Notes toward a Politics of Location by Adrienne Rich - Essay Example

Rich describes the politics of Marxism and Leftist feminism as being cut off from the reality of actual women moving through the world. Because feminism at this point in time had become without identity (“faceless, classless”) she feels that the theories that feminism was based upon could no longer be used to justify feminism. Once again, she thinks, the small minority are defining the majority without really understanding the people they are defining. I think she means this to be a parallel to white patriarchal culture, except that now it was white feminism limiting the understanding of women.

By using her own body as a base for location, and turning away from the politics that formed feminist thinking up to 1985, Rich gives me the feeling that she would approve of feminism in 2009. Today we try to accept each individual as he or she happens to be and ignore a lot of stereotyping. We are not perfect and still have not found a complete answer to the question “Who is we?” but we are still trying.