Feminist

Waves of Feminism

Feminist Literary Theory, like many of the theories we will study this semester, began with Feminism movements, which would later give rise to feminist Theory, and by extension, feminist literary theory. The first feminist movement began in the US in the mid-1800’s (and some writers say this movements lasted until 1980, though not all agree. Some others consider the first wave to have ended once women gained the right to vote). During the mid-nineteenth century, two very influential women, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton dedicated their lives to fighting for women to have the same political rights as men. Their primary focuses were on women suffrage, or helping women to ‘gain’ the right to vote. However, these two woman warriors also crusaded for other women rights, such as: being able to divorce their husbands, own property, keep their own earnings and inheritance money, essentially they fought for the right to be recognized as individuals in their own right, rather than mere extensions of their husbands. Their efforts became would we would later know as the first wave feminists. (Although feminists existed and were writing and struggling long before Anthony and Stanton, the first wave of feminism is the first, large-scale organized effort. It is today recognized as a time when feminists started to gain their voices and media attention, and their struggles led to success.)

            With the changing times, women eventually gained the rights Stanton and Antony had fought for. But later women realized though they had more rights than they had, they still did not have ‘equality’ with men (Equal opportunities with men is one of the most basic definitions of feminism). Therefore, a second wave of feminism emerged in the U.S. These feminists fought for equal pay for equal work, equal opportunities to education, rights to custody of their children after divorce, and sexual and reproductive rights (including: birth control options, abortion, and sterilization). 

            The third wave of feminism in the U.S. emerged in the 1990’s, and was led by many women of color, and other minority groups. Many of these women had felt marginalized and forgotten by their Caucasian counterparts. In fact, some third wave feminists critique fellow feminists for not being more inclusive. Sometimes third wave feminists accuse Anglo-Saxon feminists of being as exclusive and closed off as the men have been/were still being to women. This critique gave rise to feminists branching off into many different branches or types.

            However, some third wave feminists seek to be less accusatory toward other feminists or other men and the institution of patriarchy, and to be more inclusive. Sometimes, third wave feminists, rather than blame or hate or yell against men, choose to focus their time and attention on empowering other women. Simply put, some feminists focus most of their time and energy on what they are working towards or their goal, while others run the risk of focusing more time, energy, and effort on what they are fighting against, thereby unintentionally empowering it.

Many different kinds of feminists exist. Some are adamantly pro-abortion (some even passionately argue that you can’t be a ‘true’ feminist if you are going to deny women reproductive rights that abortion allows); otherwise vehemently anti-abortion (these argue that they believe in the rights of all women—including the one in the womb). Certain feminists are pro-pornography and prostitution, but think violence in them is wrong. Others are against both entirely. Whereas certain feminists believe we need to liberate women and fight for the same and equal rights that men already have. Other types of feminists have critiqued this focus and have argued that the focus should not be on comparing men and women, because they are simply incomparable and innately different or dissimilar. These feminists further contend that the feminist movement will not achieve their desired goal of stopping the influence of patriarchy until they stop trying to make women become “like men.” Their opponents, other feminists, disagree with this mindset and claim that when arguing women and men are “just different,” women allow men space and opportunities to further abuse their power; essentially, women give them back the reigns to rule over us. The idea that women and men are “just different” is an essentialist argument; that claims that we are just different anatomically and genetically, from birth. However, some feminists argue that this fails to consider the social conditions or how we are raised and socially conditioned to think of men as the stronger, the rulers, the ones in charge and with power. (This is the classic nature versus nurture argument. Which one is stronger and has more influence on our persons?)

Yet more types of feminists exist, many of them coming to be during the third wave feminists, making the feminist wave more eclectic. Marxist feminists, on the other hand, look at the specific issues unique to women and their economic situation, differing from men.  African-American feminists look to specific racial and ethnic issues. Whereas, Chicana feminists look toward Hispanic women’s struggles and Asian-American feminists focus on issues specific to their own culture(s) and experiences. While lesbian feminists focus on the unique challenges met for homosexual women, because of the expected norm in society to be heterosexuality (for more information, see Adrienne Rich’s idea of compulsory heterosexuality). Lesbian feminism gave rise to some more radical groups of feminism, some of whom have a goal to exist separately from men, sexually and otherwise. Sometimes this kind of feminism is referred to as separatist or radical feminism. Some of these radicals even argue that only lesbians are “true feminists,” for they reject men entirely and do not allow themselves to fall victim to patriarchy or oppression by men, especially sexually.

            In short, there are dozens of different kinds of feminists, many of whom have their own unique goals or agenda. Therefore, to say that someone is feminist or to say that you are going to use “feminist theory” does not make your point clear. It is important to inquire what kind of feminist one is, and what particular beliefs that feminist stands for. If you are considering using feminist theory for your thesis or for the final paper in LTA, please realize that identifying that you will use feminist theory is not a stopping point. You will need to narrow your focus more by using a specific writer or theorist, or a specific concept.

            It is important to note that Feminism gave rise to feminist theory. However, feminist theories, as they affect women, are used not just for literary studies, but across discipline boundaries. As such, students may use feminist theory in various other studies: sociology, psychology, communications, rhetoric, political science, religious studies, philosophy, etc.

Notable contributors to feminist theory:

            Simone de Beauvior: The Second Sex

            Simone de Beauvior was a French philosopher, frequently known as an existentialist. She wrote a monumental feminist text, The Second Sex.  In this piece, she critiques society, pointing out that women are in fact known as and accepted as the second sex, when compared to men. She claims that women exist as “the other”, whereas men are the defined ‘The Subject’, meaning that males have the power and authority in life. However, unlike some other feminists who fault or overly focus on men as the reason for the existence and abuses of patriarchy, Beauvior also critiques women; she claims that women accept this ideology and allow the abuses of patriarchy to happen to them. (Like many ideologies, this ideology happens even though (or perhaps because) women are unaware of it.) Beauvior also claims that, as part of ideology, many women believe that they need men to be completed as a whole or entire person. Women look to men to fulfill and to define themselves (whether this be through her boyfriend, husband, or later through her children). Therefore, a woman’s identity is not constructed on her own, but she allows men’s dreams to become her own visions and goals. Beauvior’s argument recognizes, acknowledges, and critiques influences of patriarchal societies (Patriarchy, remember, refers to a society ruled by men, male dominated, where men have the control).

            Another definition of the main ideas and importance in Beauvior’s work is as follows, quoted from Raman, Selden, et. al, “When a woman tries to define herself, she starts by saying ‘I am a woman’: no man would do so. This fact reveals the basic asymmetry between the terms ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’: man defines the human, not woman,in an imbalance which goes back to the Old Testament. Being dispersed among men, women have no separate history, no natural solidarity; nor have they combined as other oppressed groups have. Woman is riveted into a lop-sided relationship with man: he is the ‘One’, she the ‘Other’.” (p. 132)

            Beauvior also distinguishes between gender and sex, seeing them as not synonyms but different. She notes: ‘One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman . . . it is civilization as a whole that produces this creature . . .” (p. 132) Beauvior helped feminists to begin thinking of gender as socially constructed and sex as biological or anatomical factors.Likewise, feminist Kate Millett, in her work Sexual Politics, also emphasized the importance of understanding gender over sex, Millet “and other feminists have attacked social scientists who treat the culturally learned ‘female’ characteristics (passivity, etc.) as ‘natural’.She recognizes that women as much as men perpetuate these attitudes, and the acting-out of these sex-roles in the unequal and repressive relations of domination and subordination is what Millett calls ‘sexual politics’ (as qtd in Raman, Seden, et. al, p.135).

            Virginia Woolf: “A Room of One’s Own”

            Virginia Woolf is a famous writer, known for both her fictional works and for her criticism. In her famous piece, “A Room of One’s Own,” Woolf raises the question: what if Shakespeare had a sister? Suppose that Shakespeare’s sister was as equally brilliant, or perhaps even brighter, than Shakespeare himself was. Woolf asks, even if that were true, the burning question remains: would we ever even know about this writer? Would this female writer have been given the education, the encouragement and support from parents and society to develop her gift? Would she even have the physical space to write such brilliant literary works? Historically, this possibility is not probably. Women often received less education compared to their male sibling counterparts; they more often shared rooms with other women; they were busy mothering children. In short, even if genius women writers existed throughout history, women who had the raw talent to be canonized, society would probably never know of them because they wouldn’t have been given a room,or a (physical and/or metaphorical) space to write. 

            “Woolf’s general contribution to feminism, then, is her recognition that gender identity is socially constructed and can be challenged and transformed, but apropos of feminist criticism she also continually examined the problems facing women writers. She believed that women had always faced social and economic obstacles to their literary ambitions, and was herself conscious of the restricted education she had received (she was taught no Greek, for example, unlike her brothers)” (Raman, Selden, et. al).

            Woolf also explores another fundamental issue, the question of whether or not there exists a form of language which is inherently feminine. There is a long-standing tradition of debate on this issue within feminism. Women writers are usually seen as inferior compared to male writers; however, there are logical reasons for this. One of them is that men have claimed language and women writers are frequently compared to men’s language, voice, and style. Another way to think about it is like this: men have designed the ‘writing rubrics’ based on their own preferences of what defines good or classical literature (or what is worthy to be in “the Canon”). Therefore, it only makes sense that women, in having different styles, voices, experiences, and priorities in life that would be shown through their writing. As such, women writers would not be able to “succeed” in their writing when they were evaluated based only on male writing standards.

            Woolf critiqued men’s writing versus women’s writing styles. She argued that women try to emulate men’s style, and often times it does not fit. She claims men’s writing to have carefully balanced and patterned sentences, whereas a 'woman's sentence' are that the clauses are linked in looser sequences. (Interesting and noteworthy though: all of her examples she used in her writings were male works.)

Elaine Showalter: Gynocriticism

            Elaine Showalter, in her book, A Literature of Their Own,coined the term “gynocriticism,” which specifically focuses on, “the history, styles, themes, genres, and structures of writing by women; the psychodynamics of female creativity; the trajectory of the individual or collective female career; and the evolution or laws of a female literary tradition” (Showalter, as qtd. in Barry, 2002). Showalter also uses the word “gynotexts” to refer to writings by women.

            Showalter also looked at the history of women’s writing and detected that the “history of women's writing [has] a feminine phase (1840-80), in which women writers imitated dominant male artistic norms and aesthetic standards; then a feminist phase (1880-1920), in which radical and often separatist [separate from men’s writing] positions are maintained; and finally a female phase (1920 onwards)which looked particularly at female writing and female experience” (Barry, 2002). The reasons why there are for these categories are twofold: firstly, some believe that feminist criticism required a terminology to gain respectability.  Secondly, and some argue, more importantly, there is a great need to establish progress which can be shown by progressive stages(Barry, 2002).

Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar: Madwoman in the Attic

In this piece, Gilbert and Gubar critique many famous classic literary works. Most notably, as seen from the title, the authors revisit the wife of Rochester in the novel, Jane Eyre. In this book, the wife is described (only through the eyes of other characters, usually through Rochester), as being “mad” or crazy. However, we, as the readers, never meet this wife, hence she only becomes the madwoman in the attic, kept away from visitors or from civilized society. We never are able to determine for ourselves whether or not she is truly hysterical or if she has only been portrayed like this. Therefore, we are supposed to believe Rochester’s word about his wife. Although Rochester, who falls in love with Jane, could have other motives for convincing Jane Eyre of his wife’s madness.

In this piece, Gubar and Gilbert also argue that too often in literary works women  are portrayed either seen as angels, mothers or demure girls who are perfect, obedient, innocent, kind, good, and well-behaved. Or, the women are shown as witches, sexually immodest or evil. This dichotomy shows how limited female characters are, how misrepresented and two-dimensional. Frequently male characters are shown as complex and layered characters, with many different characteristics and sides. In short, they are dynamic or round characters; whereas women characters come in two varieties: the ever present binary choice only: are you good or are you bad?

Judith Fetterly

Judith Fetterly is well known for her work entitled, Resisting Reader.She advocated for women to become resistors, or in other words, reading against the grain. This idea means that readers do not accept everything that is told to them through characters, speakers or narrators. Rather, women resist reading women as they are portrayed in fictional works. The reason for this is because women have been oppressed, misrepresented, and diminished in life, and of course in literature as well. Resisting those ideas is to refuse to participate in sexism and misogyny. Furthermore, protesting against limiting women stereotypes and flat female characters is to question what lay beyond the superficial nature of the text. These matters need to be considered by critical thinkers/readers.

Judith Fetterly also suggests that readers take notice of the silencing that happens to women in literary works. Women’s voices are all too often silenced, omitted, or minimalized in works of literature, specifically in works of the past. This silencing even happens in “great, classic” works of literature. Noticing when women are silencing maybe does not make their voices heard. But, questioning and raising awareness to when and how often silencing happens to women helps readers to notice when this kind of silencing happens, both in fiction as well as in life.

Laura Mulvey&The Male Gaze

Mulvey is recognized as one of the first feminist film critics. She wrote a piece about visual representations in cinema, where she critiqued the way that directors and films often objectify women, showing them only or primarily as sexual objects. She used the term which has come to be known as “the male gaze,” which means that women become passive, raw material and exist for the pleasure of the men, for them to gaze at. The women are passive and may notwillingly give their permission to participate in the male voyeurism. She critiqued cinematic representations of women and raised awareness to the ways these objectifying representations of women have become “normalized” in visual arts. The “male gaze” though has become popular and is used outside of film critique.

Lisa Tuttle: “new questions for old texts”

Similarly, with Fetterly, Tuttle questioned old texts. Sometimes canonical works are considered to be perfected and we don’t speculate about them further or more deeply. We only revere them. However,  feminist literary critics can and should pose new questions for old texts, specifically when they portray women in a limited, negative, derogatory, silencing way.

                                                          

French feminist writers: Luce Irigaray, Julia Kristeva& Helene Cixous&l’ectriure feminine or women’s writing

The French feminist writers focused on language and psychology in their writings.  These three emphasize not the gender of the writer(‘female’) but the ‘writing-effect’ of the text (‘feminine’) – hence, l’écriture feminine (the French word for it) (Raman, Selden, et al, 134). They further argued that women ought to write ‘through their bodies’, their unique female experience.

These french feminists seek to break down conventional, maleconstructed stereotypes of sexual difference, have focused on language as at once the domain in which such stereotypes are structured, and evidence of the liberating sexual difference which may be described in a specifically ‘women’s language’ (Raman, Selden, et al, 141).

French feminists tend to be heavily influenced by psychoanalysis, drawing from Lacan and issues of phallocentrism and castration complex. Psychoanalysis will be discussed in the following chapter.

Other notable feminist writers:

Gloria Steinem

Kate Millet: Sexual Politics              

Betty Friedan: The Feminine Mystique

Susan Faludi: Backlash

Mary Daly

Camille Paglia

Naomi Woolf: The Beauty Myth

Adrienne Rich

            Annette Kolodny: Dancing Through the Minefield: Some Observations on the Theory, Practice and Politics of a Feminist Literary Criticism

African American feminists:

Hortense Spillers

TorilMoi

bell hooks

Audre Lord

Henry Louis Gates

Elizabeth Spelman

Marxist feminists:

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Cora Kaplan

Gayle Rubin

Judith Newton and Deborah Rosenfelt                     

Queer Feminists& Queer Writers

Judith Butler Gender Trouble

Michel Foucault the History of Sexuality

Joshua Gamson

Teresa de Laurentis

Eve Sedgwick

Arlene Stein and Ken Plummer

Alan Sinfield

Judith Halberstaum

Jay Prosser

Calvin Thomas

Steven Siedman

Post colonial feminists

GayatriChakravortySpivak

Lana Mani

ChauriChaura

AniaLoomba

Chandra Mohanty

Gloria Anzaldua

Florence Stratton

What specifically do Feminist Critics Do (with Literary works)?

1. Rethink the canon, aiming at the rediscovery of texts written by women.

2. Revalue women's experience.

3. Examine representations of women in literature by men and women.

4. Challenge representations of women as 'Other', as 'lack', as part of 'nature'.

5. Examine power relations which obtain in texts and in life, with a view to breaking them down, seeing reading as a political act, and showing the extent of patriarchy.

6. Recognize the role of language in making what is social and constructed seem transparent and 'natural'.

7. Raise the question of whether men and women are 'essentially' different because of biology, or are socially constructed as different.

8. Explore the question of whether there is a female language, an ecriture feminine (women’s ways of writing), and whether this is also available to men.

9. 'Re-read' psychoanalysis to further explore the issue of female and male identity.

10. Question the popular notion of the death of the author, asking whether there are only 'subject positions ... constructed in discourse', or whether, on the contrary, the experience (e.g. of a black or lesbian writer) is central.

11. Make clear the ideological base of supposedly 'neutral' or 'mainstream' literary interpretations.

(Barry, 2002, 92).

-This literature is dedicated for my beloved friends lecturer Danielle E. living in United States, and now pursuing her PhD program. This literature is part of the introduction of literature study when I was in a college. Written by my beloved lecturer. The reason I post this because I would like people to read this literature so that they will get more knowledge and be more critical toward perspectives and any literature texts. Thank you :)-