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Feminist Critical Thinking, Representation, Theory

Feminist Critical Thinking

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  • Feminist = a political position
  • Female = a matter of biology
  • Feminine = a set of culturally defined characteristics

First Wave Feminism

First started with the Suffragettes and International Alliance of Women. Women across the world started to realise that they should have as much chances at success as men. Virginia Woolf created a fantasy character as William Shakespeare’s sister as a metaphor for this and how if William was born a female, the world would have missed out on a major part of history. Basically highlighting the fact that we also have missed out of many other crucial parts of history as women weren’t allowed to be educated and read/write. They had great potential but never used it as they were females and didn’t have the same opportunities as males.

Second Wave Feminism

Simone de Beauvoir wrote a book that came out in the 1940s containing ideas of women not being allowed to vote, and when they were able to, they were told to ‘go home and make babies’. “If you’re around long enough, you will see that every victory turns into a defeat.” There was a massive trend on twitter in 2017 called the #MeToo movement.

Singular, one-dimensional

Third Wave Feminism

Naomi Wolf- Early 1990s, is a lot more fluid in sexuality and ways women express themselves, major age difference to second wave feminism.

Intersectionality- Pluralism, multi-dimensional

Judith Butler- Gender was never there from the start, it is believed to be who you are but in reality it’s constructed based on things you like and how you act.

Feminist Critical Thinking

FEMINIST CRITICAL THINKING

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Toril Moi’s (1987) crucial set of distinctions between: ‘feminist’, ‘female’ and ‘feminine’.

  • Feminist = a political position
  • Female = a matter of biology
  • Feminine = a set of culturally defined characteristics

1st Wave of Feminism

  • Late 1800’s to 1920’s
  • Suffragette and Suffragists movements. International Council of Women
  • Women campaigned for basic rights that were not given to them such as the right to vote, to go to school/university, to handle their own finances, to own a house etc.
  • Women were completely dominated and under the suffrage of their male counterpart and were not able to have any sort of freedoms or identity.

2nd Wave of Feminism

  • 1960/70’s
  • Societal counteraction towards previous feminist ideas and positive change sparked a feminist cultural movement that began to shift societies views on abortion, homosexuality, birth control and divorce etc.
  • Singular, one dimensional. Centred around middle class, white feminists.

3rd Wave of Feminism

  • Early 1990’s
  • Response to generation gap and contradictions between the 2nd wave of feminist movement
  • Naomi Wolf coined the term ‘3rd Wave Feminism’ in the 1990’s.
  • The third-wave sees women’s lives as intersectional, demonstrating a pluralism towards race, ethnicity, class, religion, gender and nationality when discussing feminism.
  • An emphasis on the differences among women due to race, ethnicity, class, nationality, religion
  • Individual and do-it-yourself (DIY) tactics
  • Fluid and multiple subject positions and identities
  • The re-appropriation of derogatory terms such as ‘slut’ and ‘bitch’ and of how women are often over-sexualised by men, not only in the media but in reality.
  • Sex positivity
  • Ariel Levy invented the term ‘Raunch Culture’; Women who have previously been objectified take this and objectify and over-sexualise themselves in order to promote sex positivity and celebrate freedom of femininity.
  • “Raunch culture = the sexualised performance of women in the media that can play into male stereotypes of women as highly sexually available, where its performers believe they are powerful owners of their own sexuality” – Hendry and Stephenson

4th Wave of Feminism

  • Began in around 2010-12 when the use of social media grew considerably.
  • Increasing use of social media platforms and online campaigns to promote feminist ideas.

“tools that are allowing women to build a strong, popular, reactive movement online” – Cochrane

  • Campaigns such as the #MeToo movement allowed victims of sexual violence and assault to come forward and share experiences in a safe and supportive network. And the #FreetheNipple campaign allowed women to express their own bodies in ways they want to rather than having this dictated by men. Miley Cyrus endorsed these campaigns alongside her radical music video ‘Wrecking Ball’ in which she takes ownership of the over-sexualisation of femininity and use it as a way to express her own identity.
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leveson 10 years on

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The report of the Leveson Inquiry into the culture, practices and ethics of the press was published ten years ago. It was half-success and a half-failure

The successful part was the evidence stage, where a huge amount of evidence was placed into the public domain about the culture, practices and ethics of the press that would have not been placed into the public domain, but for the inquiry.

The Leveson inquiry was a judicial public inquiry into the culture, practices and ethics of the British press following the News International phone hacking scandal, chaired by Lord Justice Leveson, who was appointed in July 2011. A series of public hearings were held throughout 2011 and 2012.

Audience, Exam Prep, Notes, Research

revision notes– GAUNTLET & BUTLER

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Judith Butler quotes:

“Biological anatomies do not determine our gender” – This is a basic idea that although someone can be born with male or female anatomy, it doesn’t determine what gender that person feels like, a mental thing.

“Male and female identities are not naturally configured” – It does not matter in which way you act, your identity is not pre-determined.

“Gender is not solely determined by primary experiences during childhood” – Just because you acted a certain way during childhood, as you mature your identity can change, you sexual orientation can change.

“Micro performances that continuously signal our identity to ourselves and to others” – The way we act, whatever choice we make or the way we decide to portray ourselves, in small ways, is a form of out identity being shown.

“Myths reinforce male power as the norm because males are the more naturally dominant gender” – Shows that a male dominant society is factual and proven.

David Gauntlet quotes:

“Tradition dominates the notion of who we are and is heavily determined by long standing social forces” – Commonplace traditions and ideas that are instilled in out cultures heavily determines who we are when we grow up, including out gender identity.

“We are transitioning from a society in which our identities were constructed via rigid traditions to a distinctly different phase that he calls ‘late modernity” – Our ideologies based from our cultures and traditions are slowly becoming less important and less involved with who we are in modern times.

“Marketing and advertising agencies construct multiple possibilities of who we might be through products branding” – Modern and post advertising manipulate and change how we view the world and certain topics and creates possibilities of who we might become when we mature.

“Social roles of gender in a traditionally ordered society” – Society orders and puts either gender in certain gender roles.

“Transformations offered suggest that our identities are not fixed” – In games, you begin as the weakest version of themselves and as you progress you gain happiness, this gives motivation to find and change who we are

Essays, Exam Prep, Feminist Critical Thinking

feminist critical thinking

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Laura Mulvey – The male gaze where the heterosexual male fines satisfaction to women being treated as a sexual object

Jean Kilbourne –  How females are presented in adverts, idea of abuse, institutional behavior stems from sexualised female adverts and it was seen as acceptable

Toril Moi – The differences between female, feminist and feminine.

There are 3 waves of feminism:

1st wave of feminism: Women’s suffrage committee, international council of women, British suffragettes.

2nd wave of feminism: 60s civil rights movement, women’s equal rights

3rd wave of feminism: individualism and diversity 

Virginia Woolf (Jan 25, 1882 – Mar 28, 1941)

Virginia Woolf is called the foremother of the feminist movement. She is called foremother because there are many reasons for it. The first and foremost reason of this is because she has to face all the circumstances in her own life. She used to live in a society where there is no room for girl’s education.

Feminist Critical Thinking

Feminist Critical Thinking

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Toril Moi defines and differentiates the following as:

Feminist – a political position
Female – a matter of biology
Feminine – a set of culturally defined characteristics

THIRD WAVE FEMINISM

  • Began in the early 1990s
  • Coined by Naomi Wolf
  • A response to the generation gap between the feminist movement of the 1960s and ’70s
  • Sees women’s lives as intersectional
  • It demonstrates a pluralism towards race, ethnicity, class, religion, gender and nationality when discussing feminism
  • individual and do-it-yourself (DIY) tactics
  • fluid and multiple subject positions and identities
  • cyberactivism
  • the reappropriation of derogatory terms such as ‘slut’ and ‘bitch’ for liberatory purposes
  • sex positivity

Raunch Culture
According to Ariel Levy, in her book Female Chauvinist Pigs, ‘raunch culture’ is the idea of liberation and involves new freedoms for sexual exhibition, experimentation and presentation. However, it may also be playing out the same old patterns of exploitation, objectification and misogyny.

‘Raunch culture is the sexualised performance of women in the media that can play into male stereotypes of women as highly sexually available, where its performers believe they are powerful owners of their own sexuality‘ – Hendry & Stephenson

bell hook
bell hook (always spelt in lower case – real name: Gloria Jean Watkins) advocates media literacy, the need to engage with popular culture to understand class struggle, domination, renegotiation and revolution.
in a postcolonial context, women carry the double burden of being colonized by imperial powers and subordinated by colonial and native men

Feminist Critical Thinking

feminist critical thinking

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Laura Mulvey- male gaze women are a sexual desire

Toril Moi difference between female feminist and feminine

Jean Kilbourne- how are females seen in adverts, idea of abuse, instituational behaviour stems from sexualised female adverts and it was seen as acceptable

3 waves of feminism

2nd wave feminism in the 60’s was about civil rights, equal rights for women (equal pay, decriminalisation of abortion, exposes mechanisms of patriarchy

1st wave of feminism -British suffragettes, international council of women, international alliance of women

Virgina Woolf was part of first wave feminism said that women don’t have equal opportunities and were encouraged not to pursue their ambitions but instead stay home and do housework

Simone De Beauvoir fighted for justice and wanted women

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Feminist critical thinking

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Feminist – A political position
Female – A matter of biology
Feminine – A set of defined characteristics

1st Wave Feminism

‘sexism was coined by analogy with the term racism in the American civil rights movement in the early 1960s. Defined simply, sexism refers to the systematic ways in which men and women are brought up to view each other antagonistically, on the assumption that the male is always superior to the female‘

(Michelene Wandor 1981:13)

2nd Wave Feminism

‘the feminist literary criticism of today is the product of the women’s movement of the 1960’s’

(Barry 2017:123)
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feminist critical thinking

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feminist – a political position

‘sexism was coined by analogy with the term racism in the American civil rights movement in the early 1960s. Defined simply, sexism refers to the systematic ways in which men and women are brought up to view each other antagonistically, on the assumption that the male is always superior to the female‘(Michelene Wandor 1981:13)

after the first wave of feminism, which was galvanised by organisations such as, the British Women’s Suffrage Committee (1867), the International Council of Women (1888), the The International Alliance of Women (1904), and so on who, in early part of the 20th Century, worked to get women the right to vote.

‘all this should not be seen as a straightforward displacement of dominant conservative attitudes‘ .(Johnathon Dollimore 1983:59)