Feminist Theory - 1248 Words

Feminism refers to political, cultural, and economic movements aimed at establishing greater rights, legal protection for women, and or womens liberation. It includes some of the sociological theories and philosophies concerned with issues of gender difference. Nancy Cott defines feminism as the belief in the importance of gender equality, invalidating the idea of gender hierarchy as a socially constructed concept. Feminism has earned itself a bad reputation, but it never undermined gender differences that exist between males and females. A man can never be as good a mother as a female can. Similarly, a woman can never be as good a father as a male can. While accepting these anatomical and physiological differences between the two†¦show more content†¦They challenge the assumption that gender oppression is the primary force of patriarchy. They object to portrayals of women of non-Western societies as passive and voiceless victims and the portrayal of Western women as modern, educated, and empowered. Today, they struggle to fight gender oppression within their own cultural models of society rather than through those imposed by the Western colonizers. They, thus, react against both universalizing tendencies in Western feminist thought and a lack of attention to gender issues in mainstream postcolonial thought. Some postcolonial feminists, such as Chandra Talpade Mohanty and Black feminists, such as Angela Davis and Alice Walker, are critical of Western feminism for being ethnocentric. Chandra Talpade Mohanty criticizes Western feminism on the ground that it does not take into account the unique experiences of women from third-world countries or the existence of feminisms indigenous to third-world countries. This discourse is strongly related to African feminism and is also associated with concepts such as black feminism, womanism, Africana womanism, motherism, Stiwanism, negofeminism, chicana feminism, and femalism. Pro-feminism is the support of feminism without implying that the supporter is a member of the feminist movement. The term is most often used in reference to men who are activelyShow MoreRelatedFeminist Theory : A Feminist Life1591 Words   |  7 PagesWriter, feminist theorist, and professor Sara Ahmed wrote Living a Feminist Life alongside her blog feministkilljoys.com. She started writing it before and completed it after her resignation in 2016 from her post as director of the Centre for Feminist Research at Goldsmiths at the University of London after a lengthy struggle to hold the school accountable for incidents of sexual harassment on campus (Ahmed, n.d.). Her resignation, and location both in and out of the academy informed a lot of theRead MoreFeminist Theory Of Feminism1245 Words   |  5 Pageseffect change in the world when only half of it is invited to feel welcome to participate in the conversation ( Watson, 2014). In the feminist perspective, which is an extension of feminism, there is support of equality for both women and men. Feminism is a belief that women and men have equal rights and opportunities. There are many different branches in the feminist perspective, one of the most interesting one is intersectional feminism. Intersectional feminism believes that experiences of classRead MoreThe Exploration Of Feminist Theory Essay1536 Words   |  7 PagesThe theory focused on is the exploration of feminist theory developed by Mary Wollstonecraft in the 1790’s. The traditional interpretation of this theory is based on the common ideology of feminism within the Communication world. Illustrating gender inequality the feminist theory analysis into the social fields of politics, business, media platforms, and social normalities. Research traditions include socio-psychology and semiotics due to the cause and effect relationships that help create socialRead More The Feminist Theory Essays887 Words   |  4 Pages Feminists rely chiefly on th e contention that the traditional analysis of world politics is fundamentally gendered. Gender-sensitive analysis begins with the premise that societal institutions are made by humans and are therefore changeable by humans. Feminists systematically deconstruct the notions traditionally held by realists and taken for granted as how the world works. Gender-sensitive analysis takes many factors into consideration that the realist does not. As history dictates, theRead MoreSocial Reaction Theory And Feminist Theory Of Crimes1476 Words   |  6 Pages Social Reaction Theory and Feminist Theory of Crimes are the subject theories I am going to review, examine, and explain. I will be discussing the evolution of social reaction and labeling theory, which is mainly concerned with how individuals’ personal identities are highly influenced by the way that society has a tendency to classify them as offenders. I will also be reviewing the various forms of feminist theories, which began as reactions to the lack of reasonable theorizing about why femalesRead MoreFeminist Social Theory Essay1965 Words   |  8 PagesFeminist social theory ought to challenge the ideals of Classical social theory embodied by the work of authors, such Marx, Durkheim, Weber and Simmel. Such traditional values tend to exclude women from their social analy sis of the modern world, as women were considered non social agents. In support of this, Durkheim claim that men were product of society, whereas women belonged to nature, (Harrington: 2005, p.236). Thus, feminist social theory embrace post-enlightenment principles, focusing on valuesRead MoreThe Feminist Theory Of Animal Studies924 Words   |  4 PagesFeminist scholars are concerned with a broad range of issues and topics for discussion. Taking this into consideration, animal studies is a new and edgy field, especially in the context of feminist theory. The general findings of this paper include patriarchal establishments, and speciesism as an institution of oppression influencing and interconnected with sexism. However, this literature review will not explore the connections of animal studies within queer theory due to insufficient research,Read MoreFeminism And The Postmodern Feminist Theory1596 Words   |  7 PagesThe evolution of feminist theory from a modern to a postmoder n viewpoint stands to correct the injustices of historically liberal feminism. For some time, grand narratives have governed the ideas of self and gender from a single experience of â€Å"man†. Traditionally, modern feminism aimed to eradicate the hegemonic theory of inferiority by women to the male gender. Postmodern feminism aspires to eliminate categories of gender altogether, for the social construct of gender is considered to disregardRead MoreEssay on Feminism and Modern Feminist Theory1068 Words   |  5 Pages Feminism is a body of social theory and political movement primarily based on and motivated by the experiences of women. While generally providing a critique of social relations, many proponents of feminism also focus on analyzing gender inequality and the promotion of womens rights, interests, and issues. Feminist theory aims to understand the nature of gender inequality and focuses on gender politics, power relations and sexuality. Feminist political activism campaigns on issues such asRead MoreFeminism Final Exam : Feminist Theory1851 Words   |  8 PagesAlonia Lewis Prof Barnes Feminism Final Exam May 4, 2016 In feminist theory there are two ways to study and research epistemology. There is the Essentialist (standpoint) theory and there is the Social constructivist (post structuralist). The essentialist epistemology is to view certain roles as being the way they are because that is the way that nature has intended it to be. While the post structuralist standpoint is viewing knowledge as if it is all man made. It is to say that everything is