Feminist Theory - There is No One Definition of Woman
When posed with the question “What is woman?” it seems a daunting task to lay an umbrella statement to describe an entire gender. Upon further reflection, however, it seems that this overwhelming inability to answer the question, may in fact, be the answer to the question itself. Within the past two decades Maria Lugones and Elizabeth Spelman, Caroline Whitbeck, Geraldine Finn, and Helene Cixous have addressed the meaning of woman. There is not a concrete answer to “What is woman?” either produced by women or produced through men’s perceptions of women.
The message of Lugones and Spelman in Have We Got a Theory for You! Feminist Theory, Cultural Imperialism and the Demand for “The Woman’s Voice,” is that the entire worldwide experience of women cannot be universally articulated. Blanket definition of woman is impossible due to the many characteristics of women that make the gender so diverse, specifically race and economic status in society. “The women’s voices most likely to come forth and the women’s voices mostly likely to be heard are, in the United States anyway, those of white, middle-class, heterosexual Christian women” (Lugones and Spelman 21). Since “feminist theory” has been established without encompassing the inherently different experiences of non-white/non-Anglo women “much of the theory has failed to be relevant to the lives of women who are not white or middle class” (Ibid. 21). This displacement of a large population of the world’s women from feminist theory is extremely threatening to the development of a woman’s voice, in so far as this voice is key to fighting the battles that feminism sets out to fight: the end of re...
... middle of paper ...
...a Cohen. The Signs Reader: Women, Gender and Scholarship. Edited by Elizabeth and Emily Abel. University of Chicago Press: Chicago. 1983. 279-297.
Finn, Geraldine. On the Oppression of Women in Philosophy – Or, Whatever Happened to Objectivity?. Feminism in Canada: From Pressure to Politics. Edited by Angela R. Miles and Geraldine Finn. Black Rose Books: Montreal. 1982. 145-173.
Lugones, Maria C. and Elizabeth V. Spelman. Have We Got a Theory for You! Feminist Theory, Cultural Imperialism and the Demand for “The Woman’s Voice.” Women and Values: Readings in Recent Feminist Philosophy. Edited by Marilyn Pearsall. Wadsworth Publishing Company: California. 1986. 19-31.
Whitbeck, Caroline. Theories of Sex Difference. Women and Values: Readings in Recent Feminist Philosophy. Edited by Marilyn Pearsall. Wadsworth Publishing Company: California. 1986. 34-51.
Shaw, Susan M., and Janet Lee. Women's voices, feminist visions: classic and contemporary readings. 4th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. Print.
Rampton, M. (2008, September 1). The Three Waves of Feminism. - Fall 2008. Retrieved May 28, 2014, http://www.pacificu.edu/magazine_archives/2008/fall/echoes/feminism.cfm
To begin with, the purpose of the first experiment was to uncover which brain areas are associated with abnormal emotional processing and the subsequent disturbed social interactions that follow. The total amount of participants after excluding 2 due to artifacts was 12 right handed males. The control group was composed of 6 healthy males who had no history of neuropsychiatric problems, a mean age of 28.8, and standard deviation of 4.14. The experimental group was composed of 6 psychopathic individuals who were convicted criminals and taken from a high security psychiatric ward with a mean age of 33, and a standard deviation of 8. The researchers measured psychopathy by using the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R [that measured psychopathy on a scale of 0-40]). They used the Positive and Negative Affect schedule (PANAS) to assess global affect states before conducting the experim...
Ogloff, J. R. (2006). Psychopathy/antisocial personality disorder conundrum. The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, (40), 519-528.
In the U.S., feminism is understood as the rights of women (usually affluent white women) to share the spoils of capitalism, and imperial power. By refusing to fully confront the exclusions of non-whites, foreigners, and other marginalized groups from this vision, liberal feminists miss a crucial opportunity to create a more inclusive and more powerful movement. Feminist movements within the U.S. and internationally have long since accepted that, for them, feminism entails the communal confrontation of not only patriarchy, but capitalism, imperialism, white supremacy, and other forms of oppressions that combine together and reinforce their struggle. It means the fighting for the replacement of a system in which their rights are negated in the quest for corporate and political profit. It includes fighting so that all people anywhere on the gender, sexual, and body spectrum are allowed to enjoy basic rights like food, housing, healthcare, and control of their labor.
Throughout history an idea that has been used to combat the fight for women’s rights is the idea of universalism. This idea, as Joan Scott presents in her work Universalism and the History of Feminism, was based on the concept that being an individual was celebrated and everyone was allowed to be their own valued individual in society. Many people would say that feminism is engulfed in universalism just on the definition of the word, Scott would disagree. Scott redefines what the “individual” is and how women’s attempt to become an “individual” creates the paradox of feminist speech. Author Marilyn Frye redefines some common words in her essay, “Willful Virgin or Do You have to Be a Lesbian to Be a Feminist,” in order to challenge the paradox of feminist speech and universal individual rights that Scott argues inherently leaves out women.
Psychopathy has fascinated the public for years due to the gruesome and evil portrayal it has received in the media. Psychopathy is defined in the DSM-III as a personality disorder characterized by enduring antisocial behavior, diminished empathy and remorse, and disinhibited or bold behavior (Patrick, Christopher, Fowles, Krueger, Rober, 2009). Psychopathy represents a cluster of different dimensions of personality found amongst the general population to varying degrees (Patrick et al, 2009). The diagnostic definition is meant to be applied to adults, however psychopathology can occur in children. Controversy surrounds the topic of childhood mental illness because the brain is not fully developed until the age of 18; thus allowing the possibility that symptoms are the result of growing up and will change. The triarchic model, formulated by Christopher J. Patrick, is the most commonly used model in diagnosing adult and childhood psychopathy. This model suggests that different conceptions of psychopathy emphasize three observable characteristics to varying degrees; boldness, disinhibition and meanness (Patrick, et al, 2009). Boldness is the first observable characteristic and is comprised of low fear including stress-tolerance, toleration of unfamiliarity and danger, and high self-confidence and social assertiveness. Disinhibition; characterized by poor impulse control including problems with planning and foresight, lacking affect and urge control, demand for immediate gratification, and poor behavioral restraints. Meanness is defined as lacking empathy and close attachments with others, disdain of close attachments, use of cruelty to gain empowerment, exploitative tendencies, defiance of authority, and destructive excitement seek...
Constructivism is a theory of learning that emphasizes the active construction of knowledge by individuals.
Shaw, Susan M., and Janet Lee. Women's Voices, Feminist Visions: Classic and Contemporary Readings. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012. Print.
Walters G (2012). Psychopathy and Crime: Testing the Incremental Validity of PCL-R-Measured Psychopathy as a Predictor of General and Violent Recidivism. Law and Human Behavior.36(5), 404-412.
Multiracial Feminism: Recasting the Chronology of Second Wave Feminism introduces ideas by Becky Thompson that contradict the “traditional” teachings of the Second Wave of feminism. She points out that the version of Second Wave feminism that gets told centers around white, middle class, US based women and the central problem being focused on and rallied against is sexism. This history of the Second Wave does not take into consideration feminist movements happening in other countries. Nor does it take into consideration the feminist activism that women of color were behind, that centered not only on sexism, but also racism, and classism as central problems as well. This is where the rise of multiracial feminism is put to the foreground and
...at can come from war. War is seen as a last resource because of all the physical and mental damage it causes. In the story “Half of a Yellow Sun” war was seen as a way to gain the respect of a nation, but as the story progressed the family became affected, and the war that was supposed to benefit did nothing but badly affect them. In the blog Military Blog the main character saw war as a way of defending is nations pride along with protecting his family, but his continuing struggles with his actions kept him from being comfortable with his actions. In the article "Regarding the torture of others", Sontag saw the war as being a process that was not wrong but that was turned upside down because of the immoral actions of the soldiers. All the characters in each text showed how war changes not just the picture of war but the emotions and reasons that change afterward.
McLaughlin, J. (2003). Feminist social and political theory: Contemporary debates and dialogues. Hampshire, Great Britain: Palgrave Macmillan.
Constructivism is a somewhat new, but up-and-coming ideology that is progressing through education. In order to properly understand constructivism, one must understand the history. Then, building upon the history one begins to understand its progression through education. Then, building upon that knowledge we can begin to see the applications of constructivism in the modern classroom. In the process of establishing the layout this paper, a method of constructivism, also known as scaffolding, was shown. Scaffolding is the process of establishing what a learner's base knowledge is and then teaching them in a method that relates and builds upon that. This leads into the broader idea of Constructivism, which the view of learning is based upon the learner produces knowledge and form meaning based upon their experience. ("Piaget's Theory of Constructivism", 2006)
Minas, A. (2000). Gender basics: Feminist perspective on women and men.Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Thomson Learning.