Feminism

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Feminism is a set of ideologies or component of ethical philosophy that pertains to the unfulfilled rights of women.[1] As we shall see in radical feminism, other definitions exist.

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Context

The context of unrealized rights for women is of unmanageably wide scope. A reasonable point to begin, however, is where discretionary power over the character of social relations begins. A community whose every activity is dictated by the most urgent constraints of survival cannot come under meaningful social criticism of any kind, since it has neither choices nor a mode of self-reflection. While one might understandably suppose that only hunter-gatherer ("primitive") societies meet this description, it has been noted by anthropologists that it is usually very large preindustrial farming communities that totter on the brink of starvation.[2] Much of contemporary Southwest Asian cultural norms arise from social relations of food production and are ecologically constrained. Hence, feminism requires the possibility of politically-driven social change, which includes self-determination and development of political institutions.


Typically feminism therefore emerges among the elite, partly because of greater choices and partly because emancipated women are more desirable among educated men. Indeed, gender norms were bent somewhat by the emergence of courtesans in large, stable polities (e.g., imperial courts of South Asia, or heterae in ancient Athens).[3] Likewise "prostitution" tended to be the basis for courtly ideas of literacy and agency on the part of desirable women. Because early states tended to be organized around a personality, such as that of the king or parvenus, such personal politics was crucial.


Histories of feminism (most notably Freedman 2002) tend to begin their narrative around the beginning of the Early Modern Period of history (i.e., after 1485). Information about the lot of ordinary women in this epoch is not well-known, but their participation in peasant rebellions suggests that they did not seem to regard their conflicts as being with men of their own class; moreover, women of preindustrial societies of our time, such as Phoolan Devi, tend to regard their struggles as peculiar to themselves.[4] Aid workers in such parts of the world as rural Africa and South Asia often report on the abysmal condition of women, but not on their militancy as women.

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Currents in Feminism

Feminism is considered to have "currents," rather than "divisions" or "tendencies"; this reflects the ideal that feminists are not sectarians, but pursue explanatory narratives based on their applicability. However, some antagonism does exist among rival currents.

These currents correspond very roughly to the First, Second, and Third "Waves," although in fact all three points of view have coexisted for generations.[5] Liberal Feminism is the application of typically liberal/social democratic ideals to social relations peculiar to women. Since liberal feminism has clearly observable standards of achievement (e.g., women's suffrage, comparative pay scales, occupation of high-status positions), it appears to win credit for overcoming these obstacles, although in fact this is merely an observation bias. Radical feminism defines sexual oppression as a comprehensive system of social relations dominated by men (patriarchy). A fairly important difference between liberal and radical feminists is the issue of personal choice, with radical feminists regarding liberation as imposing obligations on women to pursue a fundamentally new social order.


Postcolonial feminism incorporates elements of the other two, but is sensitive to the cultural condescension that feminism may adopt in respect to LDC cultures.

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Notes

  1. ↑ Boles & Hoeveler, Historical Dictionary of Feminism] (2004) entry for "feminism" (p.126) directs readers to "battered word syndrome" (p.51).
    Joni Lovenduski & Vicky Randall Contemporary Feminist Politics: Women and Power in Britain Oxford University Press (1993) use the often-cited definition, "...all ideologies, activities, and policies whose goal it is to remove discrimination against women and break down male domination of society."
  2. ↑ This is a complicated point to validate; however, literature on the health and nutrition of hunter-gather societies tends to report considerable flourishing. See Charles C. Mann., 1491 Knopf (1491) for a review of the literature comparing demographic conditions in Europe and the Americas in Pre-Columbian times. Famines have typically occurred in places such as colonial India, East Pakistan/Bangladesh, and China; large-casualty famines have occurred in Ireland (1847-1851), Ethiopia (1973 and repeatedly since), Egypt (1877), and so on.
  3. ↑ See W.A. Becker, Charicles Or Illustrations of the Private Life of the Ancient Greeks Kessinger Publishing (1854), p.287 for info on the heterae; remarkably little reliable information is available about them, perhaps in part because the term is so ambiguous; it means "companion" (female type) and in some dialects may refer to a military unit of different armament from the unit of reference. As it happens, that is the derivation for "heterosexual": sex with a differently-armed combatant.
  4. ↑ Phoolan Devi was an Indian woman from rural Uttar Pradesh who became the most prominent of the bandit queens. She was murdered 25 July 2001. Western media outlets regarded her as a feminist hero and her murder as a martyrdom, although it was really in retaliation for a massacre in Behmai of 22 men (who were themselves selected at random for retaliation against the villagers of Behmai). After an extremely sympathetic portrayal by Shekhar Kapur, Ms. Devi was outraged because the movie about her did not emphasize her property dispute with her cousins; it just treated her as a feminist warrior, something entirely alien to her comprehension. However, she did understand the concept of caste war: a Shudra, her victims were members of the much higher Kshatrya caste. This was played down in the movie.
  5. ↑ See, for example, Estelle Freedman's No Turning Back: The History of Feminism and the Future of Women, Ballantine Books (2002); what is typically called "Second Wave" or "Radical" feminism is introduced as a very old current, on p.64ff.
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External Links

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