Blogging the Theoretical

And so when we speak about my sexuality or my gender, as we do (and as we must) we mean something complicated by it. Neither of these is precisely a possession, but both are to be understood as modes of being possessed, ways of being for another, or indeed by virtue of another (Butler 2004, 19).

If gender is a norm, it is not the same as a model that individuals seek to approximate. On the contrary, it is a form of social power that produces the intelligble field of subjects and an apparatus by which the gender binary is instituted. As a norm that appears independent of the practices that it governs, its ideality is the reinstituted effect of those very practices. This suggests not only that the relation between practices and the idealizations under which they work is contingent, but that the very idealization can be brought into question and crisis, potentially undergoing deidealization and divestiture (Butler 2004, 48).

Feminsm Chandra Talapade Mohanty Chandra Talapade Mohanty presents that we need to remove discourses presenting “third world” women workers as victims, and empower them with a sense of agency that legitimizes the vital role they play in local and global economies. The language of “progress” and “development” are assumed to “naturally” accompany the triumphal rise of global capitalism. We need new world order and by assuming that these discourses automatically go along with change in society will not crate opportunity and change. Chandra Talapade Mohanty argues for a socialist future that will deconstruct notions of “otherness” as defined by a norm that perpetuates the inequalities of a capitalist system. Mobilization, organization, and a feminist consciousness that supports Transnationality . “The only way to get a little measure of power over your own life is to do it collectively, with the support of other people who share your needs.”( Mohanty, 168). Allow women power over their own lives. Agency is the result of self definition. Commonality can provide a way of “reading” and understanding the world though the lenses of class, race, and gender inequalities. This will foster a transnational feminist movement that moves away from universality of experience and toward an acknowledgement of history, agency, and commonality ( but commonality as a medium for solidarity). Also, to value women workers as individuals, so that they can make demands and receive monetary compensation. This will support their independence and legitimize their role within workspaces.

Monica

Feminism (revised) –

Patricia Hill Collins in her book Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment makes many arguments and theorizes numerous concepts surrounding feminist thought. Not only does Hill Collins suggest premise for oppression of women in the African American culture, but also the intersectionality between all feminisms.  She makes the point that oppression does not just start with the single structure of gender and then move to such areas as race, class, sexual orientation, etc. It sees these distinct systems of oppression as being part of one overarching structure of domination in which all these systems are dependent on one another. Instead of arguing about who experiences the worst oppression, intersectionality focuses attention on how these systems of oppression interrelate in different peoples’ ways of life.

“Replacing additive models of oppression with interlocking ones creates possibilities for new paradigms. The significance of seeing race, class, and gender as interlocking systems of oppression is that such an approach fosters a paradigmatic shift of thinking inclusively about other oppressions, such as age, sexual orientation, religion, and ethnicity.” (Collins)

Hill Collins also argues how women from a transnational perspective, in different countries, are affected by different oppressions in very diverse ways. For example, if you were to be addressing Black oppression amongst women in the Caribbean’s, their issues would not be the same of those in the United States.

Controlling images play a large part in the reinforcement of certain socially constructed molds for what feminist “should” or are scene to be. These controlling images

She states that Non-white feminist have not contributed in western feminist idea not because they were not capable of contributing with knowledge of their suppression. Today black feminists have the knowledge to contribute to feminist thought in a way no other culture could. Feminism now calls for the diversity that it hasn’t had in the past, due to the politics, knowledge, ect. Preventing this from happening.

“Confronting the controlling images forwarded by institutions external to African-American communities remains essential. But such effort should not obscure the equally important issue of examining how African-American institutions also perpetuate these same controlling images.”(Collins, 86)

Monica P

Feminism-

Patricia Hill Collins in her book Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment makes many arguments and theorizes numerous concepts surrounding feminist thought. Not only does Hill Collins suggest premise for oppression of women in the African American culture, but also the intersectionality between all feminisms.  She makes the point that oppression does not just start with the single structure gender and then move to such areas as race, class, sexual orientation, etc. It sees these distinct systems of oppression as being part of one overarching structure of domination in which all these systems are dependent on one another. Instead of arguing about who experiences the worst oppression, intersectionality focuses attention on how these systems of oppression interrelate in different peoples’ ways of life.

Hill Collins also argues how women from a transnational perspective, in different countries, are affected by different oppressions in very diverse ways. For example, if you were to be addressing Black oppression amongst women in the Caribbean’s, their issues would not be the same of those in the United States.

She states that Non-white feminist have not contributed in western feminist idea not because they were not capable of contributing with knowledge of their suppression. Today black feminist have the knowledge to contribute to feminist thought in a way no other culture could. Feminism now calls for the diversity that hasn’t had in the past, though politics, knowledge, ect. Have prevented this from happening.