feminism final

Performativity

- the idea that gender is not something we are born with, but something we perform through repeated actions, behaviors, language, and social expectations.

- Judith Butler

- shows that gender roles are socially constructed, not biologically fixed, which means they can be challenged and changed

Intersectionality

- Kimberlé Crenshaw

- the idea that different forms of oppression overlap and interact, such as racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia.

- helps feminists understand that women do not all experience oppression the same way. Race, class, sexuality, disability, and other factors shape experiences.

Discursive Colonization

- when Western ideas and language define and speak for women from non-Western societies, often portraying them as passive or oppressed.

- Chandra Talpade Mohanty

- criticizes Western feminism for speaking over or misrepresenting women in other cultures, and calls for more inclusive perspectives.

Homonationalism

- when a nation uses its support for LGBTQ+ rights to present itself as modern or superior, often while portraying other cultures as backward.

- Jasbir Puar

- shows how sexual rights can be used politically to support nationalism or racism.

Femonationalism

- the use of women's rights or feminist ideas to justify anti-immigrant or anti-Muslim policies.

- Sara R. Farris

- shows how feminism can be co-opted by nationalist or racist agendas.

Reproductive Justice

A framework that connects reproductive rights with social justice, emphasizing the right to:

- Have children

- Not have children

- Raise children in safe and healthy environments

It expands feminism beyond abortion rights to include economic inequality, racism, healthcare access, and environmental conditions.

key arguments for pronoun go arounds

- The use of singular they expands our framework for gender accountability

- The use of gender-neutral pronouns should be approached contextually, instead of

an "all-or-nothing proposition"

- Using the singular they as an indefinite pronoun supports progressive gender justice

agenda

Patricia Hill Collins

- developed the theory of black feminist thought

- challenges the matrix of domination

- further developed the concept of intersectionality connecting it to economic inequality, global power realtions, and institutions

- promotes intellectual activism which connects academic research to social justice movements

matrix of domination

- a framework explaining how systems of power like race, gender, and class work together and reinforce each other to shape people's lives

- show there are levels of oppression

- explains how individuals can experience both privilege and oppression simultaneously

black feminist epistemology

- knowledge is shaped by social position

- emphasizes lived experience as a valid source of knowledge, community dialogue and collective wisdom, and the dominant institutions that control knowledge production

Bell Hooks

- theory of liberatory practice

- critiques the hierarchy of theory vs practice which is often found in academia and enforces complex writing over accessible lived experience

- critiqued white feminism and sexism in black liberation movements

- argued that true freedom required confronting all forms of domination

- argued that feminisms goal was to end sexist oppression for everyone

- made feminist theory accessible beyond academia

Angela Davis

- demonstrated that feminism must address all systems of inequality together

- laid a groundwork of intersectional feminism

- argued that mainstream feminist movements sometimes ignored structural inequality

- criticized mass incarceration and the prison industrial complex because they disproportionatly affect black and poor communities

- emphasized the importance of international solidarity and global feminist struggles

Audre Lorde

- limitations of the masters tools

- argued that differences among women must be acknowledged because it is a source of strength and creativity

- Lorde strongly critized the way mainstream feminist movements were centered around white women and marginalized others

- redefined the concept of the erotic in her essay where she claimed the erotic is a deep emotional and creative energy that helps people recognize job, fulfillment, and personal truth

- argued poetry and art are essential forms of political knowledge

Charlotte Brunch

- theory as a tool for activism

- argued that theory is not a stagnant academic pursuit but continuous process

Lugones and Spelman

- criticized cultural imperialism

- examined how white feminist theory universalizes womens voices silencing woc

- argued that the use of we in feminist theory often excludes woc

- for theory to be non-imperialist it must be based on freidnship and willingness to learn the language and social relatiy of others

Judith Butler

- claimed gender is not fixed but a performative act

- argued that gender is instituted through a stylized repetition of acts overtime

- the repeated acts make poeple believe there is a true masculinity of femininity inside of them

Anne Fausto Sterling

- developed the idea of the five sexes

- argued that the idea that there are only two sexes is a legal and cultural construction that defies biology because biologically sex exists on a continuum with different levels proved by the existence of intersex individuals

the case of Levi Suydam

- 1843

- Suydams right to vote in connecticut was challenged because his sex was ambigous

- highlights how legal rights have historically depended on being classified as strictly male or female

biopower

- Anne Fausto Sterling used this concept to describe how medical knowledge is used to control and discipline the human body

- doctors used to intervene at birth so babies could be either females or males

structural intersectionality

analyzes how multiple social structures and institutions interact to create compounded forms of discrimination

political intersectionality

- examines how feminist and antiracist politics have helped to marginalized violence against women of color because they are caught between two movements, antiracism and feminism

- minority communities may suppress information about domestic violence to avoid reinforcing racist stereotypes

representational intersectionality

cultural media, stereotypes and narratives distort or marginalize women of color by ignoring their unique identities

central park jogger case

- massive media outrage over the rape of a white professional women in central park contrasts the silence surrounding 28 other rapes reported that same week in New York involving women of color

Chandra Talpade Mohanty

- wrote under western eyes

- critiqued the creation of the third world woman because it stereotypes them as poor and uneducated while western women are portrayed as the opposite further marginalizing third world women

discursive colonization

- the appropriation and codification of knowledge about third world women

- involves the suppresion of the complexity of womens lives

Maria Mies

- created a study of lace makers in Narsapur, India that is identified as a positive example of a study of third world women

- generates categories from within what is being studied rather than imposing western categories

- highlights contradictions in the womens lives

- recognized resistance showing the women arent just ignorant victims

morgentaler decision

- 1988

- landmark supreme court decision that decriminalized abortion in canada

canada health act

requires provincial health plans to be comprehensive and accessible to receive federal funding

Emma Perez

- argued that traditional history writing often enforces colonialist perspectives by using linear timelines and fixed geographic boundaries that exclude marginalized voices

decolonial imaginary

- time lag between colonial and the post-colonial

- in-between space where social dilemmas and politics are negociated

coloniality of power

- gender is fused with race to create a new mode of organization for production, property, and knowledge

- naturalized gender

femicide

the misogynous murder of women by men

Paulina Garcia del Moral

• argues that femicide is too limited to explain the killing of indigenous women in canada

• critiques femicide for focusing mainly of gender and treating race and colonial history as secondary ignoring how the violence is shaped by colonial power structures

• argues killings of indigenous women should be understood as feminicides

decolonial intersectional framework

• framework proposed by paulina garcia del moral

• combines intersectionality with decolonial theory

decolonial theory

• colonialism created a system where indigenous people were seen as less than human and indigenous women were hypersexualized and devalued which continues to shape violence today

feminicides

• violence shaped by structural inequalities

• state involvement or failure

• rooted in historical and ongoing colonial systems

• broader more political concept than femicide

feminicidio

• the killing of women that is produced and enabled by social structures and state failure

• latin american adaptation to feminicide

• highlights state responsibility arguing that the state is a complicit insitution when it fails to prevent or punish these murders

• in mexico poor women working in factories were targeted more, their bodies were treated as disposable labor

• rejects the idea of stacked oppression (gender+race+class) and argues that these facotrs interact and shape each other creating a specific type of vulnerability

Robert Pickton case

• pickton murdered dozens of women many of whom were indigenous in vancouvers downtown eastside during the 1990s and early 2000s

• lured vulnerable women to his pig farm

• police failed to act quickly or take the cases seriously because the victims were largley indigenous and marginalized which allowed the violence to continue for years

the sex work model

• views prostitution as a legitimate job or the oldest profession

• emphasizes agency defining sex workers as actors who choose to enter the trade for sexual liberation or economic independance

• advocates for full decriminalization and legalization including the regulation of brothels and the unionization of workers to reduce harm

sexual exploitation approach

• sees prostitution as a cornerstone of institutionalized sex inequality

• argues that workers essentially have no choice because of poverty and lack of options

• seeks the abolition of the industry by criminalizing the demand (buyers) and third party exploiters (pimps) while decriminalizing those being sold

MacKinnon

• prositution is not a form of free choice or work its a system of inequality and exploitation rooted in poverty, gender inequality and lack of real options

• prostitution and trafficking are not truly separate, they exist on a continuim of exploitation

• claims money does not equal genuine consent because economic need pressures people into prostitution making it closer to coercion or exploitation than free exchange

• supports the sexual exploitation model

Nussbaum

• argues that almost everyone recieves a wage for the use of their body

• examines why people want to keep prostitution illegal

• argues that criminalization makes prostitution worse by preventing regulation and forcing prostitutes to rely on pimps rather than the police

• argues that many jobs lack autonomy and criminalization doesnt give women more control just makes her unemployed

• argues the stigma against prostitution is rooted in the aristocratic class prejudice agains the working poor and the fear of the body and female sexuality

• argues that the focus should be on enhacing the economic autonomy of poor women so they have more choices rather than removing one of the few options they have

Federici

argues that wages for housework is a political perspective and a revolutionary strategy to subvert the role of women in capitalist society by exposing housework as a form of exploited labor rather than a natural attribute

whether from reason or prejudice

nussbaum

“Trafficking, Prostitution, and Inequality

MacKinnon

carceral feminism

• seeks to address gender-based violence through criminalization, policing, and incarceration relying on the states power to punish people rather than adressing underlying social and economic inequalities

militarized humanitarianism

• approach to human rights activism that uses law enforcement, surveillance, and interventionist rescue operations to combat issues like trafficking framing state power as a form of humanitarian aid

new abolitionism

• contemporary movement supported by feminists and christians that aim to eliminate prostitution by framing it as a form of modern day slavery often collapsing the distinction between voluntary sex work and forced trafficking

carceral state

a system of governance that increasingly relies on policing, imprisonment, and surveillance to manage social problems targeting marginalized groups

trafficking discourse

the dominant way of talking about trafficking:

• emphasizes sexual exploitation and victimhood

• simplifies complex realities

rescue and restore model

an intervention strategy used by NGOs and states that focuses on identifying victims, removing them from exploitative situations and placing them in rehabilitation programs often without considering their autonomy or broader circumstances

governance feminism

a form of feminism that operates within state institutions and legal systems influencing policy and law rather than grassroot activism often aligning with state power

moral crusade

social movement driven by strong moral claims and emotional narratives often exaggerating a problem to justify stricter laws and social control

consumer humanitarianism

a form of activism where individuals support causes through ethical consumption