radical feminism Flashcards
What did Kate Millet argue about marriage and patriarchy?
Women are exploited both sexually and economically within marriage. men’s domination is political in nature because it involves the exercise of power.
What term did she help to popularise?
male chauvinism- tendency for men to exercise and celebrate their power over women.
What did she argue that females needed to do?
women must understand and then throw off the stigma of inferiority imposed on them by men- “until women themselves reject the stigma and refuse to feel the shame for way others treat them, they have no hope of achieving full human stature”
What were the central arguments of Germain Greer in “female eunuch”?
Women must understand and then throw off the stigma of inferiority imposed on them by man- “until women themselves reject stigma and refuse to feel shame for the way others treat them, they have no hope of achieving full human stature”
Who was Shulamith Firestone influenced?
Marx
What did she see as the origins of the gender struggle and the existence of the patriarchy?
Because it has always existed and that always existed because women are constrained by childbirth and housework, destined forever to be enslaved by men.
What did Andrea Dworkin see as particularly symptomatic of the sexual oppression of women?
Pornography as symptomatic of men’s view of women as little more than sex objects
What did she see as the only way this could be combated?
For women to form themselves into lesbian communities. As long as women allow themselves to be sex objects for men, they will never achieve true liberation
What do feminists like millet, Greer and Firestone have in common?
Their stress on importance or specifically female consciousness of patriarchy. Women’s coinsciouseness of own entity stems partly from view of themselves imposed on them by men
What are the three main forms of action to combat patriarchy proposed by radical feminists?
Abolition of nuclear family and replacement by communal forms or child bearing.naturally remove male domination in family
Women can free selves from male dominiatiom and cease to hate themselves by escaping male-female relationships
Elimination biological roles, Firestone celebrates bio-technology to free women from their biological enslavement. Androgyny- removal of sex differences between men and women
How is radical feminism to liberal?
R- revolutionary, seeking a social and cultural revolution
L-reform movement
R-patriarchy has deep roots. Penetrated deep into female and male coinscouncess
L-patriarchy- modern phenomenon which can be combated through legal and cultural reform
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