Overview

1. Overview • Multicultural Feminist Theories • Elsa Barkley Brown • Norma Alarcon • bell hooks • Patricia Hill Collins

2. Norma Alarcon • Reconfiguration of the subject of feminist theory (multi-voiced, multi-dimensional) • Argues that many 2nd wavers constructed “woman” as the subject as oppositional to man • White, middle class, hetero subject- embedded and invisible • Subject needs to be created based on differences • Anti-standpoint- no one common denominator of gender, must include race and class • Can women of color be subjects as well as objects of feminist theorizing?

3. Bell hooks • Critique of many 2nd wave theorists • White, middle class, hetero bias • Focused on “common oppression” of gender • Access to make vision public • Universities • Publishing • Media • Co-opted- conservative, liberal • Resisting one feminist theory • “theory in the making”

4. Patricia Hill Collins • Defining black feminist thought and standpoint • Experiences gained as a black woman stimulate a black feminist sensibility • Extending feminist standpoint to include race and class • Black women’s standpoint • Special angle of vision on the world • Can challenge the dominant view/knowledge

5. Patricia Hill Collins • “the primary responsibility for defining one’s own reality lies with the people who live that reality” • Do you have to be an insider to study and write about an issue? • Other groups (white women, black men) • Can be allies, advocates, teachers, critics

6. Patricia Hill Collins • Goal • Humanist visions of community • Multiple visions of difference, oppression, and change • Self-definition + consciousness-raising= resistance • Autonomy versus separation