Feminist theory
Feminist theory is the extension of
feminism into theoretical, or
philosophical, ground. It encompasses work done in a broad variety of disciplines, prominently including the approaches to women's roles and lives and feminist politics in
anthropology and
sociology,
economics,
women's and
gender studies,
feminist literary criticism, and
philosophy (especially
Continental philosophy.)
Feminist theory aims to understand the nature of inequality and focuses on gender politics, power relations and sexuality. While generally providing a critique of
social relations, much of feminist theory also focuses on analyzing gender inequality and the promotion of women's rights, interests, and issues. Themes explored in feminism include
discrimination,
stereotyping,
objectification (especially
sexual objectification),
oppression, and
patriarchy.
Psychoanalytic feminism is based on
Freud and his
psychoanalytic theories. It maintains that
gender is not biological but is based on the psycho-sexual development of the individual. Psychoanalytical feminists believe that
gender inequality comes from early childhood experiences, which lead men to believe themselves to be
masculine, and women to believe themselves
feminine. It is further maintained that gender leads to a social system that is dominated by males, which in turn influences the individual psycho-sexual development. As a solution it was suggested to avoid the gender-specific structurization of the society by male-female
coeducation.
There exists a common ground between socialist and radical feminists in so far as both factions believe that only with the abolition of the current hegemonic state, can true equality exist between men and women. Unlike radicals however, Socialist feminists do believe that men
can coexist with women in this post-capitalist vision of the future. This is because socialists suspect the capitalist system to be the root cause of female oppression, rather than males themselves. A belief amongst socialists of any kind is that a population can be nutured into a state of equality, and as such, would have no need to separate men from women. With the abolition of the class structure, a socialist may argue, comes the erosion of male domination within society.
Social aspects in the marxist ideal of the oppressed people who will rise. Marxist feminist theory basically states that the class struggle is the feminist struggle.
Modern feminist theory has been extensively criticized as being predominantly, but not exclusively, associated with western middle class
academia. Not only that, but feminism has been criticized as being far too gender-centric, and ignores other problems of
Racism and social inequality. In fact, many social reformers from within the
American Liberal Tradition see feminism as counterproductive and a distraction in the pursuit of wider social justice. It should be noted that many see feminism, primarily due to its western middle-class roots, as just another form of oppression. The fact that feminism has no mainstream male equivalent seems to highlight the biased nature of the movement. Other thinkers have criticized the labeling of Feminism as an
Ideology; on the grounds that it varies wildly depending on the ideology with it is associated. Hence feminism can be seen as one aspect of other ideologies, as the above breakdown shows, rather than an ideology in its own right.
*
Feminism*
Feminist film theory*
Feminist movement*
Feminist theory website (Center for Digital Discourse and Culture, Virginia Tech University)
*
Feminist Theories and Anthropology by Heidi Armbruster
