Premium Essay

Morrison Feminist Theory

Submitted By
Words 965
Pages 4
Feminist Theory From Margin To Centre,by Hooks (1984) highlights the pivotal role of female’s solidarity and sisterhood, “we must learn to live and work in solidarity. We must learn the true meaning and value of sisterhood” (43). Hooks also introduces new visions concerning this term in contrast to those given by contemporary feminist movement that have enclosed the term with “common oppression.” According to her, the division of black and white is the result of sexism, racism, class, and other negative images about women.
Another significant chapter on Morrison’s Paradise is “Jazz and Paradise: Pivotal moments in Black History”, edited by Stave. Shepoints to the use of religious register starting from Morrison’s novel title. According …show more content…
In this, HenryAstrid confirms that “Third wave feminism is frequently presented as a racially and ethnically diverse movement, with black women moved from the margin to the centre of this new wave” (163).Actually, this wave with its new perspectives supports the inclusion of women from different races, ideologies, classes and social backgrounds and celebrates women’s collectiveness and pluralities. Kathleen Woodward supports this claim stating that “The Third Wave is not and has not been a monolithic construct in terms of a main political or ideological “party line”(16). Then she adds that “[it] is composed of multiple nodes”(17). This wave also upholds those females who have been excluded and misrepresented by older generation through giving them the possibility to share their experiences and above all adopting new terms that concern females’ identity and …show more content…
She deconstructs the traditional paradigms of Christianity that views God as “Male” and urges for the establishment of a new God or Goddess that reflects women. According to Bride, Irigaray’s understanding of theism in an abrupt as she urges women to “Rather than finding a preexisting goddess, women must make their own”(Bride 215). She also adds that“Divinity is what we (women) need to become free…if women have no God; they are unable either to communicate or commune with one another”(208). The aforesaid assumptions are very much applicable in both novels I am dealing with in the following two

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Feminism

...Feminism in Multicultural Societies An analysis of Dutch Multicultural and Postsecular Developments and their Implications for Feminist Debates Eva Midden A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment for the requirements of the degree of PhD at the University of Central Lancashire May 2010       Student Declaration Concurrent registration for two or more academic awards I declare that while registered as a candidate for the research degree, I have not been registered candidate or enrolled student for another award of the University or other academic or professional institution Material submitted for another award I declare that no material contained in the thesis has been used in any other submission for an academic award and is solely my own work Signature of Candidate Type of Award School ___PhD_________________________________ ___Centre for Professional Ethics___________ 1   Abstract It was long assumed that both multiculturalism and feminism are connected to progressive movements and hence have comparable and compatible goals. However, both in academia and in popular media the critique on multiculturalism has grown and is often accompanied with arguments related to gender equality and/or feminism. According to political scientist Susan Moller Okin for example there are fundamental conflicts between our commitment to gender equality and the desire to respect the customs of minority cultures or religions. If we agree that women...

Words: 97145 - Pages: 389

Free Essay

The One

...SAMPLE BIBLIOGRAPHY KEY POINTS TO NOTE WHEN COMPILING YOUR BIBLIOGRAPHY • Choose a topic on which you will not have to struggle to find enough material • Put a title on your bibliography, so that it is clear what subject you are writing about • Include your search strategy - how you selected your references. • Count your references and make sure that the number is within the limit of 40-50 • Arrange your references in alphabetical order • Cite them properly according to the MHRA (Modern Humanities Research Association) guidelines for referencing your work. These are laid out in Section 10 of the MHRA Style Guide. At http://www.library.soton.ac.uk/infoskills/referencing.shtml#MHRA you will find a link to the Style Guide. There you will also find links to documents containing MHRA-format examples from the Guide, and from the New College Humanities Programme Handbook. • Check and double-check for inaccuracies and inconsistencies in spelling, punctuation and spacing • Include as wide a range of types of information sources on your topic as you can find. The main ones are books, journal articles, electronic journal articles, conferences, theses, websites, and newspaper articles, reports and government publications (though the last two types are unlikely for the subject of this sample bibliography) • Choose references that are up to date, unless your topic has a historical slant, in which case older material will be appropriate ...

Words: 1295 - Pages: 6

Free Essay

Reading Advertisement Semiotically

...relationship are rejected by meaning-based models and replaced with the more active concept of ‘interpretation’. Splashy mass media published photographs of 'exciting' and female models writings that stimulate the libido had struck the country in line with momentum reform. Feminism is a theory and politics that contains competing perspectives and prescription for action. However, in general terms, we may locate feminism as asserting that sex is a fundamental and irreducible axis of social organization which, to date, has subordinated women to men. Thus, feminism is centrally concerned with sex as an organizing principle of social life where gender relations are thoroughly saturated with power. The subordination of women is argued to be evident across a range of social institutions and practices, that is, male power and female subordination are structural. This has led some feminists to adopt the concept of patriarchy, with its derivative meanings of the male-headed family, ‘mastery’ and superiority. Liberal feminism stresses equality of opportunity for women. This is held to be achievable within the broad structures of the existing legal and economic frameworks. In contrast, socialist feminist point to the interconnections between class and gender, including the fundamental place of gender inequalities in the reproduction of capitalism. Instead of liberal...

Words: 781 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Pornography Benefits Women Bth Personally and Politically

...strong defender to this view is McElroy, who reflects this in her writing of “XXX: A Woman’s Right to Pornography”. Opponents of McElroy’s view raise moral concerns, arguing that the First Amendment does not protect expression that corrupts people's behaviour, therefore defending the suppression of pornography because it perpetuates gender stereotypes, as women are reduced to nothing more than sex objects which promotes violence against women and that men are viewed as “naturally” oppressive and violent and they are ruled by their sexual natures. Opponents also believe that even if pornography is viewed as speech it should be treated as a low value form of speech that is not entitled to First Amendment protection. According to the Radical feminist view, men are socialized to have sexual desires and to feel entitled to have those desires met, whereas women are socialized to meet those desires and to internalize accepted definitions of femininity and sexual objectification. As men cling to the masculine idea that their sexuality is an absolute expression of their need and dominance, they prevent women from effecting new attitudes, self-realizations, and behaviours. Radical...

Words: 4001 - Pages: 17

Free Essay

Standpoint Theory

...Standpoint Theory A standpoint is a place from which we view the world that determines what we focus on as well as what we don’t know. The standpoint is a specific location in time and space that determines how one sees the world. The social groups like sexuality, socio economic status, gender, etc. we belong to shape how we see the world and how we communicate. Not that everyone in that social group will have the exact same view point but they’ll be closer to each other. Now, the problem is that these social groups influence the way we see the world, but all the groups were not treated as equals. For example, poor people might be oppressed by the rich community; historically, women were not considered as important as men; blacks and whites were not treated equally, etc. Therefore, it was observed that some groups were treated better than others and some group oppressed others. Societal inequalities generate distinctive accounts of nature and social relationships. The standpoint theory argues that the perspective from the lives of the less powerful provide a more objective perspective than lives of the powerful. So, poor people have a better and comprehensive way of seeing the world compared to the rich people. The standpoint theorist idea suggests that dominant people have a less objective view of the world. Privileged groups are not forced to observe the realities of inferior groups; therefore their standpoints are more narrow and biased. In Indian context as we see, there...

Words: 1195 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Patriarchy

...part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is an independent not-for-profit organization dedicated to and preserving a digital archive of scholarly journals. For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. http://www.jstor.org Fri Jun 15 11:56:33 2007 BARGAINING W I T H PATRIARCHY DENIZ K A N D I Y O T I Richmond College, United Kingdom T h i s article argues that systematic comparative analyses of women's strategies and coping mechanisms lead to a more culturally and temporally grounded understanding of patriarchal systems than the unqualified, abstract notion of patriarchy encountered in contemporary feminist theory. Women strategize within a set of concreteconstraints, which I identify as patriarchal bargains. Different forms of patriarchy present women with distinct "rules of the game" and call for different strategies to maximize...

Words: 7674 - Pages: 31

Premium Essay

Essay On Legislative Quotas

... Legislative quotas, apply to the candidate selection process by the parties, unlike party quotas in that they are not voluntarily adopted, but rather are legally order quotas that apply to all parties. This is the most contemporary kind of quota system, and only appeared in the 1990s, in developing countries, particularly in Latin America, post-conflict Africa, the Middle East, and across Southeastern Europe. Adoption of these quotas spread rapidly in part due to an active transnational women’s movement, which through information-sharing enabled local organizations, activists and intellectuals to publicize and politicize under representation of women in politics. Such activities and an international pressure on women’s political presence led many women’s organizations to successfully push for quota adoption in their countries. At the same time local organizations, in conjunction with the transnational women’s movement, mobilized civil society to pressure international and bilateral agencies – "such as the UN, the World Bank and other development agencies promoting human development" – to overtly address women’s discrimination in politics as part of their development guidelines and aid packages. Legislative quotas are enacted either through reform of electoral law or national constitutions. Similar to party quotas, legislative quotas also apply to the candidate selection process (often requiring women to constitute between 25 to 50 percent of all candidates), but as mentioned...

Words: 739 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Feminist Theories Notes A2

...Feminist Theories Liberal / Reformist Feminism * Concerned with civil rights and freedom of individuals * They believe that all human beings should have equal rights * Reformism is the progress towards equal rights and freedoms through gradual reforms * They feel that laws against sex discrimination will lead towards a rise in equal rights * Also they feel that changes in culture will help equality, e.g. stereotypes being abolished Sex and Gender * Like Ann Oakley liberal feminists find a difference between sex and gender; * Sex refers to biological differences * Gender refers to culturally constructed differences between masculine and feminine roles * While sex differences are fixed, gender is different for different cultures, this is the part Liberal feminists want to change * Want to promote equality in education and the media * Take political action to introduce anti-discriminatory laws * Liberal feminist criticise the Funtionalist views of Parsons, regarding the Instrumental and Expressive roles * They feel that men and women are equally capable of performing either role, however society is constructed to tell us which role to adhere to * Liberal feminists do have a consensus view on society – they accept that there are conflicts between men and women but argue that it’s a product of outdated attitudes Evaluation of liberal feminism * Experiments conducted by liberal feminists have produced evidence legitimising...

Words: 1156 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Feminism

...f Notes: Feminism Feminism has become so common in our world today that it seems to appear everywhere. Everywhere we turn and wherever you look there is feminist. In fact, feminism has so many different meanings that people take it to mean very little. Well, how do you define feminism and what is it? As a general definition, feminism is a very sophisticated philosophical movement and is also known as, “the biggest intellectual monster”. It is a philosophy in which women and their contributions are valued. This system of ideas and political practices are based on the principles that women are human beings that are equal to men. Feminism is also based on social, political and economical equality for women. It has been known that feminists can be anyone in the population (men, women, boys and girls). Feminism has been widely described as a huge movement too for the past 50 plus years and includes everyone who wishes the world to be equally the same without boundaries. These so called “boundaries” are known as discrimination against certain things such as religion, age, gender, etc. Numerous people tend to view the whole world with their own senses. Feminist tend to view the world though as being very unequal. For example, being “gypped” or “jewed”, meaning you were ripped off. Therefore, in order to fix it and be “equally treated” there are three goals or strategies used (social, radical and liberal feminism). I see feminism as allowing women to expand their careers and...

Words: 377 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Third World Women

...“Third World” and African women in the Western Discourse: The notion of “global sisterhood” [1] implies that all women all over the world share the same problems, oppressions and priorities. “First World” women’s writing on women from the “Third World” has enriched the quality and quantity of the literature in Gender Studies. They have opened new epistemological horizons led mainly by “Third world” writers. One of the main critiques of the dominant discourse, which mainly has been produced by western, white and middle class scholars is it’s not just for the sake of feminism, epistemology and humanism concerns, nevertheless, it was to elaborate on the differences among the “us” – a superior western culture – and “them”, the backward and primitive culture of the “Third World” countries (Walley, C.J 1997:409). This discourse introduces women of the “Third World” as consistent group within context, apart from their class and ethnicity.  The consequence of such understanding of “Third World” women within the western discourse is characterising these women as “subjects” or “phenomena” out of the economic, legal, social, and religious and kinship structures of their communities, (Chandra Talpade, Mohanty. 1988: 78 – 80). Furthermore, “Third world women” have been presented based on their gender therefore secondary to men, and as being from the “Third World” and therefore secondary to the first world, thus they were considered ignorant, poor, domestic, victimized and tradition-bound...

Words: 401 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

View of Human Nature

...Dropbox 6 PSYC 460 View of Human Nature - This theory is different from most other therapies. Many of the other therapies came from historical periods where social arrangements were assumed to be rooted in a person’s biological base gender. Because men were considered to be the norm they were the only ones who were studied. The constructs of feminist therapy is fair, spans the entire life, is flexible, and multicultural. Feminist Perspective on Personality Development – When a person is born the gender role expectations influence the identity of that person from birth and become ingrained in the personality. Very young children develop gender schemas. These schemas are internalized and they continue in a sexist society. Principles of Feminist Therapy – The following core principles form the foundation for the practice of feminist therapy: Unique Focus of Solution-focused brief therapy – focusing on what is possible and not how the problem emerged. Positive Orientation – Optimistic assumption that people are healthy and competent and have the ability to figure out solutions that can make their lives better. Therapists assist clients in shifting from the problem to a world with new possibilities. Looking for What is Working – The focus is not the problem but instead on what is working in the client’s life. Basic Assumptions Guiding Practice – Clients are capable of behaving effectively. There are advantages to having a positive focus on solutions and on the future....

Words: 586 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Women and Gender Studies: Process Paper on Collaboration Project

...Women and Gender Studies: Process Paper on Collaboration Project Daquille Barzey-Ferguson Mary Ellen Schmider Introduction to Women's Studies: Process Paper on Collaboration Project 12/01/2014 I want to start off by saying that WMST 200 was a very great course and I enjoyed every minute of it. It was a very beneficial learning experience and I have taken away so much from it. Our professor Mary Ellen Schmider was extremely helpful and her assignments were always knowledgeable and rewarding. They really opened my mind to seeing the world through a woman’s perspective. This course educated me on the aspects of the modern day woman and some of the struggles they still face. I would highly recommend this to course to people that I know. One thing in particular that challenged and was kind of new to me was the Collaboration project. It promoted classmate interaction and teamwork, which are great factors to have. This assignment was a great way to interact with our fellow classmates. Reflecting back on this courses collaborative project it was quite rewarding. At first I was a little worried about working with people I do not really know through the computer. How we are supposed come together and complete this assignment, but it turned out for the better. At first there was a little confusion as to what were our particular roles of the assignment but through outstanding teamwork we prevailed. It was a good learning experience. Our group consisted of five outstanding counterparts...

Words: 1138 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Allison Jaggar

...PHL101 Alison Jaggar Alison M. Jaggar (PHD, 1970--) is a feminist philosopher and a professor who works for University of Colorado at Boulder. Jaggar was born in Sheffield, England. Jaggar’s early work was in England. Jaggar got her Bachelor’s degree in 1964 from University of London (Bedford College) and her Ph D from State University of New York at Buffalo in 1970. In 1990, she joined the faculty at University of Colorado Boulder, and she was awarded Gold Teaching Award by CU boulder. Besides teaching, Jaggar joined many research and academic appointments. Since 2007, she’s been research coordinator at Centre for the Study of Mind in Nature, University of Oslo, Norway. Jaggar has around ten books published; most of them discuss the topic about feminism and social, moral and political philosophy. Besides, her teaching accomplishment and her research got her 16 awards during the past three decades. Unlike the long history of other schools of philosophy, the history of feminist philosophy is relatively short. The first emerge of feminism dates back to 18th century. However, the first boost of feminism started in the 20th century, along with political movements and black and postcolonial ideologies. Different from traditional views of epistemology, Jaggar pointed out that emotion is an important part of gaining and processing knowledge. According to Freud’s psychosexual development, gender identity is formed related to the social environment. Females are usually...

Words: 954 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Feminisim and International Relations

...interests of their state. J. Ann Tickner, commenting on the primacy of power in Morgenthau's writings, explains that what he considers to be "a realistic description of international politics is only a picture of the past and therefore not a prediction about the future", and proposes what she considers to be a feminist alternative: a world in which state actors think of power in terms of collective empowerment, not in terms of domination over one another, could produce more cooperative outcomes and pose fewer conflicts between the dictates of morality and the power of self-interest (Art & Jervis, 2005). Emergence of Feminism Most of the early feminists in IR were IR theorists, researchers, and policy practitioners, who read syllabi full of scholarly articles by mainly or only men, and seen IR as a scholarly place often hostile to women and femininity. Feminist scholarship came into the discipline of International Relations(IR) around the 1980s and 1990s. It was not IR that produced the feminist insight, for feminism is, according to Daddow (2009), "a wider social and intellectual movement that has had a big impact in politics, society, and education" (p. 145). IR Feminist scholars began looking for...

Words: 1856 - Pages: 8

Free Essay

Compare the Way in Which Both Writers Use Satire as a Device to Continue the Accepted Female Roles in Their Respective Society

...of the house figure’ in order to critique the expectation that women must remain pious and devoted to their male counterparts more over this male dominated Chinese box narrative is reflective of Shelley’s attempt to distance female voices in order to highlight the powerful patriarchal society in which Shelley herself and other females were subjected to in the 1800s. Oppositely Attwood uses Offred as a mouth piece to denounce the unrealistic ideals that women faced in the previous 1980s American society but her conformity to the totalitarian regime allows Attwood to effectively condemn the new gender roles which have been assigned to the women. Conceivably women with in the 1980s enjoyed liberation added by the gains of the second wave feminist movement contrastingly the 1800s confined women to a domestic bubble where her only role was to fulfil their maternal duties. The 60s and 70s encapsulate the removal of conservative views and the emergence into a new age where women governed their own lives and experienced a sense of autarchy never seen previously. Attwood thus uses the hand maid’s tale to reassert the thoughts of whether the freedom is experienced is sustainable or rather an illusion devised in order to make women feel there are becoming increasingly socially mobile. Hand maids are initially restricted to the white wings and full ankle skirt Offred even sees her own nakedness as ‘strange and ‘immodest’. The full skirts are symbolic of the demure nature of the handmaids...

Words: 785 - Pages: 4