An Introduction to Feminist Philosophy (A. Stone) Flashcards
What is essentialism in feminist contexts?
The view that there is some property or set of properties that all women must necessarily have in common.
What does it mean to say that women are ‘subordinated’?
They are made to be secondary to, less important than, or subservient to men.
What are post-feminists?
They accept that women should not be subordinated, but think this goal has basically been achieved.
Name two early liberal feminists from the 17th and 18th C.
Mary Astell, Mary Wollstonecraft.
What does Stone call “the basic liberal feminist idea”?
That women are naturally equal to men in reason, and therefore deserve equal access to education and to the public sphere.
What does Stone call he “central claim” of radical feminism?
The domination of women is the most fundamental and widespread of all forms of domination.
What classical radical feminist statement asserts “Male superemacy is the oldest, most basic form of domination… All men have oppressed women”.
The Redstockings Manifesto (~1970)
Define patriarchy.
Male domination
What is separatism in a radical feminist context?
Creating women-only spaces and institutions in which female/feminine culture can germniate.
What are two main ideas of standpoint theory?
That knowledge is socially situated and that marginalized groups have some epistemic advantages.
What is biological determinism?
The view that biology determines the shape of social arrangements.
According to Stone, what are the three ideas on which Postmodernism centres?
(1) There is no progress in history
(2) Each self is fragmented and governed by impulses and influences rather than being coherent and in control of itself
(3) Moral codes and systems of knowledge are always connected to power relations
What is a practice, according to Butler?
Any social activity that is done according to a conventional pattern.
What does Butler mean by saying gender is performative?
“it is realy only to the extent that it is performed”
What does Butler mean by resignification?
Changes in the content of norms
What does Butler mean by the heterosexual matrix?
The high-level worldview that includes gender and heterosexual norms - while being somewhat neutral about the content of these norms
What is Moira Gaten’s concept of the imaginary body?
Effectively, this is our internal conception of our own bodies, which draws on socially available ideas.
What is Moira Gaten’s concept of the social imagiary?
“A loosely connected set of images embedded in social practices [and] literary and philosophical texts.”
Stone ultimately concludes that gender consists of…(1-3)
(1) norms embodied in social practices, which regulate masculine and feminine behaviour
(2) habitual ways of acting that people acquire because of those norms
(3) bodily features that people acquire because of these habitual ways of acting
