Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!samsung!uunet!ora!ambar From: jym@berkeley.edu (Jym Dyer) Newsgroups: soc.feminism Subject: Radical (and Other Types of) Feminism Message-ID: Date: 8 Mar 91 14:07:25 GMT References: <66039@brunix.UUCP> Sender: ambar@ora.com (Jean Marie Diaz) Reply-To: jym@mica.berkeley.edu Organization: Berserkeley Lines: 152 Approved: ambar@ora.com > Consider the "radical feminist" for example. In an earlier > discussion, Richard Shapiro and I presented two competing > definitions: one advocates the elimination of certain social > structures, the other advocates the creation of women-centered > spaces. ___ __ I believe I can help here. It is true that a number of _ different schools of feminist thought have made efforts to appropriate the "radical" label. ___ __ "Radical" means a focus on the root. (The words are related, _ as in the "radical" symbol for square roots and the word "radish.") Bear that in mind as I go over the following varieties of feminism. These varieties are derived, in part, from Jaggar and Rothenberg's _Feminist_Frameworks_ (2nd edition), which is a worthwhile but incomplete reader that tries to sort out these various schools of feminist thought.) Radical Feminism ___ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ __ This term refers to the feminist movement that sprung out of _ the civil rights and peace movements in 1967-1968. The reason this group gets the "radical" label is that they view the oppression of women as the most fundamental form of opression, one that cuts across boundaries of race, culture, and economic class. This is a movement intent on social change, change of rather revolutionary proportions, in fact. ___ __ Ironically, this get-to-the-roots movement is the most root- _ less variety of feminism. This was part of its strength and part of their weakness. It was always dynamic, always dealing with factions, and always full of ideas. Its influence has been felt in all the other varieties listed here, as well as in society at large. ___ __ The best history of this movement is a book called _Daring_to_ _ _be_Bad_, by Echols. I consider that book a must! Liberal Feminism ___ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ __ This is the variety of feminism that accepts the structure _ of mainstream society and works to integrate women into that structure. Its roots stretch back to the social contract theory of government instituted by the American Revolution. Abigail Adams and Mary Wollstonecraft were there from the start, proposing equality for women. ___ __ As is often the case with liberals, they slog along inside _ the system, getting little done amongst the compromises until some radical movement shows up and pulls those compromises left of center. This is how it operated in the days of the suffragist movement and again with the emergence of the radical feminists. Marxist and Socialist Feminism ___ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ __ Marxism recognizes that women are oppressed, and attributes _ the oppression to the capitalist/private property system. Thus they insist that the only way to end the oppression of women is to overthrow the capitalist system. ___ __ Socialist feminism is the result of Marxism meeting radical _ feminism. Jaggar and Rothenberg point to significant diff- erences between socialist feminism and Marxism, but for our purposes I'll present the two together. Echols offers a description of socialist feminism as a marriage between Marxism and radical feminism, with Marxism the dominant partner. I think that says it best. ___ __ Marxists and socialists often call themselves "radical," but _ they use the term to refer to a completely different "root" of society: the economic system. Cultural Feminism ___ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ __ As radical feminism died out as a movement, cultural feminism _ got rolling. In fact, many of the same people moved from the former to the latter. They carried the name "radical feminism" with them, and some cultural feminists use that name still. (Jagger and Rothenberg don't even list cultural feminism as a framework separate from radical feminism, but Echols spells out the distinctions in great detail.) ___ __ The difference between the two is quite striking: whereas _ radical feminism was a movement to transform society, cultural feminism retreated to vanguardism, working instead to build a women's culture. ___ __ Some of this effort has had some social benefit: rape crisis _ centers, for example; and of course many cultural feminists have been active in social issues (but as individuals, not as part of a movement). Feminism and Women of Color ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > In _Feminist theory from margin to center_ (1984), bell hooks > writes of "militant white women" who call themselves "radical > feminists" but hooks labels them "reactionary" . . . ___ __ Hooks is refering to cultural feminism here. At any rate, _ her comment is a good introduction to that fractious variety of feminism that Jaggar and Rothenberg find hard to label any further than to designate its source as women of color. ___ __ I regard this variety of feminism with some sadness. It _ is a most vital variety, covering much of the same ground as radical feminism and duplicating its dynamic nature. Yet bad timing kept the two from ever uniting. For more information you might want to also read Hooks' book and her earlier reader, _Ain't_I_a_Woman?_ Anarcho-Feminism ___ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ __ Anarcho-feminism was never a huge movement, especially in the _ United States, and you won't find a whole lot written about it. I mention it mostly because of the influential work of Emma Goldman, who used anarchism to craft a radical feminism that was (alas!) far ahead of her time. ___ __ Radical feminism expended a lot of energy dealing with a basis _ from which to critique society without falling into Marxist pleas for socialist revolution. It also expended a lot of energy trying to reach across racial and class lines. Goldman had succeeded in both. ___ __ Radical feminist Alix Schulman realized this, but not in time _ to save her movement. She's put out a reader of Goldman's work and a biography, both of which I recommend highly. Eco-Feminism ___ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ __ A misnomer that I include for completeness' sake. This is _ actually socially-conscious environmentalism with a tiny smattering of the radical and cultural feminist observation that exploitation of women and exploitation of the earth have some astonishing parallels. The rest of "eco-feminism" turns out to be (*sigh!*) recycled socialism. ___ __ The Green movements of Europe actually do a better job of _ promoting an environmentally aware feminism, even though it's more an environmental movement than a feminist one. * * * > I would add that if "feminism" is practically meaningless, > and I believe it is, then it makes little sense to try to > subdivide it. ___ __ I find that making those subdivisions helps me deal with _ feminism much better. <_Jym_> (Certified Anarcho-Green Radical Feminist)