Feminist Geography

Though women have played an integral part in the history of the discipline of anthropology, it was not until the early 1970’s that the field of anthropology and gender, or feminist anthropology emerged. Sex and gender roles have always been a vital part of any ethnographic study, but the contributors of this theory began to address the androcentric nature of anthropology itself. The substantial gap in information concerning the study of women was perceived as a male bias, a prejudice made more apparent because what little women-centered fieldwork was done received insufficient attention from the academic community. While anthropology was considered one of the more egalitarian fields of study, it was dominated by white, Western males who

In Adrienne Rich’s article “Notes towards a Politics of Location,” Rich argues that positionality is a way of understanding how power and privilege affect perspective. I am in agreement with Rich that recognizing one’s own politics of location is a useful starting point for feminist theory. Rich’s main arguments are that the US education system failed to provide an adequate retelling of world histories, that white feminism is ignorant of its privileges, and that through the awareness and inclusion of racial movements can feminist theory grow. I will also compare Rich’s article to Simone de Beauvoir’s first chapter, “Biological Data” from her book The Second Sex, and to Judith Butler’s article “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory.” Lastly, I will explain how Rich’s article is valuable to myself, to the WOMN 2000 Feminist Thought course, and in broader social contexts. Rich effectively argues that white feminism recreates the power structures feminism seeks to disassemble.

Geography is the study of the physical features of the Earth and its atmosphere, and of human activity as it affects and is affected by these, including the distribution of populations and resources, land use, and industries. We study Geography to understand basic physical systems that affect everyday life. Also, to understand the geography of past times and how geography has played important roles in the evolution of people, their ideas, places and environment. Geography is a very important link between the natural and social sciences. There are five themes of geography. Location, Movement, Human/Environment, Place, and Region.

Social constructs shape the way individuals live their everyday life, with respect to their geographical location being put into context. The effects of social constructs can also be witnessed upon studying their influence on feminism, and its advancements in history. In this discussion I will explain the following terms: genderism, binary, patriarchy, liberal feminist theory, systemic oppression, social feminist theory, and institutional sexism, and how they highlight the explicit dichotomy of equity in North-American society. These constructs create stigmas around the study of feminism, and all of its prior successors, making it more difficult to advance in the workplace, and in societies perspective.. This process oppresses many individuals,

The five themes of geography are location, place, human environmental interaction, movement and region. Location has 2 parts, absolute and relative. St. Croix Falls absolute location is 45.4100° N, 92.6397° W, whereas St. Croix Falls relative location is about 1.5 hours from Stillwater, MN. Place is also split into 2 parts, human and physical. Human would be like Lions Park or Interstate Park. The physical would be the St. Croix River. Human environmental interaction is next and, yes, it also has 2 parts, adapt and change. The citizens of St. Croix Falls adapted to the river my building a dam on it, another way they could have adapted could have been to the cold in the winter. The change would be like if the fish were dying out because of

They are averse to the centrality position accorded humans and their consciousness over other beings. This aversion or challenge to the centrality of humans in geographical analysis as emphasized by humanistic geography is conspicuous when Latour states that “challenging the idea that humans occupy a separate and privileged place among other beings has been the central goal of a now familiar posthumanist agenda in geography” (cited in Anderson 2004, p.4).

Jin and Whitson’s (2014) article relates back to the course through the gender binaries that have been expressed in class. The public leisure spaces of bars and nightclubs are typically associated with men, even in North America. We do see women trickling into these spaces, but there is a pronounced male presence in these areas. Women have a history as being seen as “weak” and needing protection. Both class discussions as the article touched on this idea. During class, there was talk about gender norms beginning to spread, and this can also be seen in the article. When the women of the study went out together during a night when men were not around, they were able to make decisions for themselves and assume a more dominant role (Jin and Whitson, 2014). Typically, women do not assume a dominant role, however when they were allowed to, these women showed that they are willing to push the boundaries of what society considers to be ‘normal’ and ‘feminine’. The main point of connection is the concept of feminist geography which is concerned with the extent to which individuals (men and women) experience specific places differently, and how these differences are a part of the construction of gender and place (Knox, Marston, Imort, Nash, 2010, pg. 242).

With the sources provided it is evident how influential the social structure is on urban geography and the human agency in the continuum of the socio-spatial dialect. The talk by Wilkinson outlines social problems that correlate to inequality that is widening throughout developed countries. The Figures provide statistics of the inequality within Canada and the patterns that are not temporary but also not inevitable as discussed in the article about the Three Cities of Toronto. The article analyses the social and geographic transformation that has occurred in Toronto through the past 35 years by looking at census tracts and illustrating the disparities that are occurring and will continue to without a change of policy. Together, the sources

This critique reflects on Mohanty’s “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses” and Moore’s “The Rise and Rise of Ecofeminism as a Development Fable: A Response to Melissa Leach’s ‘Earth Mothers and Other Ecofeminist Fables: How a Strategic Notion Rose and Fell.” Both articles raise questions of essentialism as a necessary element in feminism itself, and of naivety, validity and value of essentialized feminist works. This firstly challenges the biological and social definition of ‘woman,’ the homogenization of ‘woman’, and further, the implication of the role of women in nature. The second challenge that arises in reviewing these articles is the question of audience: whom are these (eco)feminists targeting, and for what purpose? The challenges of (eco)feminism, essentialist feminism, and the application of feminism in gender, development and environmental studies are apparent in both of the articles I am reviewing.

We are branded with a gender as far back as the second we are born. Looking into history, the different conduct of men and women has echoed gendered perceptions of public and private space. This importance is wholly fitting; what is astounding is the length of time it took for gender to find its equitable place within sociological thinking. Despite the fact there had been effort done on ‘sex roles’ prior to the 1970s, this was on the edge to sociology’s main concern. The revival of feminism in the 1970s changed the state of affairs, thought-provoking the androcentric interpretation of the world which had triumphed for a vast period of time. It was fundamental to the feminist scheme to pawn the supposition that present changes between women and men were intended by nature. The notion of gender was implemented in order to highlight the social construction of masculinity and femininity and the social organisation of relations amid women and men. Since not every person expresses and customs the term ‘gender’ in exactly the same way. Gender as sociologists outline a ranked separation between women and men entrenched in in cooperation of social institutions and social practices. Consequently, gender is a social structural phenomenon but is also produced, negotiated and continued at the level of everyday interaction. Feminism and feminists recognise that gender inequalities happen in society and they rate chance that improves gender equality, (Belknap, The Invisible Woman: Gender,

National Geographic is known as a reputable source for the latest in geography and exploration. Established in 1888 by Gardiner Greene Hubbard, it was later taken on by his son-in-law, Alexander Graham Bell and eventually by Bell’s son-in-law Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor. In Lisa Bloom’s article, “National Geographic Society and Nationalism,” she details how the magazine writes about other cultures, doing so in a nationalistic manner. She explains the elite vibe that the magazine gives off, through its writing and stylistic choices. And, she discusses the contempt and disrespect that the magazine uses in discussing women and in glorifying nudity of women -- women that are not white and not American. By viewing photographs, their captions, and descriptions from the October, 1913 edition of National Geographic Magazine, Bloom’s argument can be further justified. Through word choice, and the images that are shown, National Geographic Magazine gives credence to the beliefs that American and Western society are superior to others around the world, and that it is alright to glorify a person’s beauty and to talk ill of a person’s appearance, particularly women.

“Man” is a word that is consistently used when talking about the world. For example phrases such as “the origin of man”, “every man for himself” and “take it like a man” are well known. Phrases such as these represent the issues regarding social and spatial exclusion in relation to gender as it creates a division between men and women. In this essay I am going to consider the role of both genders, firstly in terms of geography as an academic discipline and then in relation to households and the workplace, and explain how their varying roles are examples of social and spatial exclusion between males and females. Society’s expectations of men and women also causes exclusion when it comes to things such as politics and so I will also discuss the difference between the present day and the past with regard to women and politics.

When people question the existence and emergence of planet Earth through science, what is discovered is that there are no generic answers. The conversation will erupt into a never-ending debate and get into the vexing, and sometimes violent, interpretations based on one’s beliefs. What can be answered is what goes on inside the geographical world. My topic of research is not the geography that is tested in the second grade, when a teacher asks a student to point to where London is on a map. In fact, I will be focusing in on the urban geography development, because it is a development, which is less obvious to an average ignorant and inexperienced individual. On the contrary, Professionals who plan out many different cities and different

Though a lot has changed in today's time, there is still an underlying wave of feminism, the presence of which one can sense all over the world. While in the urban setting, women have almost been given their dues, in the rural setting, women are still expected to live by the stereotypes cast by society. Even in the urban setting, though women have achieved a lot more than society has given them credit for, they are still expected to fulfill certain roles and stereotypes that have been the norm for centuries.

Politics of data collection and presentation being the topic for this week has readings covering Noxolo (2009), Jazeel & Colin (2009) and Nagar (2012). What these authors have in common is that, they are all feminist geographers. Generally, Noxolo (1999) tries to answer a question posed in her article titled my paper, my paper: reflections on the embodies production of postcolonial geographical responsibility in academic writing, what are the responsibilities of as a postcolonial geographical writer? And in her attempt to answer that, Noxolo refers to three extracts from her texts in her journey to becoming an academic. Jazeel & McFarlane (2009) in their article titled the limits of responsibility: a postcolonial politics of academic