others" (190). This assumption and privileging have been also critiqued by Arab and Muslim feminists.

The social realities of the developed and the under developed world are different and so is the nature and reality of feminism within them. The differences in communal culture, social hierarchy and economic structures are responsible for such variations. The growth of a woman within a social environment, her thought process, and the way her familial traditions and beliefs mould her cultural and mental outlook are all to be considered. These factors vary so much owing to the nation, culture and community that the nature and reality of feminism in each space becomes distinct from one another. Generalizing these complexities into a few simplistic structures, therefore, creates gaping discrepancies in such studies. Economic independence alone cannot ensure a woman's liberty and autonomy. The realities of women in the Western world and those of the East are different and thus are the processes through which feminism manifests itself in these societies. But those who ignore these facts in order to propose themselves as the spokes-people for feminism internationally, often make this mistake. The differences between the aspirations, beliefs, expectations and demands of European or American women are drastically different from those of the women of the third world. Thus, international feminism is an elusive concept.

Human Resource Development Quarterly, 2003

2002

Perspektywy Kultury, 2021

Gender Questions

What most contemporary theorists know as 'gender theory' has its roots in feminist theory, and that, in turn, arises from a 'disobedient epistemology'-from looking at phenomena through lenses that do not permit one to see only expected or conventional patterns of meaning. Feminist epistemology and theory is one such divergent view of reality in its focus on the disregarded categories of women and gender. There is a long and honourable tradition of feminist thinking and theorising which refuses to see society and the world through patriarchal eyes, and which interrogates relations of gender and power in society, in the academy and in discourse. This tradition is represented in Carole McCann and Seung-kyung Kim's Feminist theory reader: Local and global perspectives. The project of editing a book called Feminist theory reader evokes questions of selection. So, for example, one editor may feel strongly about including Mary Wollstonecraft's views in A vindication of the rights of women, while another may feel that Simone de Beauvoir's The second sex is the founding text that cannot be ignored. Obviously, though, it is impossible to include all the texts that have contributed to what we know as feminist theory, scholarship and epistemology. In an attempt to address this, the editors of the third edition of the Feminist theory reader have adopted the concepts of 'local' and 'global' as their organising principles. The central idea is to arrange the book around notions of theorising 'the local', that is, the phenomena that are closest to the researcher, and the 'global', namely those that are more distant. However, these categories are not self-evident, and some context is required. As we work towards decolonialising knowledge, we must also take into account ideas of the 'local' and 'global'. All too often, local: global has been posed as a binary opposition, where 'local' means underdeveloped, Third World and of the South, while 'global' means techno-savvy, First World and of the North. But as an epistemology of disobedience, feminist theory, which owes a great deal to Derridean deconstruction, challenges this hierarchical opposition as well as those that are imbricated with gender meanings. In the hands of theorists such as the Combahee River Collective (whose foremost exponent is Barbara Smith), 'local' means not only North American, black and feminist, but also lesbian, and speaks to the struggles of all black lesbian feminists. The collective's manifesto, which appears in the Reader, thus subverts and notions of 'local' as 'central' or as 'limited'. In these, and other pieces, the notion that feminism is 'only local' or 'only global' is overthrown, and the power interests underpinning the very terms are laid bare and subverted.

Taylor and Francis , 2010

By drawing out the ways in which the question of culture has been a significant part of not just women’s lives but of narratives of nation, language and politics in the Indian context, this essay urges feminists to study the particular elements that constitute Asian modernities and the translations that take place in terms of ideas, descriptions and practices. Focusing on the relationship between gender and culture, the essay argues for a rethinking of feminist politics and praxis, to serve the needs and concerns of the present, a present that includes both our lived experiences and the fields of enquiry that seek to illuminate them.

My mission is neither to reproduce the history of the feminist movement nor to pro- vide abbreviated and therefore inadequate accounts of its primary figures. Instead, I have chosen a sampling of fairly narrow subjects, each intended to embody an aspect of a contemporary feminist theory, critique, and practice. Each chapter is intended to be read as a thread included in a complex weave of ideas and thinkers, as a complemen- tary, mutually reinforcing part of an evolving project. My primary aims are threefold. First, I will demonstrate the relevance of feminist theorizing to issues that may seem less directly about the status and emancipation of women––for example, terrorism, species extinction, or climate change –– but which, especially in a globalized econ- omy, are more relevant now than ever. Second, I will show how feminist thinking can usefully illuminate the conceptual, political, economic, and morally relevant links between a range of pressing contemporary issues: for example, the connection between ongoing environmental deterioration and the role of human beings with respect to nonhuman nature, or our attitudes toward reproductive technologies such as in vitro fertilization with respect to who has access to them or what role sexual identity, economic class, and geo- graphic location play in determining this access. Lastly, I will argue that a feminist theorizing that is adequately equipped to confront the issues of a young but rapidly changing century offers real hope to a future that is challenging, but by no means hopeless. These are familiar issues, of course, but I plan to show how a feminist approach can elucidate some of the key relationships among seemingly disparate issues that are likely to define the twenty-first century, and to demonstrate that such an approach has the power to unite its sister movements into a coherent, ethically defensible, emancipatory “not-quite-whole” (McClure 1992: 342). The point of philosophy, Karl Marx argued, is not merely to under- stand the world, but to change it––for the better.Yet, while I still think this is true, I also know that the world imagined by Marx is very different from the world in which we live; and moreover I know that what is absent, elided, distorted via what it means to have access to the Internet is itself an essential part of what we must come to understand if this change is really to be possible.What I’m after is no less the continuing revolution imagined by my foremothers, yet one that includes many a subject matter beyond what my foremothers could have imagined. Sexual identity and politics, reproductive technology, economic inequality, the culture industry, religious fundamentalism, and the status of nonhuman others –– why these six issues? The ways in which each issue has an impact upon human and nonhuman life has under- gone significant transformation, particularly with respect to technology.The technologies, for example, of sex reassignment have changed immensely over the last quarter-century and have become fully com- modified in a globalized market largely devoted to the reproduction of Western conceptions of sexual identity, attraction, beauty, and cul- ture. Similarly, the technologies through which religious fundamen- talism has become an exportable good––including communications technology on the one hand, and weapons of mass destruction on the other––have changed the very ways in which we think about religion and the implications of religious conviction. How we define what counts as “fanaticism,” for instance, intersects with questions central to the feminist and anti-racist movements, particularly in terms of the conditions that may help to create soldiers for God, foster the misogyny of the Taliban, or engender backlash against what is perceived to be unrestrained Western materialism. Much the same, of course, might be said for other issues –– say the continuing exploita- tion of women, girls, and some men, in pornography. But while pornography has certainly seen an incalculable expansion of its range via the Internet and other forms of communications technology, it has not,I suggest,undergone as revolutionary a transformation as,say, our thinking about climate change in virtue of our access to information about melting ice caps or vanishing polar bears. Access to pornog- raphy has become easier, and the amount of pornography has grown –– this is nothing to be underestimated, and there are some serious social consequences. However, the amount of information on climate change isn’t just greater, or access to it easier; rather, we start to think about the world in ways we may have never considered before, especially with respect to how our vision of the “good life” intersects and affects the environment and its dependents on a global scale. Some of the thinkers appearing in the following pages claim feminism as a way of life; others don’t, but they have had or may yet have considerable influence on future theorizing and activism. Some are well known within feminism and/or within philosophy; others are less well known but, in my view, deserve greater attention. Several are voices from the sciences. This work, then, is not really about feminism, but aims instead –– following the example of Wittgenstein –– to exemplify feminism as the critical practice of a life worth living. I am an unapologetic, politically active, ecologically oriented feminist; the following interrogates what such a position might consist of, and in that sense it might offer an example––though surely not an uncontestable one –– for my reader. In the end, my project is as traditional as Socrates’ exhortation to the examination of conscience, and as radical as Wittgenstein’s insistence that we “go look and see.” But there’s one more thing. While it might be tempting to read the forthcoming discussions of sexuality, gender, race, and economic status as “old hat” for a feminism long engaged with these themes –– as if most readers had largely settled all the relevant issues of equality and identity –– I think that would be a mistake. Had we settled these issues, a political figure like Sarah Palin would not have gained the attention –– even devotion –– that she has from the “base” of her party. Indeed, she’s wildly popular where I live.“Out here,” in rural Pennsylvania, “feminism” is deployed as a term of derision; “not- Christian” is readily translated into “minion of Satan,”“pro-choice” means “baby-killer,” and “environmentalist” means “whacko-tree- hugger.”“Gun culture” isn’t merely alive and well in my town; it sig- nals an entire way of life that revolves around a very narrow conception of a Christian god who determines the “place” of each member of “his” creation –– and its adherents shop at Walmart for ammo. My point is that change can count as neither progressive nor enduring until it comes here, that is, to the countless “heres” that characterize the hearts and minds of millions of people who, mostly just trying to get by, don’t have a lot of time to think about what “equality” means for women, non-Caucasians, even poorer people –– let alone nonhuman animals and the environment itself.This book, then, is not a manifesto –– that would be addressed to folks already convinced that the revolution is worthwhile. No, this book is about a modest list of topics that I think matter in ways that touch almost all of us in one fashion or another; yet, understood in the light of a theory and practice devoted from its inception to emancipation–– namely, the feminist, gay, environmental, animal-welfare, and civil- right movements –– these topics reveal some new avenues of analysis, and thus some new ideas for forming workable coalitions in pursuit of a more just future.