Feminist Philosophy Reader by Alison Bailey and Chris Cuomo - Coursework Example

Feminist Philosophy Reader by Alison Bailey and Chris Cuomo Introduction: The book titled “Feminist philosophy reader” by Alison Bailey and Chris Cuomo seeks to present a comprehensive compilation of writings by female authors, in order to enable philosophy and feminist theory students to each learn from the other field. In the first section of the book, she has included six articles by women writers, all dealing in general with the theme of oppression and resistance1. This includes sexual and psychological oppression, as well as male and white oppression. One salient point that has been raised is how white feminist readers have demonstrated a general tendency to generalize issues relating to rape, domestic violence and similar issues within the framework of their own experiences, but this distorts similar discrimination experienced by women of the minority races. On this basis, the authors have arrived at the conclusion that the white feminist perspective prevails in feminist literature2. The second section of the book mostly deals with issues pertaining to sex and gender. This section includes an essay from the now famous work by Simone de Beauvoir – the Second sex, which provides an insightful analysis into what makes the female different from the male from the emotional and psychological standpoint3. It also includes an essay by Judith Halberstam, which deals with transgender, i.e, the confusion that arises from being one gender trapped in the body of the other gender4. Anne Fausto Sterling’s essay also deals with the issue of transvestites and questions whether there should be such a strict delination between the two genders5. These two articles differ from Beauvoir’s essay, which is primary centred on the expression of a female identity, while the other two essays mentioned here deal with the identity crises faced by those women who are trapped in men’s bodies and vice versa. Yet another essay in this section, written by Oyeronke, deals with sex and gender from the African perspective and how Western theories may not always be relevant to African subjects6. 2. Section Five of the Book focuses on the political perspectives and implications associated with feminism and philosophy. It includes six essays by various authors. Spivak has dealt with the post colonial approach to reason and in general has rejected mainstream colonial literature in her analysis of feminist questions. She suggests that the values of theorists such as Marx and Kant are more relevant in today’s context. Another writer Ong echoes this view; she is of the opinion that Marx has effectively captured the cultural and political upheavals that are so characteristic of a global economy where there is an interaction of different cultures and political systems. She has argued that the development of a global market is now running side by side with explosions in various kinds of freedoms. She contends that aspects such as the effect that runaway factories have on the Muslim women of Malaysia or maintaining ethics in the Asian frameworks in the context of the explosions of biotechnology all pose a challenge to existing anthropological order systems. In her essay, Mohanty has highlighted the impact of capitalism in developing areas, both upon men and women, and how gender barriers and boundaries push women into an inferior status. She gives the example of a village Narasapur, where the lace making industry is the province of women, but because it is considered a household job, it effectively means that men live off the profits of women and have the right to do so because they are the superior sex. Political aspects are also the subject of Schuette’s essay on the developing trends for women in Latin America7. Her essay primarily discusses the oppression of the female gender in the context of social liberation theories of the region, while Davis and Smith highlight other political issues such as rape as a tool of political genocide. 3. Section 6 of the book contains essays dealing with the moral and ethical aspects underlying feminist theories. The first essay in this section is Gilligan’s essay on morality and sexuality in women. She offers a radical view of morality in women, contending that women do not analyze or approach moral issues in the same manner that men do8. While men may tend to view moral issues purely as black and white issues, so that an action or thought is either right or wrong, women see it more as a gray area. For example, in allocating the punishment for a morally wrong act, a woman may be more prone to be compassionate and take into account mitigating factors leading to a particular moral decision, because their love for their offspring or loved ones may soften their moral stance. Kelly Oliver, in her essay “Conflicted love” builds further on Gilligan’s moral theory by arguing against the notion that maternal love is anti social in nature while the lack of paternal love is associated with a disembodied culture9. There have been various arguments which have stated that fatherless children growing up in single mother homes tend to be more violent and prone to immoral and unethical actions. Oliver argues that such a contention is inadequate to set up primary loving relationships. She argues that the maternal body may actually be social and loving, training young ones to adopt a moral perspective by allowing them some leeway in learning to be moral, rather than being too strict, as with disciplinarian fathers. Other authors in this section have also written about morality and ethics from a female perspective, arguing that some moral values may in fact be promoted better through the application of a female approach to morality rather than the male black or white approach. 4. Bailey and Cuomo’s book offers a wide and disparate range of views proffered by female authors from all over the world, who have offered their opinions and insights into a range of issues – from politics and oppression to gender identity. In effect, the book progresses based upon a historical perspective. It commences with Section 1 which contains a series of essays on the sexual and political oppression that women have faced in general through the ages, simply by virtue of their being female. The historical superiority of the white male and the superiority and power it gave him to trample upon women also influenced the nature of the work that women were able to do and the rights that they were entitled to. Political systems in that day and age automatically repressed women. The major focus of the first six essays is therefore to highlight the different kinds of oppression suffered by women. While sexual oppression was the most notable of these, and presumably the most acute because it was the external display of oppression, the essays by these authors in particular highlight how the accompanying psychological and political oppression may have been even more painful, even if they were not as evident externally. Women, being automatically deemed the inferior sex, have had to fight twice as hard to earn the privileges they now have. For example, Peggy Macintosh, in her essay titled “White privilege and male privilege” lists 46 different kinds of instances where being a white person constitutes an advantage that has not been earned. She points out that while men may reluctantly concede that women are disadvantaged, they are rarely willing to concede that in fact, they may be over privileged10. The essay lists various different instances where a person is automatically favoured over others who have dark skin, while being a male automatically provides a privilege over and above that which is available to a woman. Persons who have the advantage of being both white and male tend to take this privilege for granted. From the perspective of a minority woman, this may produce an automatic world bias that favors the literature of the white women over and above that of the women of minority races. For example, Audrey Lorde, in her essay titled “The Master’s tools cannot dismantle the Master’s House”, has criticized white feminist authors such as Betty Friedan, the author of the Feminine Mystique, for focusing only on the experiences of white middle class women as opposed to presenting the oppression of the female race as a whole and distinguishing between the further discrimination suffered by women of minority races on account of their race. The themes of oppression raised in the first section are followed up in Section 2 of the book, with essays that explore the very concept of feminity itself and what it means. Simone de Beauvoir in her essay, provides an insightful and deep analysis of the entire concept of being female, physically, mentally, emotionally and primarily from a psychological perspective11. This section of the book begins to question the traditional notions established in history, of what it is to be male or female. Judith Butler in her essay, questions whether so called gendered behaviour is itself a natural phenomenon or whether it is something that has developed because of the conditioning by society. She has argued that performing according to one’s gender expectations has been the very foundation of determining who we are as women and she strongly questions whether such performance is appropriate and true to the real inner self that constitutes what a woman actually is as a “subject” or a “person”. Halberstram explores the deviant from the traditional, circumscribed gender role – the transvestite12, and Oyeronke illustrates how western theories may not be fully relevant when applied in the context of Western women. All these essays only serve to highlight the point that Bailey and Cuomo have made in their introduction to the book, i.e, during their process of research to find material and essays to include in the book to highlight the development of feminist thought, they were astonished by how much the view represented was primarily from a white perspective. Chapter five contains essays that discuss the political ramifications of the construction of femin ity ad how it has played out in various nations all over the world. In the context of Latin America, Schuette’s essay is especially relevant because she espouses ethical values and practices everything she preaches about or writes about. She has offered up a brilliant analysis of how the theories of social liberation which have been espoused in Latin America still largely remain unaccomplished in reality, they are merely goals on paper because the gender discrimination is so deeply entrenched in Latin American society. The basic theme that has been captured in section three of the book deals with the racism that accompanies the experiences of females who belong to the minority races. This view has also been strongly advocated by Lorde13, who has actively challenged white women writers in her work. She contends that the black woman’s experience of discrimination on the grounds of race and sexuality is much different from that of the white woman; since white women’s experiences are considered to be the norm, this in effect, results in a marginalisation of the black woman’s experience. For example, she argues that because white lesbians present their experiences in the context of only the white experience, this is effect makes the black lesbian’s experience an aberration. Where Latina lesbians are concerned, Lugones in her essay has highlighted the deeper conflicts associated with being lesbian while also belonging to a minority race. According to the perspective she offers, Latina Lesbians essentially find themselves needing to don multiple identities and find themselves in a position where they exist in an ambiguous midway zone between cultures, races and sexuality. This makes them impure or not authentic, placing them – like black lesbians – in a position that is far worse as compared to white lesbians because from the white perspective, the Latina and black perspectives would be considered aberrant because their numbers are so few and far between. Thus, on the whole, there appears to be a concordance between the authors of minority races that in so far as sexuality is concerned, the predisposition to present this issue from the perspective of the white woman has tended to marginalize the experience of the minority woman. Chapter Four contains essays that are especially concerned with sexualities. Catherine MacKinnon in particular has highlighted how the dominant male perspective applied in society results in a marginalization of the female perspective. She has offered the radical view that the freedoms offered under the Constitution of the United States may need to be curtailed to some extent, because these freedoms tend to equate to the violation of the personal spaces and bodies of women through rape. She argues that from a legal standpoint, when a woman alleges rape by her husband, there is a tendency for the courts to refuse to take such an allegation seriously. They tend to arrive at the conclusion that it is a private matter between the man and his wife and it is not the place of the Courts to interfere in the matter. While the first four chapters deal with feminism in general and on a personal level, Chapter Five deals with the political ramifications. The salient point on which most of the authors appear to agree is that Marx’s views on the fight for freedom and equality, that were relevant to the cause of Communism, may also be relevant in the political context where women are concerned. Davis points out how the global environment has been homogenizing the experiences of men and women – in prisons, women inmates are slowly beginning to increase to match up to the males because globalization and feminism have in effect, moved males and females closer to each other and demonstrated the large extent to which the differences between them have been created by society and its pressures. In conclusion, it may be stated that this book explores several issues specifically pertaining to women. It draws attention to the oppression that they face purely by virtue of their gender and also highlights issues of sexuality and the confusion that arises in the case of transvestites. The political implications of feminism are also covered in some sections of the book. The notable feature about this book however and the conclusion the authors have arrived at, as exemplified in the preface to the book, is that feminist literature is predominantly white and there is a lack of representation of minority women’s writings in the gamut of feminist literature. References Bailey, Alison and Cuomo, Chris, 2008. “The feminist philosophy reader”, McGraw Hill Read More