Essay on "Feminism as Framed by the World"

Essay 7 pages (2575 words) Sources: 6

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Consequently, penury has become feminized and both individual as well as structural violence has increased. Women mainly bear the load of taking care of family survival, combining mounting household responsibilities with amalgamation into a labor market, which is all the more unregulated and precarious. Further, this integration accompanies increased sexualization of public spaces, and concurrent commodification and objectification of women's bodies and minds (McRobbie, 2009). Conditions such as these only serve to intensify women's exposure to inequality, poverty, alienation, violence, and exclusion violence (Motta, Fominaya and Eschle).

Feminism presently appears to face a crisis. Prominent feminist movement sectors have been professionalized and institutionalized, within academia as well. In this regard, serious issues have been brought up regarding how well women can be defended from neo-liberalism, in a post-patriarchal, post-neoliberal world. The resulting paradoxical situation speaks of de-politicization and defeats on one side, and new types of re-politicization on the other side. Women continually resist, in familiar as well as inventive styles, and in doing so, attempt to redefine feminism and politics, and challenge neo-liberal and patriarchal orthodoxies (Motta, Fominaya and Eschle).

A bigger challenge is that, while some of the women's movements have a proudly and distinctly feminist nature, others evade the term (despite intentionally or unintentionally implementing feminist attitudes and practices); still more movements contest the meaning of feminism. Several activist communities, such as anti-globalization and trade unions, peace and environmental movements, feel that feminist-labeled cases are at best, only marginally related to the struggles faced by them. The troubled relationship between activists and the idea of feminism, in some cases, results from patriarchal power; not only women's movements, but every struggle for social reform, is exceedingly gendered, frequently in damaging and hierarchical ways. Additionally, several new movements like current student protests and 'occupy' camps, are victim to the historic moment and the unusual dynamics of its de-politicization. Thus, lessons learned from previous feminist struggles, experiences and theories are often invisible, reducing the unity of movements for resistance against capitalist neo-liberal globalization. Lastly, feminists themselves might have played a role in their own marginalization, in the context of activists, as a result of their inclination to favor a bourgeois, white, liberal, partial perspective. Resisted for long by black women of the working class for sidelining and silencing their voices, strategies and experiences, this tendency may make feminism seem less related than it ought to, to movements for the poor and racially oppressed (Motta, Fominaya and Eschle).

Feminist theory largely assumes that an existing identity, understood among women, is present, which initiates feminist goals and interests within discourse, and also comprises the subject of political representation. Representation is the active term for a political procedure that attempts to extend legitimacy and visibility to women in the realm of politics. Some aspects of feminist theory suggest the need for a 'specialized language that adequately or completely embodies women to promote women's political visibility. Some say this is a necessity, bearing in mind widespread cultural circumstances in which lives of women are misrepresented or not included (Nicholson).

One consideration has been recent discussion of the significance of female-only spaces. These spaces are seen as strategically essential, because they produce a safe surrounding wherein patriarchal communication modes can be opposed, and where women may begin sharing experiences, reclaiming collective and individual voices, and developing theoretical strategies and understandings. As lesbian critics, women of the working class and black feminists have obviously indicated, women-only areas might circumvent gendered hierarchies. However, they don't transcend power as such. Indeed, if acute vigilance and awareness are lacking, this entrench and replicate different axes of inequality and oppression within them. Moreover, such spaces don't entirely escape patriarchy. Contributors to the cause consider patriarchy as not just a structure that is 'out there'; on the contrary, it is viewed as infusing subjective opinions and relationships in a manner that is painful, impoverishing, and harmful. The significance of self-care (inclusive of pleasure and fun) is, in this case, stressed, and female-only areas are portrayed as sites where self-care is able to be theorized as well as enacted (Motta, Fominaya and Eschle).

Lastly, a sharp focus is placed on the reflections and discussions in a special section about shifting everyday relations from "power-over" to "power-with." Development of politics beyond, in and against policy modifications, along with representational politics is commended - a politics which politicizes the individual, the family and the community, and gives serious consideration to social principles. Regarding this final point, primitive demands for more extensive and effective health care, childcare, education and food security are made. Gendered practices in activist societies are challenged and politicized, especially around issues of personal partner abuse and actions which reproduce patriarchal capitalist relationships between members of the movement (Motta, Fominaya and Eschle).

Conclusions

Significant areas that seem always to be over-looked in discussions of feminism are those where women are actually succeeding in achieving equity, such as the sciences. In the advanced sciences, well over 50% of the Ph.D. population is now female; more and more females are included, and leading, in once-solely male bastions such as medicine, chemistry, and physics. More women are becoming political leaders, and are in both the United States Congress and the Senate. There seems to be far too much focus on what 'hasn't yet been achieved' and not enough focus on what has. Those women who are actually working and succeeding in their work often speak of feminism as a drag on them personally, in terms of a political perception that women want a 'handout' instead of a 'hand-up', whereas in actuality, women clearly can succeed, and do, daily. Indeed, despite all of the theorization, the best 'revenge' is success. Ultimately, to achieve the desired social equity for women, as well as for disenfranchised minorities, it is equally important to examine and understand areas of proficiency as well as areas of deficiency -- to emulate and continue the former while diminishing and removing the latter.

Bibliography

Beck, Debra Baker. "The "F" Word: How the Media Frame Feminism." NWSA Journal (1998): 139.

Hollows, Joanne. Feminism, Feminity and Popular Culture. Manchester: Manchester University Press, n.d.

McRobbie, Angela. The Aftermath of Feminism. Los Angeles: SAGE, n.d.

Motta, Sara, et al. "Feminism, women's movements and women in movement." Interface (2011).

Mulvey, Laura. Visual and Other Pleasures. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, n.d.

Nicholson, Linda. Gender Trouble. London:… READ MORE

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