Definition of Feminism: Cultural Feminism - Essay Example

?Cultural Feminism: Has it Helped or Hurt? Definition of Feminism – Cultural Feminism In this essay, the focus will be on cultural feminism. According to Turnier et al. (1996), cultural feminism is based upon the work of Professor Carol Gilligan, who was an educational psychologist at Harvard. Gilligan challenged the work of another Harvard professor, Lawrence Kohlberg. Kohlberg claimed that men outperformed women in cognitive moral development, and Gilligan stated that the reason why Kohlberg found this in his studies is because his model was male-oriented and male-centric. Gilligan further stated that there were female and male moral hierarchies, and that the female moral hierarchy should be equal to the male moral hierarchy. Therefore, Gilligan proposed that females and males should be approached and studied differently, and that women might have different moral hierarchies, but that these hierarchies are not inferior to males, just different. Gilligan further found that men and women are different, in that women value care over rights, and men value rights over care. She further went on to note other cultural differences, such as that males define themselves by separation from others, and females define themselves by identifying with others. Further, cultural feminists understand that our rights and ethos are male centric, and believe that society should listen to the women's voice as much as the man's voice (Turnier et al., 1996). Ending Stereotypes of Women Since cultural feminism is concerned with the differences between men and women, and that, because we lived in a man's world, the man is the one who defines society, stereotyping of women based upon a male's perception of the female ideal is one problem that cultural feminists fight to overcome. One of the ways that women are stereotyped is through the use of ideal body images, which are the ideals that women feel that they have to achieve, in order to be seen as being acceptable to society. The ideal is represented by Playboy models and pageant winners, which are, by and large, difficult if not impossible to attain for the average woman (Calabrese et al., 2011). Our society is inundated by this beauty ideal both through the regular media and through advertising. Advertising, according to Dyer (1989), features the feminine beauty ideal because advertising essentially markets a fantasy, in this case, a male fantasy. The objects that are to be sold are made more valuable in the eyes of society by being associated with these ideal images. Therefore, the feminine ideal of the Barbie or Playboy figure – slim waisted and large breasted – becomes the standard by which women are judged in our advertisements, and is responsible for perpetuating the stereotype that women must uphold these ideals (Dyer, 1989).             The reason why the feminine ideal is that of the slim waisted and large breasted Barbie doll or Playboy centerfold is because this is the supposed ideal of the male, and, as de Beauvoir (1973) notes, femininity is defined by the patriarchy in society. That said, as Lorber (1993) notes, the standards of beauty, as defined by men, are ever-changing in society. While the ideal might be the Barbie figure today, and it was in the 1950s as well, as shown by the popularity of Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield and Jane Russell, the ideal in the 1990s was the emaciated look. This look, according to Lorber (1993) was small-breasted, slim hipped, and emaciated. This ideal was something that the women starved themselves for during this period of time (Lorber, 1993). What controls what is popular, as far as body types go, is patriarchy, society and culture (Lorber, 1993). The problem with these images, aside from how they make women feel, is that women become essentially the object of the male sexual gratification and desire, and makes women believe that their appearance is associated with their worth. This leads to a kind of destructive stereotype, that women are supposed to meet the stereotyped ideal, and, if they do not, they fall short in the eyes of society. Especially men in society. This is what leads to eating disorders and dysmorphic body images (Lorber, 1993). This is, therefore, the challenge of the cultural feminists- stereotypes which are based upon the male ideal of the female body are sought to be ended, so that women can feel good about themselves, no matter their appearance or weight, and that all women are celebrated for who they are inside, not what they look like. Valenti (2010) states that feminism is as simple as liking the way one looks, even if one does not fit in with the beauty ideal. This is important in this Botox and lipo-obsessed world, maintains Valenti (2010), and is revolutionary in that it is counter to the idea that one must fit in with the patriarchal zenith of female perfection. How Gender Equality Has Gained in the Past 40 Years Gender equality is ever changing. Victorian women, for example, had zero equality. They couldn't own property, because any property they had was automatically the property of the husband. The Victorian woman was completedly subjugated to that husband, and had no role except wife and mother (Abrams, 2001). The New Woman was next, as women started to gain more rights, and work outside the home (Ramirez, 1997). This meant that the female identity changed along with society, as women started to see themselves as something other than a mother and wife (Lavin, 1993). The New Woman was the female identity and ideal until the 1950s, which was an era when women were, once again, expected to stay home and take care of her husband and children (Coontz, 1997). This led to the second wave of feminism, which is how feminism has changed in the past 40 odd years. In this second wave of feminism, in the 1960s, led by Betty Friedan, author of The Feminine Mystique, and the formation of the National Organization for Women (NOW), women fought for equal rights and equal pay (Blair, 2009). Along with the changes that women experienced on the issues of equal rights and equal pay came other changes in the social fabric that Phillips (2004) argues destroyed society. Because women were able to find work outside the home, and birth control became readily available, there were changes in the 1960s that included a breakdown of family, the home and community. More children were illegitimate, free sex ran rampant and divorce was liberalised. Fukuyama (1999) argues that the feminist movement did induce changes, but that it is more complex than this. He argues that the changes that occurred in the 1960s were a result of several different factors, the biggest being that the economy shifted from industry to information. This enabled more women to enter the workforce, among other changes. Moreover, the advent of birth control, argued Fukuyama (1999) resulted in a breakdown of the family, because men no longer felt obligated to take care of the women they get pregnant. Men also started abandoning their families more because the women were in the workforce, therefore the wife needed the husband less. This means that the man would be less likely to have to pay alimony and the like. It also makes leaving more attractive to the woman, because she knows that she is better able to take care of herself and her children if she left (Fukuyama, 1999). Fukuyama (1999) sees the breakdown of the nuclear family as not just the result of feminism, but also the male reaction to it – men feel less responsible towards their wives and family because of feminism, and this is, in part, why the nuclear family broke down. Raunch Culture and Sexualization of Culture – Does This Mean Feminism Has Failed? The raunch culture is the logical extension of the obsession with ideal body images and stereotypes, which has been explained above. Raven (2010) states that Katie Price, a British model and public personality, is at the forefront of raunch culture in Britain, as she has openly stated that she wants to recruit women to the idea that it matters what they look like, not what they are like inside – she refers to this paradigm as “Team Narcissist.” Raven (2010) states that this concept of women becoming obsessed with looks and fame has culminated in a British survey where some 60% stated that becoming a glamour model was their chosen career, and some 25% stated that they would consider lap dancing. Raven (2010) blames this culture on the feminists, who declared that the war was already won, so we might as well enjoy the fruits of our labour, and stop being so boring and political already. It was at this point that the feminists decided to relax, and have fun instead of playing the role of victim. So, women started becoming more free sexually, more apt to pursue a life where appearances are everything, and were more likely to pursue a superficial life. Raven (2010) states that this kind of raunch culture – where women are free to do whatever they please, and do so, does not mean that feminism has won. Rather, these women are fooling themselves, because they do not have an over-arching philosophy to guide them. They also do not really self-express, because they do not dialogue – they simply put their voice into the ether, and do not care what comes back to them (Raven, 2010). This would imply that raunch culture would, in fact, mean that feminism has failed. However, Segal (2006) would beg to differ in this assessment. For her, the fact that females can participate in raunch culture – which would include females enjoying sex toys, learning to pole dance, and generally dressing and looking like hookers – means that feminism has actually made some gains, because it means that women can be free to do what they want without society's shaming them. Raunch culture has made this possible, by bringing raunch into the mainstream. To What Extent Has Feminism Been Successful? Feminism has definitely been a mixed blessing. Women are more free to do what they want, this is true, and women increasingly are taking this freedom and running with it. They are sexually free, participating in raunch culture, taking birth control and having sex with fewer consequences than in earlier times. She is in the workforce with the men, making her own money and making her own way in the world. These are good things and also bad things. Because of the freedom of women, families have suffered, at least in the view of some sociologists and authors. Women also continue to be sexualised and stereotyped, and made to fit into a narrow normative body type by the patriarchal society. Of course, in looking at the alternative – the Victorian Age, when women were essential nobodies, or the 1950s, when women were relegated to very narrow roles – feminism and the gains that it has made have been a good thing overall. References Abrams, Lynn. “Ideals of Womanhood in Victorian Britain.” < http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/ soc/sociology/staff/academicstaff/jonesc/jonesc_index/teaching/birth/wk11_victorian_britain_handout.pdf> (2001) (Accessed 30 April 2013). Blair, M. (2009) “'A Dynamic Force in Our Community': Women's clubs and second-wave feminism at the grassroots,” Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 30-48. Butler, J. (1986) “Sex and gender in Simone de Beauvoir’s Second Sex.” Yale French Studies, no. 72, pp. 35-49. Butler, J. (1990) Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge. Calabrese, S., Rima, B. & Schick, V. (2011) “Evulvalution: the portrayal of women’s external genitalia and physique across time and the current Barbie Doll ideals,” The Journal of Sex Research, vol. 48, no. 1: pp. 74-80. Coontz, Susan. The Way We Really Are. New York: Basic Books, 1997. De Beauvoir, S. (1973) The Second Sex. New York: Vintage Books. Fukuyama, F. (1999) The Great Disruption: Human Nature and the Reconstitution of Social Order. New York: Free Press. Lavin, Maud. Cut With the Kitchen Knife: the Weimar Photomontages of Hannah Hoch. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1993. Lorber, J. (1993) “Believing is seeing: Biology and ideology,” Gender and Society, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 568-581. Phillips, M. (2004) “The Sixties: Why I loathe them,” The Daily Mail, 6 December. Ramirez, F., Soysal, Y. & Shanahan, S. (1997) “The changing logic of political citizenship: Cross-national acquisition of women’s suffrage rights 1890 to 1990,” American Sociological Review, vol. 62, pp. 735-745. Raven, C. (2010) “How the new feminism went wrong,” The Guardian, 6 March. Segal, L. (2006) “A misguided manifesto,”The Guardian, 28 June. Turnier, W., Johnston-Conover, P. & Lowery, D. (1996) “Redistributive justice and cultural feminism,” The American University Law Review, vol. 45, pp. 1275-1322. Valenti, J. (2007) Up the revolution! The Guardian, 18 April. Read More