Feminist Theory

Creative Assignment

Who am I you ask….

I just want to be loved, desired, fantasized, and admired, but the world still holds on to what institutions require.

Maybe we should have been born colorblind, so then color cannot define, or make me or break me.

For years I have battled my own intuitions, settling for being second best, society’s mistress…

Mirror, Mirror on the wall

What makes a woman be the greatest of them all?

Being an American woman?

A British woman,

A Sri Lankan woman,

A short woman, a tall woman,

A black woman, a white woman.

Let’s take it back to slavery times,

Where you could be you but I could not be “I”.

Why?

Because you were Master and I was slave…

So therefore without you I have no place.

See then you did not acknowledge me, so I could not exist,

But I have since then risen, fought hard and now have a voice,

And you have no choice but to see me, and hear what I have to say.

And so now I ask you, what gives you the right to try and make me exceed an expectation I cannot meet?

Who are you to define what makes me divine, my race, class, gender, and sexual preferences…

I am not one to stand and abide by the norms which hinders my “freedom”,

Nor am I to be society’s conjunction of a “woman”.

I am not a woman, who could ever be defined,

I am my own not what you make me out to be.

Can’t you see I am not the ideologies that are shown on TV…

I am Me.

Mohanty explains how the major issue with the definition of power is that it cements struggles into binary structures, “processing power versus being powerless”. (39) She goes on to elaborates that since women are seen as powerless groups, their shift into power in terms of feminism discourse, would be dismantling all men and taking over. This would make men powerless and women powerful, but women as a group aren’t all powerful or all powerless. It is critical to acknowledge that “women are not a homogenous group or category (“the oppressed”), even though this is a common assumption in the Western World.” (39) Mohanty also describes the six ways that Third World women are viewed as powerless figures from the viewpoint of Western eyes: victims of male violence, dependent on their husbands, victims of colonial marriage process, obedient wife, or hardworking mother. (24-29) These images of powerless women are sustained by the way Western societies perpetuate theses hegemonic ideas, which set into motion a colonial discourse that uses power to maintain these lasting First/Third World connections. Mohanty believes that border crossing is necessary to change people’s perspectives on Third World women and that by decentering yourself you will become more humble and thus have a better understanding of feminism as a world issue. Also by crossing borders, it will shift the power away from the existing binary structures of examination because you will have more worldly knowledge.

In addition to border crossing, Mohanty highlights Dorothy Smith’s concept of relations of ruling, which is “a concept that grasps power, organization, direction and regulation as more pervasively structured that can be expressed in traditional concepts provided by the discourses of power.” (56) Mohanty thinks that this concept is progressive as it focuses on various intersections of power and highlights the fluid process of ruling not the concrete expression of it. This concept is in the step in the right direction that will move society away from the binary examination of gender, class and race.

In Chapter 6, Mohanty begins to discuss how power operates through capitalism, which in turn produces a system of inequality in the social and work sphere. She describes how patriarchal ideologies, which put women against men inside the home as well as outside of it, interject the images and ideas of the Third World women onto them. This makes it critical for us to rethink the way we see the working class as well as opening our minds to cross-national analysis to better understand the Third World woman. (141) Mohanty lays out three examples of women in the workforce in various parts of the world. The first example is in Narspur, India and it shows how these lacemakers are seen as doing a “leisure time activity” although their work is long hours and grueling meticulous labor. These women cannot be seen as workers because it goes against the hegemonic ideology of men as the breadwinners and women as housewives. (150) In the second example, Mohanty describes the factory worker women in the Silicon Valley and since they are immigrants who are married, their work is seen as not as important as their husbands. These women take on second jobs to better their families’ lives and their bosses put down their efforts and give them part time jobs. The women view their work as upward steps in social mobility. (154) These examples highlight the idea that “women have common interests as worker, not just transforming their work lives and environments, but in redefining home spaces so that homework is recognized as work to earn a living rather than as leisure or supplemental activity.” (168)

In the next chapter, Mohanty discusses how the obsession with making profit affects the universities and diversity, which used to be an institution that allowed discussion, debate and open thought. The privatization in today’s society shifts education away from open discussions and free though because universities are now controlled by whatever corporation is giving them money. With this being said, the companies that donate, or control, these higher education institutions are run by the dominant hegemonic group. This leads to the suppression of diversity, as well as feminist thought. Before globalization and privatization, higher education institutions critiqued these forms of power.

Mohanty, Chandra T. Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity. Durham: Duke UP, 2003. Print.

Chandra Mohanty’s “Feminism without Borders,” makes the argument on how Western scholars and feminists fail to properly examine the “third world women” and critiques the many issues faced between U.S and Third World customs.  Mohanty challenges the idea of “women as a category of analysis” (Mohanty 22). Mohanty indicates, “…in any given piece of feminist analysis, women are characterized as a singular group on the basis of shared oppression. What binds women together is the sociological notion of the sameness of their oppression” (Mohanty 23). She argues that Third World women are theorized and categorized by gender. She furthers her argument by indicating that there is no singular or monolithic conception of gender, that there is no one type of “Third World Woman” or “First World Woman”. She adds on by saying, “This results in an assumption of women as an always ready constituted group, one that has been labeled powerless, exploited, sexually harassed, and so on…” (Mohanty 23). Mohanty clearly depicts the assumptions that many Western scholars and feminist make in regards of the third world women that all “women’s” life experiences are the same. However, every woman is shaped differently based on their unique experiences and that is what Mohanty is emphasizing.  Woman’s experience should be defined by the location, history and circumstances of her life. Mohanty addresses that the distinction of gendered experience has been ignored in Western Feminist writing on development which have produced a Third World Woman that is passive and in need of rescue from First World women. According to Mohanty,

“…As a Third World feminist teacher and activist for whom the psychic economy of “home” and of “work” has always been the space of contradiction and struggle; and as a woman whose middle-class struggles for self-definition and autonomy outside the definitions of daughter, wife, and mother mark an intellectual and political genealogy that has led me to this particular analysis of Third World women’s work” (Mohanty 141).

This quote clearly depicts the struggle that the ideology of “women’s work” and the fact that it has been a reoccurring theme that women are faced with makes the resistance to labor exploitation more difficult. Mohanty discusses her interpretation of theory and the importance of individual experiences. She says, “…Theory is a deepening of the political, not a moving away from it: a distillation of experience, and an intensification of the personal” (Mohanty 191). Mohanty emphasizes that people should never stray away from having knowledge of understanding based on the political historical content of one’s country, specifically in third world countries. She argues that western feminist and scholars have this preconceived notion that all “third world women” have a similar problem when it comes to gender equality based on an economic dilemma. What they fail to realize is that it is more than just the economy, it is political problem. Mohanty addresses the fact that among the women of the third world their history of the political makes them more than just objects.

Mohanty, Chandra. Feminism without Boarders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity. North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2003. Print.