Feminisms II

1. Feminisms II 2. History of Feminist Movement, Radical Feminism & French Feminism 1. Women's Positions in Patriarchal Society and Discourses 3. Feminisms and Gender Studies: Post-Feminism, Lesbian Feminism 4. Examples (Surfacing Included) 5. Group Report & Taiwanese Feminisms

2. Starting Questions • What does ‘being constructed as Other” mean? • Is sex the fundamental reason for patriarchal oppression of women? What can sexual liberation do? • What is ‘femininity’ or being feminine? What does it mean to say that ‘in “woman” something cannot be represented’? • What’s wrong with being logical or rational? Is being feminine being illogical? • What are the possible problems in ‘image of women’ approach to literature? • What is ‘the semiotic’? And “feminine écriture”?

3. Outline • History of Women’s Movements in Brief • Zoom in (1): The Second Wave –Radical Feminism • Zoom in (2): French Feminists; an example 夏宇

4. History of Women’s Movements • Some Footnotes First: • The histories and theories we’re introducing here are “mostly” those of ‘Western’ women and feminisms. • Sexual discrimination is still a fact of life ‘almost’ everywhere in this world, but it appears in different forms in different societies. We should not criticize the other societies (e.g. African, Islamic) without fully understanding them. • Exceptions to our histories/theories: 中國雲南麗江摩梭族 (e.g.『三個摩梭女子的故事); 女書（湖南永江﹚

5. Feminist Movements • 1. Liberalist:equality in the public sphere (e.g. workplace, civil rights, education, money) --Mary Wollstonecraft A Vindication of the Rights of Woman -- John Stwart Mill “The Subjection of Women” -- Charlotte Perkin Gilman Herland -- Virginia Woolf: “A Room of One’s Own” & Androgy

6. Feminist Movements: The Second Wave since 1960’s • Emphases: “the personal is the political” -- the politics of reproduction, women's 'experience,' sexual 'difference.' • American Feminists: Radical Feminist, Psychoanalytic Feminist • French Feminists • Since the 80’s, Lesbianism, Postmodern Feminism, Postcolonial Feminism, Transgender Criticism, Ecofeminism, etc.

7. Central Issues in Contemporary Feminisms A. 60’s -70’s -- Women’s Studies: Women’s 1) biology (this week) 2) experience and social position (last and this week) 3) writing (this and next week) B. 80’s – Gender Studies 1)power relations (cultural differences) 2) gender constructions (next week) 3) sexual orientation (next week)

8. Central Issues in Contemporary Feminisms (2) • Gender/Sexual Difference • (Before the second wave) Deny difference (difference = discrimination); • Celebrate difference • Recognize the arbitrariness of difference  the fluidity of its boundaries

9. I. The Second Wave: the American Side Radical Feminism: Background and Some Major Views; Feminist Literary Criticism American Psychoanalytic Feminism (ref. chap 1: 185-186; chap 2)

10. Radical Feminism: Background & Development • Before: Post-War conservatism; (clip 1) • Rise and Fall: • Inspired by the Civil Rights Movement; • The forming of NOW; demonstrations on the street; • Backlashes (clip 2), The emergence of gay liberation movement (Woman-Identified-Women) and then fragmentation (clip 3) • Radical — the most basic/fundamental issues (e.g. sex/gender system)

11. Some Major Views • The Female Eunuch (女太監) –infantilization and de-sexualization of women (chap 2: 234) • The Feminine Mystique -- a false belief system that requires women to find identity and meaning in their lives through their husbands and children. • Sexual Politics （性別政治﹚ – “Sex is political.”  Resisting male domination in life and in literature (e.g. Lawrence, H. Miller & Normal Mailer). (clip 4) • Androgyny redefined – masculine “power over” + feminine “pleasure with”  ‘power to’ (權力給予, creating pleasure)

12. Some Major Views (2) • Rejecting Biological Motherhood (S. Firestone) (for artificial insemination) • Radical lesbian feminist separatist – e.g. Mary Daly, -- Beyond God the Father: attacking Christianity in Boston College, a college run by the Jesuit. -- Pure Lust – calls herself a hag; promotes separatism. --barringmen from her classes for 25 years.

13. Main Issues of Debate for Radical Feminism • Lesbianism or Gay Liberation Movement • Motherhood  Is it a constraint? • Artificial insemination -- male alienation from reproduction) • A. Rich: Motherhood as Experience and Institution • Surrogate Mother –exploitation of women’s bodies? • Sex Industry  to ban or not to ban? • Pornography, banned or not • Prostitute: freedom to work or exploitation of women's bodies

14. (II) American Feminist Literary criticism • “Images of Women” Approach; e.g. • Women and the Demon; • The presentation of women in traditional love poetry; • Gynocriticism • Constructs a female framework (in terms of topics, areas of studies, main concerns); • Re-discovers women’s works and their values. • Discovers new forms  literature of their own

15. American Feminist Literary criticism: gynocriticism (chap 2: 239-40) • the contrast in style and subject matter between masculine and feminine writings • feminine writing--more concerned with community, open ending; associational logic; subjective • male--individualistic, closure, sequential, objective

16. (III) Psychoanalytic Feminisms American: Nancy Chodorow • The Reproduction of Motherhood (an example of object-relations theory) • Males: have fixed ego-boundaries (rigid and defensive) because they define themselves through separation from their mother. • Females: have fluid and permeable ego-boundaries because they never break up their relationship with the mother. This sense of self-in-relationship and need for connection to others in turn underlies the desire to “mother” (be a mother).

17. French Feminism Some Key Terms: The realm of the proper (Oedipus complex & fear of castration) vs. the realm of gift Bi-sexuality or self-touching Penus/phallus vs. chora The imaginary, the symbolic and the real Textbook chap 1: 186 – 188; chap 2 243-250)

18. (III) French Feminism: Feminine ecriture (chap 2: pp. 243-50) • Biology feminine writing • Against the psychoanalysts’ emphasis on Oedipus complex and the Father. Against seeing woman as Lack. • Against the fixity of male writing and systems of thoughts • Cixous: phallogocentrism and its binarism • writing from the body; write in white ink; in the Realm of the Gift vs. the Realm of the Proper (property-- appropriate--the fear of castration)

19. Irigaray • autoeroticism; plural sexuality; • an alternate discourse that is multiple, fluid, and heterogeneous • feminine style: 1) mimicry; 2) "self-touching" and "self-affection" – (quote on p. 248: always having “another ‘other meaning’ always in the process of weaving itself, of embracing itself with words, but also of getting rid of words in order not to become fixed. . .” )

20. Kristeva: the semiotic • the feminine as the silence of the unconscious that precedes discourse; • its utterance is a flow or rhythm instead of an ordered statement; • expression is fluid like the free-floating sea of a womb or the milk of the breast.

21. Feminine Writing: an example夏宇 〈在陣雨之間〉 我正孤獨通過自己行星上的曠野我正 孤獨通過自己行星上的曠野我正孤獨 通過自己行星上的曠野我正孤獨通過 自己行星上的曠野我正孤獨通過自己 行星上的曠野我正孤獨通過自己行星 上的曠野 正孤獨 我正孤獨通過

22. Feminine Writing: an example夏宇 〈在陣雨之間〉 我正孤獨通過自己行星上的曠野我正 孤獨通過自己行星上的曠野我正孤獨 通過自己行星上的曠野我正孤獨通過 自己行星上的曠野我正孤獨通過自己 行星上的曠野我正孤獨通過自己行星 上的曠野 正孤獨 我正孤獨通過 It breaks the tradition of logical, linear writing, a writing with closure and a central idea.  the reader is liberated.