A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Feminism
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Stó:lô poet and author, Lee Maracle, speaks on the connection between violence against women and violence against the earth at First Voices! First Women Speak! a presentation of the Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement.
Ending Domination: The Struggle Continues, a public talk given by bell hooks at the New College in Sarasota, Florida.
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While Feminism is traditionally understood as a collection of movements and ideologies that advocate specifically for women's rights and equality, it is developing into a movement to eliminate all forms of sexism and oppression. There are examples of feminism from around the world and all through-out history, but three waves have typically been identified in order to explain its modern development.
First wave feminism focused on obtaining legal and political equality for women including the right to vote, and freedom to work outside of the home. The second wave of feminism focused more on challenging gender norms and roles and cultural inequalities. Third wave feminism further blurs gender norms and roles by promoting a non-binary view of gender and sexuality that can include bisexuality, asexuality, pansexuality, transgender and agender identities. The focus on sexism's effect on women solely is also challenged with bell hooks' expanding the definition of Feminism to "a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression." This opens up Feminism to include the experience of men who have been negatively affected by sexism. Even more indicative of the third wave is the focus on micropolitics and intersectionality, and the rise of nonwhite Feminist voices. These voices, including (but far from limited to) Gloria Anzaldúa, bell hooks, Chela Sandoval, Audre Lorde, and Maxine Hong Kingston challenge white, upper class assumptions about what is good for women and advocate for consideration of how race and class affect women's point of views, needs, and desires. Other arising Feminist concerns, which some are calling the 4th wave, include sex and body positivity. This has lead to, for example, celebration of plus size fashion and models, acceptance of queer/female positive porn, untraditional sexuality, the prevalence of rape-culture, and sex work. Reproductive justice also remains a concern in the US in particular as well as sexual harassment and female images in mainstream media. |
Hernandez, Daisy, ed. Colonize This!: Young Women of Color on Today's Feminism. Seal Press, July, 2002. Print.
It has been decades since women of color first turned feminism upside down, exposing the ‘70s feminist movement as exclusive, white, and unaware of the concerns and issues of women of color from around the globe. Now a new generation of brilliant, outspoken women of color is speaking to the concerns of a new feminism, and to their place in it. Daisy Hernandez of Ms. magazine and poet Bushra Rehman have collected a diverse, lively group of emerging writers who speak to their experience—to the strength and rigidity of community and religion, to borders and divisions, both internal and external—and address issues that take feminism into the twenty-first century. One writer describes herself as a “mixed brown girl, Sri-Lankan and New England mill-town white trash,” and clearly delineates the organizing differences between whites and women of color: “We do not kick ass the way the white girls do, in meetings of NOW or riot grrl. For us, it’s all about family.” A Korean-American woman struggles to create her own identity in a traditional community: “Yam-ja-neh means nice, sweet, compliant. I’ve heard it used many times by my parents’ friends who don’t know shit about me.” An Arab-American feminist deconstructs the “quaint vision” of Middle-Eastern women with which most Americans feel comfortable. This impressive array of first-person accounts adds a much-needed fresh dimension to the ongoing dialogue between race and gender, and gives voice to the women who are creating and shaping the feminism of the future.
Hill-Collins, Patricia. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. Routledge, 2000. Print.
Sociologist Patricia Hill Collins asserts that a matrix of domination shapes reality, in which one set of axes are social location characteristics like race, gender, class, sexual orientation, age, education, etc. and the other set represents personal, community and institutional/systemic levels that vary in constitution and effect by geopolitical setting. Persons might experience domination at any node where these axes intersect; the experience of women of color is of intertwined, multiple dominations, out of which women create subjugated knowledges. To address the interlocking nature of the domination system and to overcome the dichotomous thinking inherent in that system requires transition from an either/or to a both/and stance, which fosters thinking inclusively about those facing oppressions by the same systems that oppress black women.
Black feminist thought recommends that each group speak from its own standpoint and share its own partial, situated knowledge, aware that its knowledge is unfinished: “Each group becomes better able to consider other groups’ standpoints without relinquishing the uniqueness of its own or suppressing other groups’ partial perspectives.” Various nodes in the matrix represent social and epistemic locations, which can operate as sites of resistance to oppression and for the creation of epistemic authority. Primacy is not given to any particular node, but respect for particularity is helpful in understanding and addressing oppressive situations and for leveraging liberative learnings across boundaries and into coalitions. Ideas and claims generated and validated by multiple epistemic communities develop heightened truth value.
hooks, bell. Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics. South End Press, 2000. Print.
In this engaging and provocative volume, bell hooks introduces a popular theory of feminism rooted in common sense and the wisdom of experience. Hers is a vision of a beloved community that appeals to all those committed to equality, mutual respect, and justice. Hooks applies her critical analysis to the most contentious and challenging issues facing feminists today, including reproductive rights, violence, race, class, and work. With her customary insight and unsparing honesty, hooks calls for a feminism free from divisive barriers but rich with rigorous debate. In language both eye-opening and optimistic, hooks encourages us to demand alternatives to patriarchal, racist, and homophobic culture, and to imagine a different future. Hooks speaks to all those in search of true liberation, asking readers to take look at feminism in a new light, to see that it touches all lives. Issuing an invitation to participate fully in feminist movement and to benefit fully from it, hooks shows that feminism—far from being an outdated concept or one limited to an intellectual elite--is indeed for everybody.
Isasi-Diaz, Ada Maria. Women of God, Women of the People. Drew Theological Seminary.
Written adaptation of Bible studies delivered orally at the Tenth International Christian Women's Fellowship Quadrennial Assembly held at Purdue University on June 22-26,1994, exploring scriptures from a mujerista perspective. A series of biblical studies are presented read through Isasi-Diaz' particular lens as a Latina woman who struggles for liberation and the liberation of all Latina women. This is feminist theology that acknowledges that sexism and patriarchy cannot be discussed apart from racial/ethnic prejudices and which employs scriptural reading in the service of liberation from oppression experienced by Latina's in a Latino society and culture.
Radford-Reuther, Rosmary. Gaia and God: An Ecofeminist Theology of Earth Healing. Harper Collins, 1994. Print.
Sifting through the legacy of Christian and Western history, Ruether traces the development of beliefs and ethics that define our relationship with each other and the earth. At once provocative and inspiring, the author's insights assert an ecofeminist vision of a healed world. This is a comprehensive and important discussion of three main myths of creation, destruction, and domination. Ruether ( Mary: The Feminine Face of the Church , Westminster/John Knox Pr., 1977) shows how these patriarchal stories still permeate the culture and social structure of the Western world today. She eloquently critiques these values from an ecological and feminist point of view, exploring how male domination of women and of nature are interconnected. Arguing that these values must be changed, she develops potential ways for healing ourselves and our planet from within existing religious traditions. This work is useful for special collections in religion, woman's studies, and ecology. It assumes some relevant knowledge on the part of the reader but is highly relevant for this specialized audience.
———.Sexism and God Talk: Toward a Feminist Theology. Beacon Press, 1983. Print.
Rosemary Redford-Reuther uses systematic theology to examines scripture and tradition as a dynamic process with one basic assumption: "The critical principle of feminist theology is the promotion of the full humanity of women. Whatever denies, diminishes, or distorts the full humanity of women is, therefore, appraised as not redemptive." Seeing women as one class of people among others who have been diminished by various ideological and theological traditions throughout history, Ruether unavoidably addresses power structures, colonialism, and exploitation in general, along with sexism (and redemptive veins of empowerment) in Christian theologies, Marian theologies, and other religious, political, and feminist movements. She covers various feminist approaches to each aspect of Christianity and asks foundational questions raised by them ("Can a male savior save women?") that scholastic and other traditional theologies don't consider without implicitly or explicitly denying, diminishing, or distorting the full humanity of women.
Talpade-Mohanty, Chandra. Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity. Duke University Press, February, 2003. Print.
Bringing together classic and new writings of the trailblazing feminist theorist Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Feminism without Bordersaddresses some of the most pressing and complex issues facing contemporary feminism. Forging vital links between daily life and collective action and between theory and pedagogy, Mohanty has been at the vanguard of Third World and international feminist thought and activism for nearly two decades. This collection highlights the concerns running throughout her pioneering work: the politics of difference and solidarity, decolonizing and democratizing feminist practice, the crossing of borders, and the relation of feminist knowledge and scholarship to organizing and social movements. Mohanty offers here a sustained critique of globalization and urges a reorientation of transnational feminist practice toward anticapitalist struggles.Feminism without Borders opens with Mohanty's influential critique of western feminism ("Under Western Eyes") and closes with a reconsideration of that piece based on her latest thinking regarding the ways that gender matters in the racial, class, and national formations of globalization. In between these essays, Mohanty meditates on the lives of women workers at different ends of the global assembly line (in India, the United Kingdom, and the United States); feminist writing on experience, identity, and community; dominant conceptions of multiculturalism and citizenship; and the corporatization of the North American academy. She considers the evolution of interdisciplinary programs like Women's Studies and Race and Ethnic Studies; pedagogies of accommodation and dissent; and transnational women's movements for grassroots ecological solutions and consumer, health, and reproductive rights. Mohanty's probing and provocative analyses of key concepts in feminist thought—"home," "sisterhood," "experience," "community"—lead the way toward a feminism without borders, a feminism fully engaged with the realities of a transnational world.
Williams, Delores. Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-Talk. Orbis Books, September, 1995. Print
This landmark work first published 20 years ago helped establish the field of African-American womanist theology and is widely regarded as a classic text. Drawing on the biblical figure of Hagar mother of Ishmael, cast into the desert by Abraham and Sarah, but protected by God Williams finds a proptype for the struggle of African-American women. African slave, homeless exile, surrogate mother, Hagar's story provides an image of survival and defiance appropriate to black women today. Exploring the themes implicit in Hagar's story poverty and slavery, ethnicity and sexual exploitation, exile and encounter with God Williams traces parallels in the history of African-American women from slavery to the present day. A new womanist theology emerges from this shared experience, from the interplay of oppressions on account of race, sex and class. Sisters in the Wilderness offers a telling critique of theologies that promote liberation but ignore women of color. This is a book that defined a new theological project and charted a path that others continue to explore.
It has been decades since women of color first turned feminism upside down, exposing the ‘70s feminist movement as exclusive, white, and unaware of the concerns and issues of women of color from around the globe. Now a new generation of brilliant, outspoken women of color is speaking to the concerns of a new feminism, and to their place in it. Daisy Hernandez of Ms. magazine and poet Bushra Rehman have collected a diverse, lively group of emerging writers who speak to their experience—to the strength and rigidity of community and religion, to borders and divisions, both internal and external—and address issues that take feminism into the twenty-first century. One writer describes herself as a “mixed brown girl, Sri-Lankan and New England mill-town white trash,” and clearly delineates the organizing differences between whites and women of color: “We do not kick ass the way the white girls do, in meetings of NOW or riot grrl. For us, it’s all about family.” A Korean-American woman struggles to create her own identity in a traditional community: “Yam-ja-neh means nice, sweet, compliant. I’ve heard it used many times by my parents’ friends who don’t know shit about me.” An Arab-American feminist deconstructs the “quaint vision” of Middle-Eastern women with which most Americans feel comfortable. This impressive array of first-person accounts adds a much-needed fresh dimension to the ongoing dialogue between race and gender, and gives voice to the women who are creating and shaping the feminism of the future.
Hill-Collins, Patricia. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. Routledge, 2000. Print.
Sociologist Patricia Hill Collins asserts that a matrix of domination shapes reality, in which one set of axes are social location characteristics like race, gender, class, sexual orientation, age, education, etc. and the other set represents personal, community and institutional/systemic levels that vary in constitution and effect by geopolitical setting. Persons might experience domination at any node where these axes intersect; the experience of women of color is of intertwined, multiple dominations, out of which women create subjugated knowledges. To address the interlocking nature of the domination system and to overcome the dichotomous thinking inherent in that system requires transition from an either/or to a both/and stance, which fosters thinking inclusively about those facing oppressions by the same systems that oppress black women.
Black feminist thought recommends that each group speak from its own standpoint and share its own partial, situated knowledge, aware that its knowledge is unfinished: “Each group becomes better able to consider other groups’ standpoints without relinquishing the uniqueness of its own or suppressing other groups’ partial perspectives.” Various nodes in the matrix represent social and epistemic locations, which can operate as sites of resistance to oppression and for the creation of epistemic authority. Primacy is not given to any particular node, but respect for particularity is helpful in understanding and addressing oppressive situations and for leveraging liberative learnings across boundaries and into coalitions. Ideas and claims generated and validated by multiple epistemic communities develop heightened truth value.
hooks, bell. Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics. South End Press, 2000. Print.
In this engaging and provocative volume, bell hooks introduces a popular theory of feminism rooted in common sense and the wisdom of experience. Hers is a vision of a beloved community that appeals to all those committed to equality, mutual respect, and justice. Hooks applies her critical analysis to the most contentious and challenging issues facing feminists today, including reproductive rights, violence, race, class, and work. With her customary insight and unsparing honesty, hooks calls for a feminism free from divisive barriers but rich with rigorous debate. In language both eye-opening and optimistic, hooks encourages us to demand alternatives to patriarchal, racist, and homophobic culture, and to imagine a different future. Hooks speaks to all those in search of true liberation, asking readers to take look at feminism in a new light, to see that it touches all lives. Issuing an invitation to participate fully in feminist movement and to benefit fully from it, hooks shows that feminism—far from being an outdated concept or one limited to an intellectual elite--is indeed for everybody.
Isasi-Diaz, Ada Maria. Women of God, Women of the People. Drew Theological Seminary.
Written adaptation of Bible studies delivered orally at the Tenth International Christian Women's Fellowship Quadrennial Assembly held at Purdue University on June 22-26,1994, exploring scriptures from a mujerista perspective. A series of biblical studies are presented read through Isasi-Diaz' particular lens as a Latina woman who struggles for liberation and the liberation of all Latina women. This is feminist theology that acknowledges that sexism and patriarchy cannot be discussed apart from racial/ethnic prejudices and which employs scriptural reading in the service of liberation from oppression experienced by Latina's in a Latino society and culture.
Radford-Reuther, Rosmary. Gaia and God: An Ecofeminist Theology of Earth Healing. Harper Collins, 1994. Print.
Sifting through the legacy of Christian and Western history, Ruether traces the development of beliefs and ethics that define our relationship with each other and the earth. At once provocative and inspiring, the author's insights assert an ecofeminist vision of a healed world. This is a comprehensive and important discussion of three main myths of creation, destruction, and domination. Ruether ( Mary: The Feminine Face of the Church , Westminster/John Knox Pr., 1977) shows how these patriarchal stories still permeate the culture and social structure of the Western world today. She eloquently critiques these values from an ecological and feminist point of view, exploring how male domination of women and of nature are interconnected. Arguing that these values must be changed, she develops potential ways for healing ourselves and our planet from within existing religious traditions. This work is useful for special collections in religion, woman's studies, and ecology. It assumes some relevant knowledge on the part of the reader but is highly relevant for this specialized audience.
———.Sexism and God Talk: Toward a Feminist Theology. Beacon Press, 1983. Print.
Rosemary Redford-Reuther uses systematic theology to examines scripture and tradition as a dynamic process with one basic assumption: "The critical principle of feminist theology is the promotion of the full humanity of women. Whatever denies, diminishes, or distorts the full humanity of women is, therefore, appraised as not redemptive." Seeing women as one class of people among others who have been diminished by various ideological and theological traditions throughout history, Ruether unavoidably addresses power structures, colonialism, and exploitation in general, along with sexism (and redemptive veins of empowerment) in Christian theologies, Marian theologies, and other religious, political, and feminist movements. She covers various feminist approaches to each aspect of Christianity and asks foundational questions raised by them ("Can a male savior save women?") that scholastic and other traditional theologies don't consider without implicitly or explicitly denying, diminishing, or distorting the full humanity of women.
Talpade-Mohanty, Chandra. Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity. Duke University Press, February, 2003. Print.
Bringing together classic and new writings of the trailblazing feminist theorist Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Feminism without Bordersaddresses some of the most pressing and complex issues facing contemporary feminism. Forging vital links between daily life and collective action and between theory and pedagogy, Mohanty has been at the vanguard of Third World and international feminist thought and activism for nearly two decades. This collection highlights the concerns running throughout her pioneering work: the politics of difference and solidarity, decolonizing and democratizing feminist practice, the crossing of borders, and the relation of feminist knowledge and scholarship to organizing and social movements. Mohanty offers here a sustained critique of globalization and urges a reorientation of transnational feminist practice toward anticapitalist struggles.Feminism without Borders opens with Mohanty's influential critique of western feminism ("Under Western Eyes") and closes with a reconsideration of that piece based on her latest thinking regarding the ways that gender matters in the racial, class, and national formations of globalization. In between these essays, Mohanty meditates on the lives of women workers at different ends of the global assembly line (in India, the United Kingdom, and the United States); feminist writing on experience, identity, and community; dominant conceptions of multiculturalism and citizenship; and the corporatization of the North American academy. She considers the evolution of interdisciplinary programs like Women's Studies and Race and Ethnic Studies; pedagogies of accommodation and dissent; and transnational women's movements for grassroots ecological solutions and consumer, health, and reproductive rights. Mohanty's probing and provocative analyses of key concepts in feminist thought—"home," "sisterhood," "experience," "community"—lead the way toward a feminism without borders, a feminism fully engaged with the realities of a transnational world.
Williams, Delores. Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-Talk. Orbis Books, September, 1995. Print
This landmark work first published 20 years ago helped establish the field of African-American womanist theology and is widely regarded as a classic text. Drawing on the biblical figure of Hagar mother of Ishmael, cast into the desert by Abraham and Sarah, but protected by God Williams finds a proptype for the struggle of African-American women. African slave, homeless exile, surrogate mother, Hagar's story provides an image of survival and defiance appropriate to black women today. Exploring the themes implicit in Hagar's story poverty and slavery, ethnicity and sexual exploitation, exile and encounter with God Williams traces parallels in the history of African-American women from slavery to the present day. A new womanist theology emerges from this shared experience, from the interplay of oppressions on account of race, sex and class. Sisters in the Wilderness offers a telling critique of theologies that promote liberation but ignore women of color. This is a book that defined a new theological project and charted a path that others continue to explore.