Feminisms

1. women's positions in patriarchal society and discourses 2. history of feminist movement & writings 3. Feminisms and Gender Studies: Radical Feminism, French Feminism, Post-Feminism, Lesbian Feminism, Taiwanese Feminisms

Gender difference

1. Are men and women born different? Or taught to be different? 2. How do women challenge patriarchy? essential difference reversing the hierarchy or separation constructed difference challenging or blurring the boundaries

Gender/Sex/Sexuality
sex gender male masculine female feminine

sexuality heterosexual

homosexual

Gender/Sex/Sexuality

Gender: social construction of femininity and masculinity Sex: biological differences between female and male --Does it determine everything? Sexuality: differences in the choice of sexual identity, sexual partner, sexual behavior. -- homosexual and heterosexual fixed by nature, by culture, by choice, or fluid and constructed by social environments?

Central Issues in Contemporary Feminisms

A. 60s -70s -- Womens Studies: Womens

1) biological: body (lesbianism;anti-pornography mov) 2) social and psychological: experience and social position (last week) 3) linguistic: writing (last & this week)

B. 80s Gender Studies 1) cultural 1) gender difference & 2) gender constructions (this week) 2) biological-psychological

Different feminist positions in the Essentialism - Constructivism continuum

Liberalism: equality between men and women in the public sphere Radical feminism: freeing womens bodies from patriarchal constraints and oppression French feminism: write from the body, feminist writings not limited to women. Post-Feminism: gender as a corporeal style, an "act (Judith Butler)

French: Feminine ecriture

Biology feminine writing Against the psychoanalysts emphasis on Oedipus complex and the Father. Against the fixity of male writing and systems of thoughts (e.g. linear logic)
Cixous:

1.

phallogocentrism

writing from the body; write in white ink; in the Realm of the Gift vs. the Realm of the Proper (property-- appropriate--the fear of castration)

Feminine Writing: an example

Irigaray: This Sex Which is not one

autoeroticism; plural sexuality; an alternate discourse that is multiple, fluid, and heterogeneous, feminine style: 1) mimicry; 2) "selftouching" and "self-affection" autoeroticism in writing

Irigaray: Mimicry + Parody e.g.

Sylvia Sleigh, The Turkish Bath, 1973

Kristeva: the semiotic

the feminine as the silence of the unconscious that precedes discourse; its utterance is a flow or rhythm instead of an ordered statement; expression is fluid like the free-floating sea of a womb or the milk of the breast. E.g. Georgia O'Keeffe and Judy Chicago

Kristeva: the semiotic e.g. 1

Black Iris III, 1926

Kristeva: the semiotic e.g. 2

Cunt as Temple, Tomb, Cave or Flower, 1974 Judy Chicago

Feminist Literary strategies

Separatism: critique of patriarchy, focus only on womens writings (gynocriticism), lesbianism Empower female characters(Granny W); Celebrating femininity, and feminine writing Revising tradition: e.g. fairy tales; Open accusation; social activism, (e.g. Kruger Mimicry; Parody; conscious use of dual language (e.g. Cindy Sherman) Compromise: domestication of female desire

Issues raised by Radical Feminists

Critiquing Patriarchy: e.g. Kate Millet, Marilyn French (p. 175, 176) Pornography: (pp. 193-, 199, 200) Gender re-definition: Androgyny, Separatism (p. 185; 186) Gender roles: Motherhood as constraint? Bad sex? Good sex? (p. 207) Does our body determine our sexuality and does our sexuality determine everything else in our lives? (p. 218)