Intro fem theory study guide - written

What basic principles did Petchesky and Correa suggest in order to reconstruct rights?

Fundamental Principles: bodily integrity, personhood, equality, and respect for diversity.

Bodily Integrity →

involves sexual pleasure (Petchesky pg 304)

there should be a right to be in health and you should have the possibility to live in a situation where your bodily needs are met. However, this doesn't mean you have an unmediated right to sexual pleasure b/c there's the question of who gives you sexual pleasure

Personhood → in what countries or contexts can you apply certain types of politics? Right to self determination..subjects instead of objects (pg 306)

they differentiate whether or not the person is being taken into account in demographic targeting policies

Body Equality

in which ways can equality between female and male reproductive rights become problematic?

Equality between men and women AND between women cross-cutting social demographics

Respect for Diversity

Women aren't only women → diff social classes, sexual orientation, cultural difference

Feminists need to be sensitive to cultural differences

Reproductive rights vs health

Rights is criticized b/c health is just as important → who has access to the possibility of being a parent?

Women's health centers in the 1970s were crucial in developing data on our bodies

• Who wanted to replace bodily reproduction with machines in order to end sexism?

Shulamith Firestone in Dialectics of Sex states women were reduced to reproduction and it acted as the base of patriarchy. We should just switch it out with technology/machines so everyone can equally go about with their lives. Removes women from social responsibility of childbirth -> entrapment in domestic sphere.

What are the feminist sex wars

The feminist debate over the place of sexuality in feminist theory... is sexuality oppressive or a site of freedom? (70s-80s) Should porn be illegal or not?

Anti porn/anti-sex feminism: sexuality under patriarchy is inherently unequal, reinforces male dominance and violence and many practices only emulate women's subordination not true consent

Pro-sex/sex-positive feminism: sexuality can be a space of pleasure, agency, freedom, not all sexual acts oppressive, feminism shouldnt restrict sexuality, focus on choice, diversity and sexual autonomy.

Pro-sex and anti-sex was less about promoting/repressing sexual expression, more so about their diff views on women's sexual agency, the theory of social construction, the connections between sex and gender, and the nature of representation

what is the difference between pro sex and anti sex position in the sex wars is sexuality necessarily violent for women

Sexuality is a social construct (instead of a biological phenomenon) that has same place in patriarchy as capitalism - tool that men use to oppress women

thinks sexuality is inherently violent; anti sex → how do we know if when women say yes they really mean it? Her point is that it's not easy for women to distinguish what they truly want because they've been taught their whole lives to please others and submit

criticism: most women know the difference between consensual sex and rape

anti sex position

argument porn hurt women's civil rights - argued with bdsm scenes

the anti-sex position isn't clear about whether it's against all aspects of porn or just violent porn and the relationship between porn and sex & violence and sex

doesn't describe all of sexuality, only a small part since it views porn as an adequate analysis of sexuality. Sexuality comes from different sources, not just one!

Argument that consent can't exist in patriarchal medium

pro sex position

reduced freedom + status of women, no ability for women to express their sexuality

Gayle Rubin: sexuality is socially constructed and diverse...varies from woman to woman (see Charmed Circle below)

Pro-sex argument against McKinnon; if women are passive agents who don't have independent agency or capacity to consent, this delegitimises all feminist claims they make as, if women are vectors for socialisation, they cannot truly mobilise or self-realise.

What feminist theory is based on the concept of sex classes

The categories of women and men are a result of the relationship of the domination of men over women - Materialist feminism (relabeled from radical feminism by Christine Delphy

The notion of sex classes replaces social classes and that, therefore materialist feminists see not difference between a working woman and bourgeois woman. Women are always defined by their male patterns: women do not belong to social classes, they form a class of their own.

what type of feminist theories are based on marxist theories

materialist feminism (two system)

Materialist feminism is a feminist approach that explains women's oppression through material conditions—especially economic systems, labor, and social structures—rather than just ideas, culture, or attitudes.

two system models consider that there can be important change in the patriarchal order w/out overcoming capitalism → not that they don't want to defeat capitalism, but they don't want to wait on the revolution to create change in women's lives

criticizes persistent male domination in socialist countries

ending the oppression of women is an aim in itself

Material feminism is interested in exploitation and the material ground of women's oppression. It marks a point of rupture with the socialist and Marxist left in France.

socialist feminism (one system model)

view patriarchy and capitalism as interwoven through reproductive work, so capitalism depends on the patriarchy

no partial liberation, both systems are linked

marxist feminism

gendered patterns of capitalism → there can't be any women's emancipation within capitalism, both the patriarchy and capitalism must fall for women to free themselves

radical feminism: Throwing out institutions, 2 system model, doesn't exactly want to dismantle capitalism. Seeing women and men as an expression of a system of domination.. They want to overcome it.

social constructivism: men and women are not just biological categories...they are socially and culturally constructed ... this implies that they can be changed.

Name 3 socialist feminists

Silvia Federici

Selma James

Maria Rosa Della Casta

What are the 3 dimensions of intersectionality

structural:

how institutions fail people who belong to multiple marginalized groups

Support systems must be restructured in order to account for the burden women of color face for their race on top of being women. (immigrant women, non english speaking)

political:

movements often prioritize one identity over others, forcing individuals to choose between

By what political agendas can you support structural change? POC: Do I support the POC movement or the feminist movement? As oftentimes they go in different directions...Focuses specifically on relation between these people in intersections within defined political movements: feminism and antiracism movements

representational: How culture, media, and discourse represent/misrepresent intersecting identities... stereotypes flatten complex identities

Who came up with the term intersectionality

kimberlee crenshaw

Who came up with the notion coloniality of gender?

Maria Lugones

Name 3 eco feminists

Maria Mies

a feminist scholar during a time in which gender studies didn't exist

Emilie Hache

men wanted to control nature instead of being part of it

Carolyn Merchant

Starhawk

Francoise d'Eaubonne

Veronika Bennholdt - subsistence approach

What year and by who was the term ecofeminism coined

Françoise d'Eaubonne

Coined in 1974

Appeared in her book "Feminism or Death"

She is very concerned w/ overpopulation b/c women don't have the power over their own reproductive functions. If women had more control over their fertility, then they would choose to not have babies.

Cofounder of the revolutionary homosexual movement → came up with the term "illimitisme" which is defined as if women have children again and again, they can use their reproductive power in many ways w/ no end (not too sure)

What forms have feminist potlucks institutionalized in ?

Maternity programs (resources, leave etc)

Sexual violence response

Feminist foreign policy

Gender studies (academia)

Laws/rights

Political representation (parity)

Ecofeminist perspectives

State bureaucracies, NGOs & IGOs, Legal and Policy frameworks

ex. organizations taking part in the UN international conferences on women or rules/regulations regarding equal opportunity legislation and reproductive rights, budget distribution

ex: 1970s France → some feminists were against the institutionalization of abortion since the state gained control of women's rights to an abortion by explicitly saying they had the right. The state deindividualized the process of abortion which was meant to be women-led and caring.

Choosing the state as an ally can have its advantages

provides legitimacy

access to resources and power to stabilize your politics

not all forms of feminist institutionalization takes place in or with the state, there's been instances where feminists have decided to stay outside the state b/c they didn't think the state would be a good collaborator

name traditions of political theory that feminist theory has strongly engaged with ?

Marxism - karl marx school of thought

Socialism - more oriented to a set of ideas aimed at economic order that would be based on taking the needs of everyone as the primary vector for organizing society and not profit

Civil rights movement (North American Context) -

Ecology and environmentalism -

Postcolonialism -

Liberalism - John Locke → Social contract → Natural right to property and liberty. In French context emphasises a divergence from monarchism and declaration of human rights (which problematically originally didn't include women).

Postmodernism -emphasises instability of meaning and rejects potential for universal truth

• What is the metaphor Heidi Hartman uses to explain the relation between feminism and marxism?

marxism and feminism have an "unhappy marriage"

when used together feminism becomes a subcategory of marxism: "marxism and feminism are one and that one is Marxism". Marxism is not a suitable husband and feminism needs to emancipate and build its own framework/theoretical base. The marriage between the two fails to realize that men have a material interest in the exploitation of women.

• name some actors of far right sexual politics

political parties, religious groups, "La Manif Pour Tous" (the french movement against legalzing same sex marriage. Said marriage should be between man and a woman, children have a right to a mother and a father, legalizing same-sex marriage could lead to other adverse changes)

Based on the reading of today, what ideologies informed far right sexual politics ?

Familism: (traditional family as ideal)

The traditional heterosexual family is central to right-wing politics.

misogyny - misogyny focuses on the social and psychological hatred of women.

homophobia - dislike or prejudice against people of LGBTQ community

heteronormativity - Conceptualisation of heterosexuality as a social norm

opposition to sexual diversity -

Please name examples of feminist internationalism.

◦ can be movements, institutions, etc

EU Gender Equality Strategy

UN Decade of Women

#MeToo Movement

UN Women

United Nations Conferences on Women and Gender Equality

When was the first women's international organization founded?

International Association of Women 1868

origin of term feminism,

medical condition in men characterized by feminine traits often seen as pathology (19th century).. was also used as an insult used to attack early women's rights activists

As a doctrine: the idea of bettering women's lives.. older than the 19th century...Mary Wollstonecraft

diff between feminism and gender theory

Feminism is a political and normative project aimed at identifying and challenging women's oppression and achieving equality. Gender theory is a broader academic field that analyzes gender as a social category, including masculinity and LGBTQ+ identities.

The shift toward "gender studies" also helped feminist scholarship gain academic legitimacy in institutions that viewed feminism as too ideological.

is sexuality necessairly violent for women

The antisex movement reduces sexuality to porn, and so they see sex is violent b/c porn is violent

In the conference mentioned in the reading by Carole Vance, they talked about how not everything about sexuality is patriarchal and harmful for women, gaining access to sexuality can be a form of feminism claiming that women can live a sexually fulfilled life

who defends the subsistence perspective

Veronika Bennholdt: only produce what we need, not for profit.

Once we pass the subsistence stage toward a form of economy more based on bourgeois household economy, women are dispossessed of their power