important places, texts and unique language and their significance Flashcards
traditions and culture in the belief system or ideology:
Micro place
Domestic microsphere as a place for the enculturation of gender roles
The home has been the central place where women have dominated
Maternal ideologies relegate women to this place and space, forming much of the frontier for feminist
advocacy Feminist ethicists argue over the influence of women over morality in the microsphere- as a place to instil those exclusively female values critical to high morality in society
Meso place
Students and universities have been at the forefront of change, advocating feminist principles
Site of Women’s Studies (a symbol of the movement), teaching feminism
Feminists advocate gender neutrality
Workplaces a focus of 2nd and 3rd wave feminism. Site of contention over the equality of women including pay and discrimination
Churches - increasing advocacy around reviewing roles of females in the church
Macro place
Media as a site for feminist advocacy
Government - institutional representation so women have a place
Digital spaces are places in the macro sphere evident in Cyber feminism
Feminists challenge the male dominance over public spaces, evident in Slutwalks
Japanese feminism is also an indication of the global places in which feminism extends
First wave language
More female voice: Introduction of more female authorship through more books and newspapers such as The English Woman’s Journal.
Later in the wave, women were made eligible for higher education which enabled them to gain more credibility, empowering their voice.
Feminist Linguistic activism has not yet been introduced.
1st wave feminist places
Places
1850s Langham place circle - group of middle class women who had discussed and published their views about women at 19 Langham place in London
1857 by Barbara Bodichon to campaign on issues that affected women, and to campaign for granting the vote to women. Most of the members were successful, middle class women such as Emily Davis, who founded Girton College, Cambridge and Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, who was the first woman to qualify as a doctor in England and the older sister of Millicent Fawcett.
The group tried to find work for women through an employment bureau for governesses and domestic staff, and it publicised issues that affected women through the English Woman’s Journal. Barbara Bodichon had previously been concerned with gaining some rights to divorce for women. While members like Elizabeth Wolstenholme had also campaigned against laws that harmed women, such as the Contagious Diseases Act, increasingly the group began to view women getting the vote as necessary for changing the laws to improve their lives
Seneca Falls Convention - Seneca falls convention - activist and leader Elizabeth Cady Stanton drafted The Declaration of Sentiments, which called for women’s equality and suffrage
Although the convention became best known for its demand for women’s right to vote, the Declaration of Sentiments covered a wide agenda, asserting that women should have equality in every area of life: politics, the family, education, jobs, religion, and morals.
Epsom Derby Horse Race - 1913 Emily Davidson was killed by George V’s horse at the Epsom derby horse race. Her funeral attracted thousand of people to line the streets of London
British activist who became a martyr to the cause of women’s suffrage when she entered the racetrack
Her funeral, organised by the WSPU, was held in London, with thousands of people lining the streets.
Emily certainly believed that a sacrificial act would serve to raise the profile of the suffragette cause.
The public viewed her actions as those of a “mentally ill fanatic” and some previous supporters of the suffragette movement were so appalled by the incident, they ceased to be associated with “the cause”. The media concentrated on the wellbeing of the horse and jockey (who seemed to never recover from the guilt he felt) rather than the cause for which Emily died
2nd Wave texts
The female eunuch 1970
Focusing more on liberation from women more than equity with men
Controversial sense of humour and directness compared to other feminists
Argues women’s liberation is based on sexual liberation, and thereby repressed through marriage and a consumerist society. Women automatically becomes eunuchs
Created second wave framework
Challenge women to contend patriarchy
Encourage exploration of sexuality
Transphobic
Betty Friedan - The feminine mystique 1963
Challenges the assumption that women are fulfilled from housework, marriage, sexual lives and children
Didn’t consider lower class economic status or non white women
Rejects domesticity promoted in the 50s
89% of housewives were unhappy in their role and created a discussion around women life at micro level, because of the stall at mess level education as they don’t proceed to the workforce and feel pressure to get married
Debunked that white middle class American role in society are limited to wife and mother
Enormous impact on feminism
Simone De Beauvoir - The second sex 1949
Argues for women’s equality, while insisting on the reality of sexual difference
Men fundamentally oppress women on Every level, as the other, defined exclusively in opposition to men
Inspired second wave feminists and built ideological framework around the text
1st wave text
Vindication of the rights of women 1792
First to issue an outspoken rally cry to middle class women, especially mothers, to be educated
Attacked view of prevailing docile, decorative femininity and laid the out principles of emancipation
Lack of educated women made men appear more informed in society
Women should be able enter medicine and politics
Women’s goal to look pretty is nurture over nature
If women are shamed for having sex before marriage so should men
Women should be able to speak their minds without appearing masculine or undesirable
Women should enjoy power, education, and influence in society
Women should have a education rather than just pleasing young men
Mother of feminist theory
Equality not female domination
2nd wave places
1968 Protest against the America beauty pageant in New Jersey sparked of the and iconic mythical image of the bra burning feminism
A group of women hurled lipstick, mops, high heels, into a ‘freedom trash can’
2nd Wave language
concern with the ideological effects of language in disempowering women remains an important liberal feminist contribution
A part of imagining this new utopia, some radical cultural feminists even created a new lexicon that placed women’s concerns at the centre of language
effort to eradicate the most overt forms of sexism in the English language
These include the use of the masculine as a generic form and gendered agent nouns like fireman, as well as status of gendered pairs like master/mistress and major/majorette.
New terms such as ‘sexism’ began to be introduced.
3rd wave text
The Beauty myth 1991
Criticises the exploitation of women in the fashion and beauty industries, and societies, pressures and mould of what is ‘beautiful’
Argues that women deserve “the choice to whatever we want with our faces, bodies without being punished by an ideology that is using attitudes, economic pressures, and even legal judgement regarding women’s appearance to undermine us psychologically and politically”.
Wolf argues that beauty standards undermine women, keeping them in place.. beauty is the “last, belief system that keeps male dominance intact”
3rd wave Language
Even the supposed gender-neutral meanings of terms such as “his” and “man” are not really gender-neutral.
Janice Moulton (1981a) and Adele Mercier (1995) provide examples such as: “Man has two sexes; some men are female” and “Man breastfeeds his young”.
Androcentric: more man focused.
Gynocentric is women-centred.
Language like “he” and “man” diminishes women and distracts from their existence; such terms hence contribute to women’s invisibility, giving feminists reason to object to such terms.
Contrary to the previous point, words that draw attention to women, especially in positions of authority such as “manageress” or “lady doctor” are still rejected as they are created on the basis that men are the norm, and women are deviants.
Women can draw on different sorts of discourses (perspectives on women both oppressive/patriarchal and more resistant feminism ones) through the use of language → competing for what a woman actually is.
Language is manipulated when marketing to different genders.
