Feminism

Question 1

Feminism
1st wave: Female suffrage struggles

Answer 1

• From the turn of the century to 1920
• 1920: 19th amendment was passed, women were granted the vote
• Lucrecia Mott, Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony
• Equal contract, property rights.
• 2 styles of women empowerment
  - “New Woman”
  - Flapper era

Question 2

Feminism
2nd wave: 1960s to 1980s

Answer 2

• Response to a setback in women’s progress towards equality and emancipation.
• Post-war backlash.
• Feminine mystique.
• Withdrawal to the house + white flight
• “The problem with no name”
• “Empowering women through community organization and cultural feminism.

Equal Rights Feminism

• Against discrimination in jobs and politics.
• “Assimilationist”
• N.O.W (National Organization of Women)

Radical Feminism

• Broader forms of oppression.
• Transforming the mainstream.
• Redstockings
• NY Radical Feminists
• The Furies

Question 3

Feminism
2nd wave literature (1970s)
- Characteristics (5)
- Authors and work

Answer 3

Characteristics

• Defined by theme and perspective
  - Centered on women’s concerns.
• Emphasis on women’s voices and perspectives.
• Great variety of style and genres
• Writers affiliated with radical feminism.
• Antecedents: modernist women writers.

Authors

• Kate Millet - “Sexual Politics”
• Sulamith Firestone - *“The Dialects of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution”
• Susan Brownmiller - “Against Our Will”
• Anne Koedt - “The Myth of Vaginal Orgasm”
• Adrienne Rich
  “Of Woman Born”
  “On Lies, Secrets and Silence”
  “Blood, Bead, and Poetry”
• Grace Paley
  “Little Disturbances of Man”
  “Enormous Changes in the Last Minute”
  “Later the Same Day”
  “Long Walks and Intimate Talks”
• Erika Jong
  “Fear of Flying”
  “How to Save Your Own Life”
  “Fanny, Being the True History of the Adventures of Fanny Hackabout-Jones”
• Margaret Atwood
  “Surfacing”
  “Lady Oracle”
  “The Handmaid’s Tale”
  “The Blind Assasin”
  “The Testament”

Question 4

Feminism
3rd wave (1980s forward)
- Characteristics (6)
- Authors

Answer 4

• Integrated the perspectives of feminists of color : Bell Hooks, Audre Lorde, Alice Walker, Gloria Anzaldúa…
• Sexism and patriarchy intersect with racism and imperialism
  
  • Sexuality.
• Sex positive.
• Open discussion of S&M, prostitution and pornography.
• More open to non-conventional sexual options.
• Embraces derogatory terms.

Authors

• Gloria Anzaldúa
  “Borderlands/La Frontera”
  “Light in the Dark/Luz en lo Oscuro: Rewriting Identity, Spirituality, Reality”
• Ana Castillo
  “The Mixquiahuala Letters”
  “Sapogonia, An Anti-Romance in 3/8 meter”
  “Massacre of the Dreamers: Essays on Xicanismo”
• Alice Walker
  “The Colour Purple”
  “In Search of our Mother’s Gardens”
  “Possessing the Secret of Joy”
• Audre Lorde
  “The Cancer Journals”
  “Zami, A New Spelling of My Name”
  “Sister Outsider”

Question 5

Feminist writing

Answer 5

• Much of the best feminist writing is MULTI-GENERIC
  
  • Combines essay, autobiography, narrative and political analysis.
• Much feminist work (2nd & 3rd wave) took the form of essays, manifestos, public statements, letters and historical writing.
• One of the most important legacies of feminism: expands the range of “literature”