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Academic and Popular feminisms

Academic and Popular feminisms. Readings: Oakley, Wittig. Today’s topics. Feminisms as revealed by Hillary A feminist analysis of ‘the kiss’ Waves of feminism The sex/gender system Wittig’s materialist feminism The utility of gender for Oakley. Feminism as moral guardianship.

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Academic and Popular feminisms

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  1. Academic and Popular feminisms Readings: Oakley, Wittig

  2. Today’s topics • Feminisms as revealed by Hillary • A feminist analysis of ‘the kiss’ • Waves of feminism • The sex/gender system • Wittig’s materialist feminism • The utility of gender for Oakley

  3. Feminism as moral guardianship • feminists are seen to have abandoned their role as moral guardians, and therefore relinquished their right to a political presence -- Zahra

  4. Clinton’s lesbian/whore complex Clinton gladly concedes power to careerist "ice queens" like Hillary Rodham, Janet Reno, and Madeleine Albright, while eagerly pursuing blowjobs from trashy young sluts like Monica Lewinsky and Paula Jones. --- Loren Glass summarizing Camille Paglia

  5. 14% of women said they were a “strong feminist”

  6. The Hillary problem • Political ambition violates heteronormal expectations • Political ambition is tolerated among women who renounce wifeliness • Either wifeliness or ambition has to go

  7. Introducing her husband, Tipper called him "the man I love" and gurgled: "And listen, did I mention I have loved him for more than 30 years? And from first sight?" Tipper's family photo album included many of her own intime shots of Al lathered up and shaving and bare-chested. There was picture after picture of the handsome young couple, one in bikini and bathing trunks. The montage had an important political message:Al and I have always been hot for each other and we still are, so don't worry about any Monicas.

  8. Heteronormality • But first a quick detour through the waves. .

  9. 1st Wave feminism • Establishes legal, civil, political rights • Began in US in 1840s • Black men not women get the vote after the Civil War • Progressives emerge 1890-1920 • 19th amendment a product of widespread activism

  10. 2nd wave: “popular” politics • Inspired by civil rights movement • Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 • The Feminine Mystique (1963) Freidan • NOW 1966 Freidan, Griffiths, others • Consciousness raising • Women’s liberation • ERA

  11. 2nd wave: academic feminism • The Second Sex, de Beauvoir 1949 (1952) • Sexual Politics, Millett 1970 • “The Traffic in Women” Rubin 1974 • “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence” Rich 1980 • “One is not Born a Woman” Wittig 1981

  12. What happens after 1980? • Conservative retrenchment • Backlash (Oakley) • Victimization exaggerated (Sommers) • Feminism anti-family (Schlafly) • Male conspiracy inaccurate • 2nd wave still waving? • Academic feminism going strong • Sexual harassment law • Post-feminism and/or 3rd wave feminism

  13. Gender as cultural prescription • The social manifestation of sex • Oakley (32) • The sex-gender system (Rubin) • The family is an important site of the reproduction of gender

  14. But sex depends on gender, as exhibited by • Intersexuality • Transvestism, transexuality • Homosexuality

  15. Wittig’s materialism • There is no natural enduring truth about woman • Woman is relative social/political position • Gender identifies physical markers that are linked to the social position ordering • The lesbian stands in contradiction to, disrupts the idea of woman

  16. What does gender do for Oakley? • A crucial tool for understanding the formation of “straight-jacket” roles in families • A lens through which to understand the social and political process of discrimination • A social & political – not merely cultural -- explanation of sex differences

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