Third Analytical Presupposition Of Mohanty

Mina Loy’s writing, “Feminist Manifesto”, is about feminism in the early 20th century. In this period, women were fighting for equality in their everyday life. Loy’s idea is that women should not try to be equal to man but to find a standard within themselves to live up to. This piece has modernism ideas as she is encouraging a change to society and women’s values. She repeatedly questions traditional values and beliefs about women’s roles in society. She was trying to make a historical change for all women in the 20th century. Loy says, “She abandons the suffragette movement’s central issue of equality and insists instead on an adversarial model of gender, claiming that women should not look to men for a standard of value but should find it

The main arguments of Mohanty, Liederman, and Sen have similarities and differences. First, Mohanty’s main argument emphasizes the issue of white Western women belittling those of other cultures and ethnicities within the feminist movement. By asserting a universal notion of womanhood, these white Western women show ethnocentric universality through their ignorance of how the meaning of femininity, oppression, and liberation in the women’s movement vary in ethnic and cultural contexts (Mohanty, 1984, p. 335). By using a mindset that ignores ethnic differences, they therefore falsely construct and analyze “third world women,” believing that these women desperately need help to advance in society. Mohanty argues that in order for a feminist movement to advance, women must discontinue a paternalistic method of marginalizing women of different ethnicities to recognize the varied meanings of femininity, oppression, and liberation and enhance their solidarity and effectiveness as a whole group. This ethnocentrism is also present in Liederman’s

The first assumption argues that “western” feminist discourses emphasize that all women are bound together by a shared oppression and are powerless (53-54). Mohanty systemically explores this theory through an in depth analysis of five categories in which women of the third world are traditionally presented as homogenous victims by “western” feminist. The first two categories, women as victims of male violence and women as universal dependents, arguably offer the most straightforward deconstruction of the gendered body of knowledge that is power. Women, especially women of the third world, are all seen as victims of male violence and control (54). All women are defined as powerless, and all men are defined as powerful (55). Similarly, all women are defined as powerless dependents in the second category. Mohanty argues, “this is because descriptive gender differences are transformed into the divisions between men and women” (55). This division possesses a privileged position as the explanation for the oppression of women (56). Therefore, women are seen as a powerless group no matter what the historical or cultural situation because they are deemed so prior to any analysis (56).

Lila Abu-Lughod also writes about feminism in regard to culture. “ It has been important for most feminists to locate sex differences in culture, not biology or nature,” (Abu-Lughod, p. 144). There have been many cultural differences between women and men, “ a different voice” perhaps from Anglo-American feminist Gilligan and her followers, (Abu-Lughod, p. 145), as well as an explanation of the differences, “ whether through a socially informed psychoanalytic theory, a Marxist-derived theory of the effects of the division of labour and women’s role in social reproduction, an analysis of maternal practice or even a theory of sexual exploitation,” (Abu-Lughod, p. 145).

the defination of ‘feminism of poverty’ refers to situations of increasing poverty for women and the fact that more women are living in poverty than men, basically poor people are disportionately women (Townson, 2000).

This book is a crucial dose of reality for those of us that are spoiled by the comforts we have grown used too. Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn explain in the book “Half the Sky” why empowering women in the developing world is ethically right and extremely vital.It is a gripping story of how customs and culture have historically oppressed women. The strength of the human rights movement and of actual change across all cultures is going to be asteadfast task of courageous women who give themselves permission to say no to so many years of unthinkable tyrannical cultural customs and fight for a new way of life. Many of us close our eyes

Second, Bartky claims that women are victims of cultural domination. She argues that the history and culture of women are that those of men (Bartky, p. 107). They have no alternative culture or identity to refer to and are forced to accept male supremacy as the norm: there is no cultural autonomy. Third, Bartky claims that women are sexually objectified. By this, she means that women’s sexual function and parts are reduced to an instrument and extended to all areas of life separate from their personality and capabilities. She points to examples such as catcalls and whistles that humiliate and objectify women. As a result, women are forced to see themselves as men see them. The objectified become the ones who objectify themselves while attempting to conform to images of a perfect woman (Bartky, p. 109). Consequently, Bartky argues that these forms of oppression are dehumanizing and depersonalizing because it targets personhood (Bartky, p. 110). The oppressed are unable to exercise their autonomy and qualities of being a person and believe it is the fault of their incapability of being a person. Specifically, they are alienated from the construction of their personhood and abilities as a human (Bartky, p. 111).

Women face two key forms of oppression in this world, powerlessness and exploitation. These two forms fall into Iris M. Young’s ideas of oppression in her article “Five Faces of Oppression”. The definition of cultural imperialism and exploitation used in this essay are taken from Young’s essay. Cultural imperialism is where the dominant customs and morals of a society are rendered as the norm and those who are not in the norm are considered others. Exploitation is a form of oppression where a class structure is present and this class structure includes a dominant group of people who are in power of a subordinate group. Two authors, John Stuart Mill and Simone de Beauvoir, talk about how the oppression of women is not due to nature. It is rather, in Mill’s view, due to a premodern law of force which divides men and women between the strong and the weak. Beauvoir sees this oppression of women as a result from socialization, which conformed women to become immanent. Both these authors have reasonable arguments and have a similar understanding that the inferiority of women is not from the simple nature of being women. Other factors come into play when understanding why women are oppressed, and both authors recognize the fact that society and old habits must change for the equality of women and men to become a reality.

Chandra Mohanty criticizes that by only speaking about the oppression non-western women have, creates the idea that western women have the necessity to aid them. “Sisterhood cannot be assumed on the basis of gender; it must be forged in concrete historical and political praxis.” For transnational feminism, utilizing a stereotype about certain women in the world eliminates their representation and thus negates the fact that they are combating for their political rights. In sum, the concept of using universals for women is not acceptable since their oppression changes depending on their socioeconomic and geographical factors and it obliterates their fight for

The purpose of this paper is to analyze to main questions. The first part of the paper will define transnational feminism and identify key factors within a transnational perspective. Another part will be discussing some transnational feminist critiques of mainstream “white/Western” feminism and will also give ideas that a transnational feminist would suggest in order to make positive changes for women. The second part of the paper will choose two concepts to define, as well as discuss how they relate to one another from a transnational perspective. In addition, the relation of how they related to gender or affect the political, social, and/or economic status of women in the world will be analyzed.

In “Genealogies, Legacies, Movements” from Feminism & Race by Chandra Mohanty and Jacqui Alexander, both are feminist theorists, critiques feminism by addressing that women studies set many contradictions causing women of color to experience alienation within white institutions. The reason for discriminating of their color and their nationalities and being deemed as immigrants. Mohanty and Alexander also explained how feminist genealogies can help shape their way of how to form a feminist democracy. All through international conferences and the world global market also known as free market feminism which demonstrated the democratic futures. Which addressed their experiences, history of women however women studies and gender studies still focused

“The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping begins when the doctor says, ‘It’s a girl’.” said Shirley Chisholm. Women in who are born into patriarchal societies face unimaginable struggles and horrors everyday. The article Forced Prostitution tells the reader about the struggle Indian women face everyday in their patriarchal society. They are raped and dehumanized on a regular basis because of the way their society works. Much in the same way Lakshmi from Patricia McCormick’s novel Sold, about sex trafficking in Nepal, is dehumanized. She is sold to a prostitution ring in India by her stepfather, who can no longer provide enough money for food, shelter, and his gambling addiction. Both of these texts show that societies where patriarchal

In reference to patriarchal culture and colonialism, the western society perceives them-selves to be the more dominant force within civilisation and aim to maintain their role as the holder of power within the hierarchal structure through the use of dominance. The notion of white males being more superior in contrast to blacks or other cultures has provided a false belief of power. The East are led to feel that taking on the persona of the white man has caused them to lose their diversity of culture and traditions and has in turn led to resentment and hatred towards the western cultures and values. These influences in power have led to attempts at colonialism by Eastern populations over their Western counterparts.

The book as a whole reflecting future directions of feminist and providing thoughtful, well-researched insights on it. This collection has echoed two important things 1. Strengths of interdisciplinary knowledge exercise in recontextualisation 2. Connections between feminist theorizing and politics. Besides this book has also raised many important questions as well. Is it realistic at all to fundamentally reconsider international law's foundational structures and norms? The articles incorporated in this book did not give any clear idea in this regard. Which I think will be a substantial question of furthering this debate in

First, for the one who believe on cultural relativism, the way they see universal human rights, they think it as the modern form of imperialism with the values and views of western (Reitman 1997, 104) and the relationship between cultural relativist with feminist is cultural relativist believe that feminist ‘protect the western notion of equality’ (Reitman 1997, 107) and feminist claim the universal rights according to the western perspective. Secondly, on the other hand, for the one who believe on feminism, they criticize that in the practice the universality has not been realized, they criticize that the only rights that only being protected are men’s rights and they feel that women still have not being yet included in the human rights (Reitman 1997, 104) and the relationship between feminist with cultural relativist is feminist believe that cultural relativist protect ‘a male notion of culture’ (Reitman 1997, 107) and cultural relativist seems to try to hampering the realization and enforcement of human rights of