Research Topics: Feminism

An Essay Analysis on the Complex Ideology of Feminism

Introduction Feminism is a general term used to describe a very broad and complex ideology. There are lots of different feminist theories and approaches, as well as several different types of feminists. The most straightforward meaning however describes it as ‘a movement advocating the rights of women and of their social, political and economic equality with men’ (Scruton 150). Feminism views the personal experiences of women and men through gender identity (how people think of themselves), gender roles (how people act), and gender stratification (each sex’s social standing) are all rooted in the operation of society. Certainly, as long as women have been subordinated, they have resisted that subordination. Sometimes the resistance has been collective and conscious. Despite the continuity of women’s resistance, however, only within the last two or three hundred years has a visible and widespread feminist movement emerged that has attempted to struggle in an organized way against women’s special oppression (Jaggar, 49).             There are two types of feminism, the liberal and radical feminism. Liberal feminism is the dominant ideology of modern society and is grounded in classic liberal thinking that individuals should be free to develop their own talents and pursue their own interests and should be treated according to their individual merits rather than on others basis’s such as in the feminist’s case, sexual characteristics (Oakley 85). But because liberalism evolved in a context in which the private sphere of the family was excluded from political demands for equality, in which traditional social arguments remained strong, and in which the Church upheld women’s subordinate role in the family, liberal feminism developed. Radical feminists, meanwhile, find the reforms called for by liberal feminism to be inadequate and superficial. The main goal for radical feminists is not to introduce equal rights, (they do not want women to become like men) but to free women from patriarchal control, the main challenge to patriarchy being in the form of separatism. While liberal feminists wish to create equality in society and are quite happy to live with men so long as they are not treated as lesser citizens, some radical feminists wish to see a policy, which would see women, cut themselves off from men entirely both socially and sexually (Fuss, 111). In spite of the clear context of feminism, there are still some questions which arise regarding the feminism theory. Hence, different social leaders have been able to focus on understanding feminism and try to answer the questions that are being attached to feminism.  These three social groups include the socialists, the social democratic and the communist groups. Primarily, the main goal of this paper is to determine whether socialist, communist and social democratic leaders address the question of feminism.  The first part of the discussion includes the evolution of feminism and the second part will focus on the main topic of this paper.   Evolution of Feminism In the mid-1800s the term feminism was used to refer to the qualities of females, and it was not until after the First International Women’s Conference in Paris in 1892 that the term, following the French term feministe, was used regularly in English for a belief in and advocacy of equal rights for women, based on the idea of the equality of the sexes. Although the term feminism in English is rooted in the mobilization for woman suffrage in Europe and the US during the late 19th and early 20th century efforts to obtain justice for women did not begin or end with this period of activism (Rendall, 2002).  Other notable 19th-century feminists include, Emma Goldman, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Margaret Sanger. Feminism is not a new concept. Women have defended their rights, as they perceived them, on various battlefields throughout history. Even so, in the modern sense, Feminism can be said to have begun around 1830′s with the women’s movement for suffrage. Women, as a collective unit, stood together asserting their rights as members of society, to take equal part in the government that supposedly represented them. This movement is now known as the First wave of Feminism. Some forty years later women began mobilizing again and hence The Second Wave of Feminism arose out of the demand of equal pay for equal work. In a sense, feminism has always existed. Certainly, as long as women have been subordinated, they have resisted that subordination. Sometimes the resistance has been collective and conscious. Despite the continuity of women’s resistance, however, only within the last two or three hundred years has a visible and widespread feminist movement emerged that has attempted to struggle in an organized way against women’s special oppression (Jaggar, 96). One of the most important features of second wave feminism was the recognition that power was found in private as well as public life, and that for many women it was oppression in the private sphere that in fact harmed them the most. The popular political slogan of the day, The Personal is Political reflected the newfound importance of exploring the exercise of power in a variety of settings. As Arneil concludes, that each of the various forms of feminism developed its own ideas about how to break through this oppression of women in the private sphere (195). Feminist theory is still a well – known and widely supported ideology, however, its high point was during the 1960′s and 1970′s in which many of the goals that were sought, particularly by the liberal feminists, for instance the vote, equal opportunities at work and so forth have been more or less achieved. Some radical feminist ideas too, such as the legalization of abortion etc have also now been accomplished, although the other recommendations, concerning reproduction outside the female body have more or less been dismissed as too radical. The basic goal however for feminists from the beginning of the movement had been to emancipate women from society’s patriarchal order and this on the surface seems to have been achieved. More and more women are being employed in influential posts at work, men are seen to do more domestic and child associated activities and women of course now have the same access to education as men. However, it can also be seen that the majority of women in today’s society are still playing the stereotypical female role in society.   Socialist Leaders and Feminism             As mentioned, one of the groups which gives emphasis about the context of feminism are the Socialists groups which is headed by Karl Marx. It can be said that socialist feminists have spent much time thinking about issues regarding feminism, leading to the development of a rich body of feminist thought and practice. There are six central features of socialist feminism: class/capitalism, revolution, patriarchy, psychoanalysis, subjectivity and difference. These six features suggest a wide-ranging and eclectic mixture of ideas and influences which minimally include Marxism, radical feminism and psychoanalysis. This mixture of influences together with the tensions over class versus gender all combine to make socialist feminism a fascinating and very complex set of ideas and practices. Additionally, the fortunes of the politics of socialism around the world over the last couple of decades (especially with the demise of the Soviet Union) have necessarily impacted on all forms of theoretical socialism, including socialist feminism. This all adds to the complexity of contemporary socialist feminism. Clearly socialist feminism has been deeply influenced by Marxism, but, the term ‘socialist feminism’ more accurately captures the breadth and numerous strands of this form of feminism. Nevertheless, it was Marxist theories of class and capitalism that initially inspired socialist feminists. However, their concern with women’s specific experiences within capitalism led them in a variety of directions. Initially a classic argument was that women were second-class citizens within systems of capitalism and patriarchy. Such systems depended on the exploitation of working people and the special exploitation of women (Humm :213). Marxist principles were applied to analyse how women’s work in the home was crucial to the functioning of capitalism and yet how it was not regarded as ‘real work’ as it was not part of the market economy. Given socialist feminists’ commitment to analysing class as well as gender, it’s not surprising that other forms of difference began to be impossible to ignore. Ignoring differences around race and sexuality was a major criticism levelled at socialist feminists. In 1984 a group of black feminists took over editorial control of the socialist feminist journal Feminist Review, in which the claim was made that ‘a particular tradition, white, Eurocentric and Western, has sought to establish itself as the only legitimate feminism in current political practice’ (Amos and Parmar, 3). Socialist view for feminism have had to deal seriously with charges of racism and Western bias in their construction of theories which are predicated on the relationship between class and gender hierarchies, to the outright neglect, or at best, the marginalization, of other axes of oppression (Marshall, 86). The issue of sexuality too, much of it stemming from radical feminism, caused major problems for socialist feminism. For some feminists, it was the issue of sexuality, rather than race, which produced the fundamental rift between feminists at the end of the 1970s and which ‘shattered any potential unity about the nature, direction and goal of feminism’. Briefly put, the existence of lesbianism and the concomitant issues of political lesbianism and/or separatism combined with the radical feminist insistence on the reality of men’s violence added further tension and complexity to socialist feminist theory and practice. A flavour of that complexity can be found in this list of socialist feminist aims outlined by Alison Jaggar in 1983, namely: to reconstruct knowledge (Jaggar, 377); to abolish class and gender (ibid.: 317); to better material conditions (ibid.: 318); to abolish workerhood and womanhood as social categories (ibid.: 343); to construct a political economy of women’s subordination (ibid.: 134); and the material over-throw of male domination (ibid.: 384). All this was to be achieved by material and psychic revolution. A liberal feminist in the 1990s might turn to a socialist feminist and remark on the lack of success in achieving all these aims.   Social Democratic and Feminism             Briefly, since the experience of the great economic depression with its severely high levels of unemployment in the 1920s there is possibly no single aspiration with which social democratic parties in Europe have identified themselves more closely than the achievement or maintenance of full employment. In fact, social democratic theory has been primarily concerned with searching for and applying a strategy which viewed the welfare state and full employment policies (i.e. social and economic citizenship) as necessary preconditions for a socialist transformation of society that was envisaged to be based on a modified efficient capitalist economy (Esping-Andersen & van Kersbergen, 188). In line with the questions of feminism, regarding the role of women in the society, social democratic parties give emphasis about the freedom from oppression.             The main goal of the Social Democratic is to help the society build an alliance which will promote freedom from oppression.  The social democratic has been the key for the emergence of independent women’s liberation movement. The oppression of women as a sex involves the objective basis for the mobilization of women in struggle within their organisation. With the women’s movement, more women are being enlightened with their right against oppression.  The social democratic supports the development of women’s movement for the liberalization. Such commitment are based on the nation that women must be considered as an essential component of the working class, and like men they can be a potential ally of the working class in the struggle to eliminate capitalism.             Communists and Feminism             In modern times, a Communist party is also regarded as a political party which supports communism. Communism means a political theory which favors collectivism in classless society. Communist Parties first began to be universally established throughout the world in the early 20th century. Communists are duty bound to discover, comprehend, engage, where appropriate, integrate insights from the different feminist perspectives, be they liberal, left or radical perspectives. In line with the question about feminism and the role that women must play in the society. Communist party pays attention for the concept of equality for women. Communist party clearly notes that men and women are distinct beings and the experiences of men are different from the experiences of women.  However, communist part is against the notion of individualistic-subjectivistic which implies that women and men exist in separate realities. Accordingly, the communists believe that individual and society, including the subjective and objective emerge in relation to one another, in a whole, dynamic and single reality.             Thus, the communists are against the notion that the theories on gender, race and other singular aspects either confront the notion of Marxism or alters it as a universal theory of value and political practice and application. In France and in Italy, the communist parties have led in battles for reform of women’s status. The Eurocommunist CPs, have been able to show that they give importance to women by allowing them to be engage in public discussion and promote scornful condemnations of the responsibility of capitalism for the miserable treatment of women. However, in line with Eurocommunist CPs program and action, the approach to the freedom of women is like the opposition to a class-struggle fight for other demands of the working class.   Reason for Differences Feminism can be best explained as the support for the social equality of the sexes, leading to opposition to patriarchy (social organisation in which males dominates females) and sexism. In concept and procedure feminism is highly variable. Those who see themselves as feminists advocate differing levels of criticisms of patriarchy and advance according alternatives to the status quo.             It can be said that Socialist, Social Democratic and Communist leaders and parties have a common ground in terms of adhering to the questions of feminism and the role of the women in society.  However, each has their own way and concepts on how to address the issue about feminism. Such differences are caused by the different goals of each leaders and parties. The socialist group gives more emphasis about the capitalism issue about women, on the other hand, the social democratic highlights the freedom of oppression while the communist groups gives value to right of women to be part of the labour market and to see the capabilities of women equally with men.             The differences of the perception of the three groups about feminism can also be attributed to the variety of approach they use in order to enlighten women about their rights and roles within the society.   Conclusion             It shows that with the emergence of feminism theory and ideologies, different groups of people from the society have been able to contribute to this movement. Socialist, social democratic and communist parties are able to provide support to make the society realise the importance of women and the role that they play within the society. It can be concluded that although the approach of the three parties and leaders about feminism and the whole concept of womanhood are different from each other and their focus are not the same, the three only shows one objective and that is to understand better feminism and make other people realise the importance of women in the society. Reference Amos, V. and Parmar, P. (1984) ‘Challenging Imperial Feminism’, Feminist Review, vol. 17, pp. 3 – 19 Arneil, Barbara. Politics and Feminism. An Introduction, 1999. Esping-Andersen, G. and K. van Kersbergen, ‘Contemporary research on social democracy’, Annual Review of Sociology, 18, 1992, pp. 187-208. Fuss, Diana. Essentially speaking: Feminism, nature and difference. New York: Routledge, 1989. Humm, Maggie, Feminisms and Women’s Movements in the 1990s. 1999 Jaggar, Alison M. Feminist politics and human nature. Sussex: Harvester, 1983. Marshall, Barbara L. Engendering Modernity: Feminism, Social Theory, and Social Change. Northeastern Univ. Press, 1994.   Oakley, M. What is Feminism? Basil Blackwell, 1986.   Rendall, J Women’s politics in Britain 1780-1870:Claiming citizenship, York, 2002.   Scruton, R. A Dictionary of Political Thought. Harper & Row, New York, 1982.   Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

An Essay Analysis on the Complex Ideology of Feminism

Introduction Feminism is a general term used to describe a very broad and complex ideology. There are lots of different feminist theorie...

Deconstruction and Feminism

DECONSTRUCTION AND FEMINISM   Introduction Deconstruction is a process which is used to derive meaning from texts.  Such terminology was coined in 1960s by a French philosopher named .  Deconstruction is used in modern humanities and social sciences to signify a philosophy of meaning which deals with the manners that meaning is being constructed and comprehend by texts, writers and readers.  There are many ways in which deconstruction can be viewed. This includes discovering, understanding the underlying assumptions, frameworks, ideas, that form the foundations for thought and belief and recognizing. Deconstruction has different shades of definition in various aspects of study and discussion. An early translator of  states deconstruction as a term that signifies a task of critical thought whose purpose is to position and takes apart those ideas which serve as the rules or axioms for a period of thought.  In addition, it also separates those concepts which instruct the unfolding of a whole epoch of metaphysics (). According to  (156), deconstruction is plausible within text to scaffold a question or to undo assumptions made in the text, thru different elements which are in the text, that is frequently would be precisely structures that function off the rhetorical against grammatical aspects. Hence, deconstruction is viewed in the first instance to the manner in which accidental features of a certain text or ideas can be seen as subverting, betraying its purposely important message or notions . On the other hand, in the religious aspects, deconstruction is defined as a way of uncovering the questions that lies behind the answers of a tradition or text ( As mentioned, the definition of deconstruction varies on the ideas presented or available. In this report, deconstruction will be used in the idea of feminism and the feministic theories. The main goal of this paper is to determine how the concept of deconstruction can be used as a tool for feminism.   Feminism             In the mid-1800s the term feminism was used to refer to the qualities of females, and it was not until after the First International Women’s Conference in Paris in 1892 that the term, following the French term, was used regularly in English for a belief in and advocacy of equal rights for women, based on the idea of the equality of the sexes. Although the term feminism in English is rooted in the mobilization for woman suffrage in Europe and the US during the late 19th and early 20th century efforts to obtain justice for women did not begin or end with this period of activism ().   Other notable 19th-century feminists include,  . Feminism is not a new concept. Women have defended their rights, as they perceived them, on various battlefields throughout history (). Even so, in the modern sense, Feminism can be said to have begun around 1830′s with the women’s movement for suffrage. Women, as a collective unit, stood together asserting their rights as members of society, to take equal part in the government that supposedly represented them. This movement is now known as the First wave of Feminism. Some forty years later women began mobilizing again and hence The Second Wave of Feminism arose out of the demand of equal pay for equal work. Feminism is a general term used to describe a very broad and complex ideology. There are lots of different feminist theories and approaches, as well as several different types of feminists. The most straightforward meaning however describes it as ‘a movement advocating the rights of women and of their social, political and economic equality with men’ (). Feminism views the personal experiences of women and men through gender identity (how people think of themselves), gender roles (how people act), and gender stratification (each sex’s social standing) are all rooted in the operation of society. Certainly, as long as women have been subordinated, they have resisted that subordination. Sometimes the resistance has been collective and conscious. Despite the continuity of women’s resistance, however, only within the last two or three hundred years has a visible and widespread feminist movement emerged that has attempted to struggle in an organized way against women’s special oppression ().             There are two types of feminism, the liberal and radical feminism. Liberal feminism is the dominant ideology of modern society and is grounded in classic liberal thinking that individuals should be free to develop their own talents and pursue their own interests and should be treated according to their individual merits rather than on others basis’s such as in the feminist’s case, sexual characteristics (). But because liberalism evolved in a context in which the private sphere of the family was excluded from political demands for equality, in which traditional social arguments remained strong, and in which the Church upheld women’s subordinate role in the family, liberal feminism developed. Radical feminists, meanwhile, find the reforms called for by liberal feminism to be inadequate and superficial. The main goal for radical feminists is not to introduce equal rights, (they do not want women to become like men) but to free women from patriarchal control, the main challenge to patriarchy being in the form of separatism. While liberal feminists wish to create equality in society and are quite happy to live with men so long as they are not treated as lesser citizens, some radical feminists wish to see a policy, which would see women, cut themselves off from men entirely both socially and sexually ().   Deconstruction and Feminist theory In the field of history the term linguistic turn denotes the historical analysis of representation as opposed to the pursuit of a discernible, retrievable historical “reality.” Any attempt to define the linguistic turn should acknowledge that in popular academic usage — in graduate seminars, conference debates, and even in many scholarly papers — “the linguistic turn” (like the term postmodernism) has become a catch-all phrase for divergent critiques of established historical paradigms, narratives, and chronologies, encompassing not only poststructuralist literary criticism, linguistic theory, and philosophy but also cultural and symbolic anthropology, new historicism, and gender history (). It is difficult to disentangle the complex ways in which each of these strands of inquiry have (depending on one’s subject position) challenged, threatened, or revitalized the discipline of history or to discern how these strands (separately or in convergence with one another) have engendered a sense of epistemological crisis, a “crisis of self-confidence” among social historians in particular ( 1992). What is new and controversial about the linguistic turn for social historians is the pivotal place that language and textuality occupy in poststructuralist historical analysis. Rather than simply reflecting social reality or historical context, language is seen instead as constituting historical events and human consciousness ().             Feminist history can be defined in many tools of the linguistic turn.  One of the tools that can be used is the deconstruction approach which was formulated by  . Feminism can be traced back to the early 19th century. It contains several different theoretical perspectives that are quite often contradictory to each other and can also be looked at in three main ways-empirically, theoretically and politically. Feminism originated from the works of Hegel, Marx and liberal political theory and each of these created a different strand of feminist thought. The path of feminism started in two separate strands. One started with Hegel the German philosopher and the other with liberal political theory. Hegel’s strand produced Existentialist feminism and Marxist feminism. Existentialist feminism is mainly associated with the work of ; this work then went on to influence psychoanalytical feminism that is associated with  and more recently Existentialism also produced a strand that is known as New French feminism. New French feminism is associated with K. This in turn created then, area of feminism that this essay is concerned with- post-structuralism . This is associated with the work of  The work of  focuses on the concept of deconstruction.   Many feminists believe that feminist politics should be focusing on deconstruction, so that they can change the traditional stereotyping of women.  emphasises that meaning is set up through series of binary oppositions, with one of the pair being superior or more positive than the other is. This can be applied to man/women with man being the superior and women being the other and therefore dependant on the man for power.  wants to see the deconstruction of the cultural and linguistic assumptions regarding the inevitability of forms of power with the aim of opening up alternative possibilities.  takes the idea of binary opposition further by commenting that women are always the other. Active/passive, culture/nature, strong/weak, all the first ones of these pairs represent the man and are meant to be the ‘norm’ from which the second part deviates. Deconstruction can be used in feminism in many ways. It can be used to denote new meaning for the feminism and feminist theory itself. It can also be used to criticize masculinist contexts or to negate, dismiss or censor the concept feminism and lastly be used in the reinscription and redeployment of the feminist concept A feminist deconstruction of the historical subject or agent suggests not the negation, dismissal, or censorship of the concept but rather requires its “critical reinscription and redeployment.” Categories can be reinscribed and redeployed once “all commitments to that to which the term . . . refers” are suspended and the ways in which it consolidates and conceals authority are unmasked (). Significantly, Butler and Scott invite feminists to reinscribe concepts like subject or agency but do not suggest a rewriting of The third group of feminists to which is referred here envision an encounter, a strategic engagement between feminism and poststructuralism, that transforms both sides in significant ways. and Linda Nicholson, for example, seek to meld the analytical and critical power of both strands, to “combine a postmodern incredulity toward meta-narratives with the social-critical power of feminism” (29). Literary scholar  calls upon feminists to first rewrite deconstruction in order to render it useful — to endow it with tools for analyzing specificity, to historicize it, to enrich it with a model of change, and finally to deploy it upon itself. And because deconstruction challenges feminism in fundamental ways, this act of rewriting will transform not only deconstruction but also feminism Feminist projects of “rewriting,” “reinscribing,” or “redeploying” key concepts of political and historical vocabulary have emerged as one primary outcome of the encounter between feminism and poststructuralism. There are feminists that aim to rewrite the terms experience and discourse and, by implication, the notions of agency, subjectivity, and identity. Specifically, their purpose is to untangle the relationships between discourses and experiences by exploring the ways in which subjects mediated or transformed discourses in specific historical settings             Among the mentioned use of deconstruction in feminism, the most successful is in line with the use of deconstruction to criticize masculinity. The main goal of the feminist is to change the social world.  Hence, the most interesting query regarding the use of deconstruction for feminist theory is whether,   and others have been able to convinced each everyone that there is nothing natural, objective or scientific about any given practice or description of masculinity and that all things attached with it like neutrinos, women, men, chairs, feminism, literary theory) are social constructs, there is any further support that deconstruction can provide in deciding which constructs to keep and which is to change or n finding alternatives for the latter.             It is often said that the deconstruction context provide tools which enable feminists to identify the variations between entities such as prose and poetry and man and women.  Such difference is shown to be based on despotism of discrepancies within entities, ways by which such item differ from it.   Conclusion It can be said that deconstruction which is concern with writing and text is highly relevant to textual constructions of feminist theories.  Although some feminists are critical of deconstructionists’ preoccupation with textuality, it can be argued that texts, understood in the broadest sense as discourses of any kind (i.e., rituals, forms of worship) that encode ideology and represent the imaginary (and desired) relationship of individuals and collective groups to their real conditions of existence. In fact, a more compelling drive for textual analysis and production may arise from the need to bring the imaginary and the real into closer alignment.             In this particular issue, it can be noted that deconstruction and its tools can be used in feminism. Through the underlying concept of deconstruction, some issues in feminist theory are now being understood. Hence, it can be concluded that deconstruction especially the tools in providing new meaning and discourse is useful for having a comprehensive and modern feminist theory.   Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Deconstruction and Feminism

DECONSTRUCTION AND FEMINISM Introduction Deconstruction is a process which is used to derive meaning from texts. Such terminology wa...

How can post-structualist theories of signification be useful to a feminist politics?

Post-Structuralist Feminism   Post-structuralist Feminism             People live a world where meanings flow into an endless an endless sea of uncertainty. The constant changes that occur in the society also alter the perception of individuals. There experiences dictate the construction of giving meaning of the objects around them. The knowledge that people acquire through their experiences help them to understand the things and/or events around them. It is with these experiences that they draw their concepts and perceptions. Therefore, as people evolve so do their notions, subjectivities or significations.               As kids, men and women form initial concepts of sexuality. They learn from their parents that boys are boys and the things that make them as such; they also learn that girls are girls and the things that make them as such. This means that parents whose significations of sexuality are constructed by society are constructing the same significations for their children. As children grow, they take their experiences and reinforce their initial concept of sexuality. This is unless there experiences lead them to do otherwise.   Post-structuralist feminists are holding the belief that sexuality is a social construct. They believe that it is inescapable since language itself is inescapable. However, they recognize the fact that language is dynamic, therefore, it is subject to change. Post-structural feminists’ considerer gender and identity as a mere construct, then it suggests that the two only impedes the progress towards women’s liberation. They argue that if women insist the presence of women oppression, then they are actually intensifying the presence of the oppressor. Therefore, pushing for the acknowledgement of the presence of oppression women actually contribute to their own oppression.   They also oppose the possibility of defining woman. Any attempts to do so will result to reinvoking the powers of oppressive mechanisms (1990). This is the case since the definition of woman will be based on the prevailing discourses, which is the very reason of the struggle.                Post-structuralists consider actions and practices as linguistic signs. This means that practices and actions can signify an object or item other than itself. This happens when the practices or actions are seen in relation to other practices or actions ( 2004). This is much the same way as a word can be given meaning in relation to other words. Therefore, the actions and practices of women can be given meaning in relation to the practices and actions of other.                         Because of this, post-structural feminist oppose the view of a universal identity of women. Post structural feminism believes that dichotomies like oppressor and oppressed, backward cultural and women’s liberation no longer exists in its universal form. They also push for the acceptance that the theories being used in feminism such as universality are formulated in the west and as such, they were crafted considering western conditions. This means that these theories will be meaningless in non-western cultures since the underlying conditions are different.               Women experiences vary (1993). It may be the case that two women face the same problem but it is certain that they will react or interpret the situation differently. These differences can be brought about by cultural differences that mold them into separate and distinct individuals. This means that the notion of liberation for various women also varies depending on their belief and value system. Therefore, different approaches are needed in order to face the problems of women all-over the world and no approach will be able to address all of the issues at the same time.               Based on the discussions above, it is clear that post-structural feminism believes that the power to liberate one’s self is in one’s own hands, since post-structural feminism gives importance to individualism and discredits universality. However, this kind of thinking bounds to dismantle existing collaborations among women struggling to free themselves. Promoting individualism will make women think that other women cannot help them with their fight since they do not understand their condition. This is like turning women against women to weaken their hold on their belief and thus weaken their struggle.               Even though, women have different backgrounds, it is not a far-fetch that they same similar experiences and through this patches of similarities women can bond together to put an end to the oppression that they are experiencing. They may have different belief systems but they are tied together by their passion to become free and that is a start.               The post-structural feminist view that the concept of women’s liberation is non-existent means that there is no need to fight the current system or that women cannot do anything about since it is a mere construct, thus inescapable. This clouds the true enemy. This hides the fact that it is through solidarity that women of the world can face their issues. It is through collective action can they mass up the strength needed to change things over.   Conclusion             In the end, it can be said that the presence of various schools of though regarding what women ought to be and ought to do only shrouds the real problem. Women are being feed with rhetoric’s that are supposed to help them understand their situation. While debates are being held within the academe, majority of the women of the world are still bounded and gagged. Yet many “feminists” fail to reach out to them. Instead they wallow in their theories and pretend that they are helping in the resolution of the problem. It is important to note the only through the understanding of the real situation can women find ways to alleviate their situations and until somebody makes them understand everything will remain the same.     Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

How can post-structualist theories of signification be useful to a feminist politics?

Post-Structuralist Feminism Post-structuralist Feminism People live a world where meanings flow into an endless an endless...

How can post-structualist theories of signification be useful to a feminist politics

Post-Structuralist Feminism   Post-structuralist Feminism             People live a world where meanings flow into an endless an endless sea of uncertainty. The constant changes that occur in the society also alter the perception of individuals. There experiences dictate the construction of giving meaning of the objects around them. The knowledge that people acquire through their experiences help them to understand the things and/or events around them. It is with these experiences that they draw their concepts and perceptions. Therefore, as people evolve so do their notions, subjectivities or significations.               As kids, men and women form initial concepts of sexuality. They learn from their parents that boys are boys and the things that make them as such; they also learn that girls are girls and the things that make them as such. This means that parents whose significations of sexuality are constructed by society are constructing the same significations for their children. As children grow, they take their experiences and reinforce their initial concept of sexuality. This is unless there experiences lead them to do otherwise.   Post-structuralist feminists are holding the belief that sexuality is a social construct. They believe that it is inescapable since language itself is inescapable. However, they recognize the fact that language is dynamic, therefore, it is subject to change. Post-structural feminists’ considerer gender and identity as a mere construct, then it suggests that the two only impedes the progress towards women’s liberation. They argue that if women insist the presence of women oppression, then they are actually intensifying the presence of the oppressor. Therefore, pushing for the acknowledgement of the presence of oppression women actually contribute to their own oppression.   They also oppose the possibility of defining woman. Any attempts to do so will result to reinvoking the powers of oppressive mechanisms (1990). This is the case since the definition of woman will be based on the prevailing discourses, which is the very reason of the struggle.                Post-structuralists consider actions and practices as linguistic signs. This means that practices and actions can signify an object or item other than itself. This happens when the practices or actions are seen in relation to other practices or actions (2004). This is much the same way as a word can be given meaning in relation to other words. Therefore, the actions and practices of women can be given meaning in relation to the practices and actions of other.                         Because of this, post-structural feminist oppose the view of a universal identity of women. Post structural feminism believes that dichotomies like oppressor and oppressed, backward cultural and women’s liberation no longer exists in its universal form. They also push for the acceptance that the theories being used in feminism such as universality are formulated in the west and as such, they were crafted considering western conditions. This means that these theories will be meaningless in non-western cultures since the underlying conditions are different.               Women experiences vary (1993). It may be the case that two women face the same problem but it is certain that they will react or interpret the situation differently. These differences can be brought about by cultural differences that mold them into separate and distinct individuals. This means that the notion of liberation for various women also varies depending on their belief and value system. Therefore, different approaches are needed in order to face the problems of women all-over the world and no approach will be able to address all of the issues at the same time.               Based on the discussions above, it is clear that post-structural feminism believes that the power to liberate one’s self is in one’s own hands, since post-structural feminism gives importance to individualism and discredits universality. However, this kind of thinking bounds to dismantle existing collaborations among women struggling to free themselves. Promoting individualism will make women think that other women cannot help them with their fight since they do not understand their condition. This is like turning women against women to weaken their hold on their belief and thus weaken their struggle.               Even though, women have different backgrounds, it is not a far-fetch that they same similar experiences and through this patches of similarities women can bond together to put an end to the oppression that they are experiencing. They may have different belief systems but they are tied together by their passion to become free and that is a start.               The post-structural feminist view that the concept of women’s liberation is non-existent means that there is no need to fight the current system or that women cannot do anything about since it is a mere construct, thus inescapable. This clouds the true enemy. This hides the fact that it is through solidarity that women of the world can face their issues. It is through collective action can they mass up the strength needed to change things over.   Conclusion             In the end, it can be said that the presence of various schools of though regarding what women ought to be and ought to do only shrouds the real problem. Women are being feed with rhetoric’s that are supposed to help them understand their situation. While debates are being held within the academe, majority of the women of the world are still bounded and gagged. Yet many “feminists” fail to reach out to them. Instead they wallow in their theories and pretend that they are helping in the resolution of the problem. It is important to note the only through the understanding of the real situation can women find ways to alleviate their situations and until somebody makes them understand everything will remain the same.     Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

How can post-structualist theories of signification be useful to a feminist politics

Post-Structuralist Feminism Post-structuralist Feminism People live a world where meanings flow into an endless an endless...

What does deconstruction do for feminism and how can deconstruction be used as a tool for feminism

DECONSTRUCTION AND FEMINISM   Introduction Deconstruction is a process which is used to derive meaning from texts.  Such terminology was coined in 1960s by a French philosopher named .  Deconstruction is used in modern humanities and social sciences to signify a philosophy of meaning which deals with the manners that meaning is being constructed and comprehend by texts, writers and readers.  There are many ways in which deconstruction can be viewed. This includes discovering, understanding the underlying assumptions, frameworks, ideas, that form the foundations for thought and belief and recognizing. Deconstruction has different shades of definition in various aspects of study and discussion. An early translator of  states deconstruction as a term that signifies a task of critical thought whose purpose is to position and takes apart those ideas which serve as the rules or axioms for a period of thought.  In addition, it also separates those concepts which instruct the unfolding of a whole epoch of metaphysics . According to  in Moynihan , deconstruction is plausible within text to scaffold a question or to undo assumptions made in the text, thru different elements which are in the text, that is frequently would be precisely structures that function off the rhetorical against grammatical aspects. Hence, deconstruction is viewed in the first instance to the manner in which accidental features of a certain text or ideas can be seen as subverting, betraying its purposely important message or notions  On the other hand, in the religious aspects, deconstruction is defined as a way of uncovering the questions that lies behind the answers of a tradition or text As mentioned, the definition of deconstruction varies on the ideas presented or available. In this report, deconstruction will be used in the idea of feminism and the feministic theories. The main goal of this paper is to determine how the concept of deconstruction can be used as a tool for feminism.   Feminism             In the mid-1800s the term feminism was used to refer to the qualities of females, and it was not until after the First International Women’s Conference in Paris in 1892 that the term, following the French term, was used regularly in English for a belief in and advocacy of equal rights for women, based on the idea of the equality of the sexes. Although the term feminism in English is rooted in the mobilization for woman suffrage in Europe and the US during the late 19th and early 20th century efforts to obtain justice for women did not begin or end with this period of activism   Other notable 19th-century feminists include, . Feminism is not a new concept. Women have defended their rights, as they perceived them, on various battlefields throughout history . Even so, in the modern sense, Feminism can be said to have begun around 1830′s with the women’s movement for suffrage. Women, as a collective unit, stood together asserting their rights as members of society, to take equal part in the government that supposedly represented them. This movement is now known as the First wave of Feminism. Some forty years later women began mobilizing again and hence The Second Wave of Feminism arose out of the demand of equal pay for equal work. Feminism is a general term used to describe a very broad and complex ideology. There are lots of different feminist theories and approaches, as well as several different types of feminists. The most straightforward meaning however describes it as ‘a movement advocating the rights of women and of their social, political and economic equality with men’  Feminism views the personal experiences of women and men through gender identity (how people think of themselves), gender roles (how people act), and gender stratification (each sex’s social standing) are all rooted in the operation of society. Certainly, as long as women have been subordinated, they have resisted that subordination. Sometimes the resistance has been collective and conscious. Despite the continuity of women’s resistance, however, only within the last two or three hundred years has a visible and widespread feminist movement emerged that has attempted to struggle in an organized way against women’s special oppression             There are two types of feminism, the liberal and radical feminism. Liberal feminism is the dominant ideology of modern society and is grounded in classic liberal thinking that individuals should be free to develop their own talents and pursue their own interests and should be treated according to their individual merits rather than on others basis’s such as in the feminist’s case, sexual characteristics . But because liberalism evolved in a context in which the private sphere of the family was excluded from political demands for equality, in which traditional social arguments remained strong, and in which the Church upheld women’s subordinate role in the family, liberal feminism developed. Radical feminists, meanwhile, find the reforms called for by liberal feminism to be inadequate and superficial. The main goal for radical feminists is not to introduce equal rights, (they do not want women to become like men) but to free women from patriarchal control, the main challenge to patriarchy being in the form of separatism. While liberal feminists wish to create equality in society and are quite happy to live with men so long as they are not treated as lesser citizens, some radical feminists wish to see a policy, which would see women, cut themselves off from men entirely both socially and sexually   Deconstruction and Feminist theory In the field of history the term linguistic turn denotes the historical analysis of representation as opposed to the pursuit of a discernible, retrievable historical “reality.” Any attempt to define the linguistic turn should acknowledge that in popular academic usage — in graduate seminars, conference debates, and even in many scholarly papers — “the linguistic turn” (like the term postmodernism) has become a catch-all phrase for divergent critiques of established historical paradigms, narratives, and chronologies, encompassing not only poststructuralist literary criticism, linguistic theory, and philosophy but also cultural and symbolic anthropology, new historicism, and gender history It is difficult to disentangle the complex ways in which each of these strands of inquiry have (depending on one’s subject position) challenged, threatened, or revitalized the discipline of history or to discern how these strands (separately or in convergence with one another) have engendered a sense of epistemological crisis, a “crisis of self-confidence” among social historians in particular (1992). What is new and controversial about the linguistic turn for social historians is the pivotal place that language and textuality occupy in poststructuralist historical analysis. Rather than simply reflecting social reality or historical context, language is seen instead as constituting historical events and human consciousness             Feminist history can be defined in many tools of the linguistic turn.  One of the tools that can be used is the deconstruction approach which was formulated by  (9). Feminism can be traced back to the early 19th century. It contains several different theoretical perspectives that are quite often contradictory to each other and can also be looked at in three main ways-empirically, theoretically and politically. Feminism originated from the works of  and liberal political theory and each of these created a different strand of feminist thought. The path of feminism started in two separate strands. One started with  the German philosopher and the other with liberal political theory. Hegel’s strand produced Existentialist feminism and Marxist feminism. Existentialist feminism is mainly associated with the work of ; this work then went on to influence psychoanalytical feminism that is associated with  and more recently Existentialism also produced a strand that is known as New French feminism. New French feminism is associated with . This in turn created then, area of feminism that this essay is concerned with- post-structuralism . This is associated with the work of  The work of  focuses on the concept of deconstruction.   Many feminists believe that feminist politics should be focusing on deconstruction, so that they can change the traditional stereotyping of women.  emphasizes that meaning is set up through series of binary oppositions, with one of the pair being superior or more positive than the other is. This can be applied to man/women with man being the superior and women being the other and therefore dependant on the man for power.  wants to see the deconstruction of the cultural and linguistic assumptions regarding the inevitability of forms of power with the aim of opening up alternative possibilities.  takes the idea of binary opposition further by commenting that women are always the other. Active/passive, culture/nature, strong/weak, all the first ones of these pairs represent the man and are meant to be the ‘norm’ from which the second part deviates. Deconstruction can be used in feminism in many ways. It can be used to denote new meaning for the feminism and feminist theory itself. It can also be used to criticize masculinity contexts or to negate, dismiss or censor the concept feminism and lastly be used in the transcription and redeployment of the feminist concept A feminist deconstruction of the historical subject or agent suggests not the negation, dismissal, or censorship of the concept but rather requires its “critical transcription and redeployment.” Categories can be reinscribed and redeployed once “all commitments to that to which the term . . . refers” are suspended and the ways in which it consolidates and conceals authority are unmasked . Significantly,  invite feminists to reinscribe concepts like subject or agency but do not suggest a rewriting of The third group of feminists to which is referred here envision an encounter, a strategic engagement between feminism and poststructuralism, that transforms both sides in significant ways.  and for example, seek to meld the analytical and critical power of both strands, to “combine a postmodern incredulity toward meta-narratives with the social-critical power of feminism” (29). Literary scholar   calls upon feminists to first rewrite deconstruction in order to render it useful — to endow it with tools for analyzing specificity, to historicize it, to enrich it with a model of change, and finally to deploy it upon itself. And because deconstruction challenges feminism in fundamental ways, this act of rewriting will transform not only deconstruction but also feminism Feminist projects of “rewriting,” “reinscribing,” or “redeploying” key concepts of political and historical vocabulary have emerged as one primary outcome of the encounter between feminism and poststructuralism. There are feminists that aim to rewrite the terms experience and discourse and, by implication, the notions of agency, subjectivity, and identity. Specifically, their purpose is to untangle the relationships between discourses and experiences by exploring the ways in which subjects mediated or transformed discourses in specific historical settings             Among the mentioned use of deconstruction in feminism, the most successful is in line with the use of deconstruction to criticize masculinity. The main goal of the feminist is to change the social world.  Hence, the most interesting query regarding the use of deconstruction for feminist theory is whether,   and others have been able to convinced each everyone that there is nothing natural, objective or scientific about any given practice or description of masculinity and that all things attached with it like neutrinos, women, men, chairs, feminism, literary theory) are social constructs, there is any further support that deconstruction can provide in deciding which constructs to keep and which is to change or n finding alternatives for the latter.             It is often said that the deconstruction context provide tools which enable feminists to identify the variations between entities such as prose and poetry and man and women.  Such difference is shown to be based on despotism of discrepancies within entities, ways by which such item differ from it.   Conclusion It can be said that deconstruction which is concern with writing and text is highly relevant to textual constructions of feminist theories.  Although some feminists are critical of deconstructionists’ preoccupation with textuality, it can be argued that texts, understood in the broadest sense as discourses of any kind (i.e., rituals, forms of worship) that encode ideology and represent the imaginary (and desired) relationship of individuals and collective groups to their real conditions of existence. In fact, a more compelling drive for textual analysis and production may arise from the need to bring the imaginary and the real into closer alignment.             In this particular issue, it can be noted that deconstruction and its tools can be used in feminism. Through the underlying concept of deconstruction, some issues in feminist theory are now being understood. Hence, it can be concluded that deconstruction especially the tools in providing new meaning and discourse is useful for having a comprehensive and modern feminist theory.   Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

What does deconstruction do for feminism and how can deconstruction be used as a tool for feminism

DECONSTRUCTION AND FEMINISM Introduction Deconstruction is a process which is used to derive meaning from texts. Such terminology wa...

WHAT DOES DECONSTRUCTION DO TO FEMINISM AND HOW CAN DECONSTRUCTION BE USED AS A TOOL FOR FEMINISM

DECONSTRUCTION AND FEMINISM   Introduction Deconstruction is a process which is used to derive meaning from texts.  Such terminology was coined in 1960s by a French philosopher named.  Deconstruction is used in modern humanities and social sciences to signify a philosophy of meaning which deals with the manners that meaning is being constructed and comprehend by texts, writers and readers.  There are many ways in which deconstruction can be viewed. This includes discovering, understanding the underlying assumptions, frameworks, ideas, that form the foundations for thought and belief and recognizing. Deconstruction has different shades of definition in various aspects of study and discussion. An early translator of     states deconstruction as a term that signifies a task of critical thought whose purpose is to position and takes apart those ideas which serve as the rules or axioms for a period of thought.  In addition, it also separates those concepts which instruct the unfolding of a whole epoch of metaphysics (). According to    in    (156), deconstruction is plausible within text to scaffold a question or to undo assumptions made in the text, thru different elements which are in the text, that is frequently would be precisely structures that function off the rhetorical against grammatical aspects. Hence, deconstruction is viewed in the first instance to the manner in which accidental features of a certain text or ideas can be seen as subverting, betraying its purposely important message or notions (, 95). On the other hand, in the religious aspects, deconstruction is defined as a way of uncovering the questions that lies behind the answers of a tradition or text (58). As mentioned, the definition of deconstruction varies on the ideas presented or available. In this report, deconstruction will be used in the idea of feminism and the feministic theories. The main goal of this paper is to determine how the concept of deconstruction can be used as a tool for feminism.   Feminism             In the mid-1800s the term feminism was used to refer to the qualities of females, and it was not until after the First International Women’s Conference in Paris in 1892 that the term, following the French term, was used regularly in English for a belief in and advocacy of equal rights for women, based on the idea of the equality of the sexes. Although the term feminism in English is rooted in the mobilization for woman suffrage in Europe and the US during the late 19th and early 20th century efforts to obtain justice for women did not begin or end with this period of activism (110).   Other notable 19th-century feminists include,     , and .     Feminism is not a new concept. Women have defended their rights, as they perceived them, on various battlefields throughout history (, 90). Even so, in the modern sense, Feminism can be said to have begun around 1830′s with the women’s movement for suffrage. Women, as a collective unit, stood together asserting their rights as members of society, to take equal part in the government that supposedly represented them. This movement is now known as the First wave of Feminism. Some forty years later women began mobilizing again and hence The Second Wave of Feminism arose out of the demand of equal pay for equal work. Feminism is a general term used to describe a very broad and complex ideology. There are lots of different feminist theories and approaches, as well as several different types of feminists. The most straightforward meaning however describes it as ‘a movement advocating the rights of women and of their social, political and economic equality with men’ (150). Feminism views the personal experiences of women and men through gender identity (how people think of themselves), gender roles (how people act), and gender stratification (each sex’s social standing) are all rooted in the operation of society. Certainly, as long as women have been subordinated, they have resisted that subordination. Sometimes the resistance has been collective and conscious. Despite the continuity of women’s resistance, however, only within the last two or three hundred years has a visible and widespread feminist movement emerged that has attempted to struggle in an organized way against women’s special oppression (, 49).             There are two types of feminism, the liberal and radical feminism. Liberal feminism is the dominant ideology of modern society and is grounded in classic liberal thinking that individuals should be free to develop their own talents and pursue their own interests and should be treated according to their individual merits rather than on others basis’s such as in the feminist’s case, sexual characteristics (85). But because liberalism evolved in a context in which the private sphere of the family was excluded from political demands for equality, in which traditional social arguments remained strong, and in which the Church upheld women’s subordinate role in the family, liberal feminism developed. Radical feminists, meanwhile, find the reforms called for by liberal feminism to be inadequate and superficial. The main goal for radical feminists is not to introduce equal rights, (they do not want women to become like men) but to free women from patriarchal control, the main challenge to patriarchy being in the form of separatism. While liberal feminists wish to create equality in society and are quite happy to live with men so long as they are not treated as lesser citizens, some radical feminists wish to see a policy, which would see women, cut themselves off from men entirely both socially and sexually (, 111).   Deconstruction and Feminist theory In the field of history the term linguistic turn denotes the historical analysis of representation as opposed to the pursuit of a discernible, retrievable historical “reality.” Any attempt to define the linguistic turn should acknowledge that in popular academic usage — in graduate seminars, conference debates, and even in many scholarly papers — “the linguistic turn” (like the term postmodernism) has become a catch-all phrase for divergent critiques of established historical paradigms, narratives, and chronologies, encompassing not only poststructuralist literary criticism, linguistic theory, and philosophy but also cultural and symbolic anthropology, new historicism, and gender history (, 217). It is difficult to disentangle the complex ways in which each of these strands of inquiry have (depending on one’s subject position) challenged, threatened, or revitalized the discipline of history or to discern how these strands (separately or in convergence with one another) have engendered a sense of epistemological crisis, a “crisis of self-confidence” among social historians in particular (1992). What is new and controversial about the linguistic turn for social historians is the pivotal place that language and textuality occupy in poststructuralist historical analysis. Rather than simply reflecting social reality or historical context, language is seen instead as constituting historical events and human consciousness (, 208).             Feminist history can be defined in many tools of the linguistic turn.  One of the tools that can be used is the deconstruction approach which was formulated by      (9). Feminism can be traced back to the early 19th century. It contains several different theoretical perspectives that are quite often contradictory to each other and can also be looked at in three main ways-empirically, theoretically and politically. Feminism originated from the works of and liberal political theory and each of these created a different strand of feminist thought. The path of feminism started in two separate strands. One started with the German philosopher and the other with liberal political theory.  strand produced Existentialist feminism and Marxist feminism. Existentialist feminism is mainly associated with the work of    ; this work then went on to influence psychoanalytical feminism that is associated with    and more recently     Existentialism also produced a strand that is known as New French feminism. New French feminism is associated with Irigaray, and This in turn created then, area of feminism that this essay is concerned with- post-structuralism (137). This is associated with the work of      .  The work of      focuses on the concept of deconstruction.   Many feminists believe that feminist politics should be focusing on deconstruction, so that they can change the traditional stereotyping of women. emphasises that meaning is set up through series of binary oppositions, with one of the pair being superior or more positive than the other is. This can be applied to man/women with man being the superior and women being the other and therefore dependant on the man for power.     wants to see the deconstruction of the cultural and linguistic assumptions regarding the inevitability of forms of power with the aim of opening up alternative possibilities.      takes the idea of binary opposition further by commenting that women are always the other. Active/passive, culture/nature, strong/weak, all the first ones of these pairs represent the man and are meant to be the ‘norm’ from which the second part deviates. Deconstruction can be used in feminism in many ways. It can be used to denote new meaning for the feminism and feminist theory itself. It can also be used to criticize masculinist contexts or to negate, dismiss or censor the concept feminism and lastly be used in the reinscription and redeployment of the feminist concept (, 98).   A feminist deconstruction of the historical subject or agent suggests not the negation, dismissal, or censorship of the concept but rather requires its “critical reinscription and redeployment.” Categories can be reinscribed and redeployed once “all commitments to that to which the term . . . refers” are suspended and the ways in which it consolidates and conceals authority are unmasked (92). Significantly,      invite feminists to reinscribe concepts like subject or agency but do not suggest a rewriting of The third group of feminists to which is referred here envision an encounter, a strategic engagement between feminism and poststructuralism, that transforms both sides in significant ways.      , for example, seek to meld the analytical and critical power of both strands, to “combine a postmodern incredulity toward meta-narratives with the social-critical power of feminism” (29). Literary scholar      calls upon feminists to first rewrite deconstruction in order to render it useful — to endow it with tools for analyzing specificity, to historicize it, to enrich it with a model of change, and finally to deploy it upon itself. And because deconstruction challenges feminism in fundamental ways, this act of rewriting will transform not only deconstruction but also feminism (63). Feminist projects of “rewriting,” “reinscribing,” or “redeploying” key concepts of political and historical vocabulary have emerged as one primary outcome of the encounter between feminism and poststructuralism. There are feminists that aim to rewrite the terms experience and discourse and, by implication, the notions of agency, subjectivity, and identity. Specifically, their purpose is to untangle the relationships between discourses and experiences by exploring the ways in which subjects mediated or transformed discourses in specific historical settings (211).             Among the mentioned use of deconstruction in feminism, the most successful is in line with the use of deconstruction to criticize masculinity. The main goal of the feminist is to change the social world.  Hence, the most interesting query regarding the use of deconstruction for feminist theory is whether,         and others have been able to convinced each everyone that there is nothing natural, objective or scientific about any given practice or description of masculinity and that all things attached with it like neutrinos, women, men, chairs, feminism, literary theory) are social constructs, there is any further support that deconstruction can provide in deciding which constructs to keep and which is to change or n finding alternatives for the latter.             It is often said that the deconstruction context provide tools which enable feminists to identify the variations between entities such as prose and poetry and man and women.  Such difference is shown to be based on despotism of discrepancies within entities, ways by which such item differ from it.   Conclusion It can be said that deconstruction which is concern with writing and text is highly relevant to textual constructions of feminist theories.  Although some feminists are critical of deconstructionists’ preoccupation with textuality, it can be argued that texts, understood in the broadest sense as discourses of any kind (i.e., rituals, forms of worship) that encode ideology and represent the imaginary (and desired) relationship of individuals and collective groups to their real conditions of existence. In fact, a more compelling drive for textual analysis and production may arise from the need to bring the imaginary and the real into closer alignment.             In this particular issue, it can be noted that deconstruction and its tools can be used in feminism. Through the underlying concept of deconstruction, some issues in feminist theory are now being understood. Hence, it can be concluded that deconstruction especially the tools in providing new meaning and discourse is useful for having a comprehensive and modern feminist theory.   Reference   Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

WHAT DOES DECONSTRUCTION DO TO FEMINISM AND HOW CAN DECONSTRUCTION BE USED AS A TOOL FOR FEMINISM

DECONSTRUCTION AND FEMINISM Introduction Deconstruction is a process which is used to derive meaning from texts. Such terminology wa...

HOW CAN POST-STRUCTURALIST THEORIES OF SIGNIFICATION BE USEFUL TO A FEMINIST POLITICS

Post-Structuralist Feminism   Post-structuralist Feminism             People live a world where meanings flow into an endless an endless sea of uncertainty. The constant changes that occur in the society also alter the perception of individuals. There experiences dictate the construction of giving meaning of the objects around them. The knowledge that people acquire through their experiences help them to understand the things and/or events around them. It is with these experiences that they draw their concepts and perceptions. Therefore, as people evolve so do their notions, subjectivities or significations.               As kids, men and women form initial concepts of sexuality. They learn from their parents that boys are boys and the things that make them as such; they also learn that girls are girls and the things that make them as such. This means that parents whose significations of sexuality are constructed by society are constructing the same significations for their children. As children grow, they take their experiences and reinforce their initial concept of sexuality. This is unless there experiences lead them to do otherwise.   Post-structuralist feminists are holding the belief that sexuality is a social construct. They believe that it is inescapable since language itself is inescapable. However, they recognize the fact that language is dynamic, therefore, it is subject to change. Post-structural feminists’ considerer gender and identity as a mere construct, then it suggests that the two only impedes the progress towards women’s liberation. They argue that if women insist the presence of women oppression, then they are actually intensifying the presence of the oppressor. Therefore, pushing for the acknowledgement of the presence of oppression women actually contribute to their own oppression.   They also oppose the possibility of defining woman. Any attempts to do so will result to reinvoking the powers of oppressive mechanisms (1990). This is the case since the definition of woman will be based on the prevailing discourses, which is the very reason of the struggle.                Post-structuralists consider actions and practices as linguistic signs. This means that practices and actions can signify an object or item other than itself. This happens when the practices or actions are seen in relation to other practices or actions (2004). This is much the same way as a word can be given meaning in relation to other words. Therefore, the actions and practices of women can be given meaning in relation to the practices and actions of other.                         Because of this, post-structural feminist oppose the view of a universal identity of women. Post structural feminism believes that dichotomies like oppressor and oppressed, backward cultural and women’s liberation no longer exists in its universal form. They also push for the acceptance that the theories being used in feminism such as universality are formulated in the west and as such, they were crafted considering western conditions. This means that these theories will be meaningless in non-western cultures since the underlying conditions are different.               Women experiences vary (, 1993). It may be the case that two women face the same problem but it is certain that they will react or interpret the situation differently. These differences can be brought about by cultural differences that mold them into separate and distinct individuals. This means that the notion of liberation for various women also varies depending on their belief and value system. Therefore, different approaches are needed in order to face the problems of women all-over the world and no approach will be able to address all of the issues at the same time.               Based on the discussions above, it is clear that post-structural feminism believes that the power to liberate one’s self is in one’s own hands, since post-structural feminism gives importance to individualism and discredits universality. However, this kind of thinking bounds to dismantle existing collaborations among women struggling to free themselves. Promoting individualism will make women think that other women cannot help them with their fight since they do not understand their condition. This is like turning women against women to weaken their hold on their belief and thus weaken their struggle.               Even though, women have different backgrounds, it is not a far-fetch that they same similar experiences and through this patches of similarities women can bond together to put an end to the oppression that they are experiencing. They may have different belief systems but they are tied together by their passion to become free and that is a start.               The post-structural feminist view that the concept of women’s liberation is non-existent means that there is no need to fight the current system or that women cannot do anything about since it is a mere construct, thus inescapable. This clouds the true enemy. This hides the fact that it is through solidarity that women of the world can face their issues. It is through collective action can they mass up the strength needed to change things over.   Conclusion             In the end, it can be said that the presence of various schools of though regarding what women ought to be and ought to do only shrouds the real problem. Women are being feed with rhetoric’s that are supposed to help them understand their situation. While debates are being held within the academe, majority of the women of the world are still bounded and gagged. Yet many “feminists” fail to reach out to them. Instead they wallow in their theories and pretend that they are helping in the resolution of the problem. It is important to note the only through the understanding of the real situation can women find ways to alleviate their situations and until somebody makes them understand everything will remain the same.   Reference   Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

HOW CAN POST-STRUCTURALIST THEORIES OF SIGNIFICATION BE USEFUL TO A FEMINIST POLITICS

Post-Structuralist Feminism Post-structuralist Feminism People live a world where meanings flow into an endless an endless...