Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses

The main arguments of Mohanty, Liederman, and Sen have similarities and differences. First, Mohanty’s main argument emphasizes the issue of white Western women belittling those of other cultures and ethnicities within the feminist movement. By asserting a universal notion of womanhood, these white Western women show ethnocentric universality through their ignorance of how the meaning of femininity, oppression, and liberation in the women’s movement vary in ethnic and cultural contexts (Mohanty, 1984, p. 335). By using a mindset that ignores ethnic differences, they therefore falsely construct and analyze “third world women,” believing that these women desperately need help to advance in society. Mohanty argues that in order for a feminist movement to advance, women must discontinue a paternalistic method of marginalizing women of different ethnicities to recognize the varied meanings of femininity, oppression, and liberation and enhance their solidarity and effectiveness as a whole group. This ethnocentrism is also present in Liederman’s

IV: Feminist scholarship extensively details how the very tools that allow us to interpret the world can also constitute and reinforce inequalities of power. We are given over form the beginning to structures such as language, identity, law, nation and privilege (among many others) that implicate us in processes of exclusion, devaluation, and commodification. Drawing upon at least one reading from classes 15-21, one from classes 22-27 and another from before the midterm, discuss methods of undermining or subverting this inevitable complicity to forge room for resistance.

Marilyn Frye has universal definition of oppression as being “a system of interrelated barriers and forces which reduce, immobilize, and mold people who belong to a certain group and effect their subordination to another group” (7). Feminists are working to dismantle the restrictive powers to create equivalent opportunities for all people. On paper, it seems black and white because everyone is working together towards the same goal of equality. On the ground, the divisions of gray can be seen between the vast variety of methods and opinion. As the tension builds, there are two main camps formed: The Western feminist and the Non-Western feminist. (While I personally object to this terminology because of its Eurocentrism, I have yet to find alternatives that encompass the same meaning so it will have to stay standing as imperialist as it is.) Both sets of activists have different roles within these current predicaments facing the unjust treatment of women. Western feminists find themselves in a stalemate of passing critical judgement on another culture or standing aside and letting the injustice continue. Non-Western feminists are working against the oppression in their society as well as the overreaching Western feminists before they can make their voices heard. Therefore, my argument is that Western feminism needs be revised into becoming the megaphone for Non-Western feminist issues. That way ideas from people on the ground are not disregarded and those on the outside who

Sociological imagination highlights how society places the two sexes in unequal positions of wealth, power and privilege. It is therefore very useful to look beyond the gender itself and see the global issues associated with it. There are differences regarding the type of gender in different countries, the levels of gender inequality and the amount of violence that are necessary to maintain both systems of difference and domination. Women were always viewed as weak, sensitive, dependent and unintelligent so the society formed a view that they have to sit home, do the housework and raise the children. They were always considered less skilled, incapable of doing a hard work and even now women are more likely to be paid less than man. Women are more likely to be abused and they are less likely to have access to formal power. According to the United Nations, “At least one in five of world’s female population has been physically or sexually abused by a man at some time in their life” (UNFPA, 2000: p. 25).

She criticizes Okin’s writing, mainly focusing on Okin’s idea that the West is the best. She states that this idea of Okin’s is untrue as it lies on the assumption that the West is the best for women. This assumption puts emphasis on the oppression women face in non-Western countries which she believes it problematic. Jaggar believes this idea is problematic as the idea is formed only through the perception of one from the West. Okin argues that a false consciousness is among non-Western women as she believes that these women are unaware of the oppression that they are faced with. Jaggar disagrees with this argument as she states that Western culture does not truly understand the injustices in the East. This disagreement leads Jaggar to the central claim that even though many Western people may find some cultural practices as oppressive in the East, many of these practices are actually voluntary choices. She concludes her piece stating that “Westerners concerned about the plight of poor women in poor countries should not focus exclusively, and perhaps not primarily, on the cultural traditions of those [Eastern] countries” (Jaggar 75). Jaggar believes that Western individuals need to be reflective of their own roles that contribute to the plight of the “Third World Woman” in the first place

In “The Tempest”, “Translations” and “Things Fall Apart”, the theme of patriarchy is explored in different settings; the colonisation of the Irish in “Translations”, an unnamed island in “The Tempest” and the Igbo tribe in “Things Fall Apart”.

Solnit’s choice of topic and the context surrounding it stem from her knowledge of the extent of the issue and the overarching repercussions that could result. She acknowledges that there are other topics that she would prefer to devote her time to, “but this affects everything else” (530). Through her topic choice and her selection of details, Solnit seeks to reveal the depth of the inequality throughout society. In order to do this, one of the first strategies that Solnit employs is to use examples from all around the globe. She writes this essay under the assumption that the audience is largely uninformed about the sheer extent of violence against women, and is working to remedy that situation. By pointing out the ways in which other countries routinely and systematically discriminate against women, Solnit places under scrutiny the idea that women’s rights are no longer an issue in the United States. Additionally, by presenting her audience with an abundance of headlines and examples of this discrimination, she further validates her argument and purpose of shedding light onto the issue. One other way in which the context of Solnit’s essay advances her purpose is through her creation of ties between the women’s rights movement and the

Genocide has long had gendered effects, but those effects have long gone relatively understudied as with many other issues relating to feminism in academic scholarship. By gendering our understanding of power and violence, genocide must be rethought and even perhaps redefined, as the reality of genocide often finds itself in conflict with the genocidal realities women have faced throughout time. Through gendering our understanding of genocide in this analysis, the feminist viewpoint provides important acknowledgements for the effects of these human rights abuses on both men and women. Moreover, we will better understand how the

The defeatist mindset of women can perpetuate their own continued oppression. This is the psychological result of extreme oppression, abuse and marginalization of women in a radically patriarchal society like Afghanistan. In this society, one might assume that the power of men is reinforced mostly by fellow men; however, it is enlightening to learn that women themselves can perpetuate male privilege when they succumb to defeatism. Khaled Hosseini does an excellent job demonstrating this phenomenon in A Thousand Splendid Suns. Hosseini effectively shows Afghanistan as the quintessential patriarchal society that is oppressive to women and subverts feminism through abuse of human rights.

Third world women are face with discrimination and sexism just like the women and men are in America. To further explain this, the first example are Asian-American women. Asian-American women have two “roles” that they need to be labeled as by their culture: docile or submissive oriental dolls (Kerber 735). If Asian Americans men, see Asian-American women taking on too much responsibility they are labeled as “unfeminine.” Kerber gives the examples of two sisters who have achieved positions of authority, but since they are minorities they still face the stereotypes society has placed on them. The sisters have rejected the stereotype that is imposed on them and are labeled other harsh names. Still giving labels instead of just seen as human Not

For many decades, women have experienced all forms of oppression and constant violence that threatened their existence in the male-dominated society. Various forms of discrimination and oppression have been directed to women for decades. Violence directed at women such as rape and battery were seen and treated as isolated scenarios. However, as the need to foster gender equality took pace, such oppressive actions are now perceived as elements of a wider system of dominance in the society that that needs to be addressed as a whole rather than in singularity

third world feminists, proposes a structure of “oppositional (or differential) consciousness” onto which all forms of oppositional consciousness can be mapped. Differential consciousness, she argues, implies a new kind of subjectivity developed under conditions of multiple oppression. This new subjectivity, dynamic and self-consciously mobile, manifests itself in the political practices of U.S. third world feminists. Because nonwhite women have long been oppressed in multiple ways, as part of their political coming to consciousness they have had to learn to highlight (or obscure) different aspects of themselves to be able to work effectively within political organizations. For example, if a U.S. third world feminist wants to work effectively or feel comfortable in a group organized on the basis of race, she will have to highlight the racialized aspects of her personal identity and deemphasize the gendered ones. Conversely, if she wants to work effectively or feel included in white feminist organizations, she will have to deemphasize or ignore the interests generated from the racialized aspect of her identity. As a result of having to continually privilege or deemphasize different aspects of themselves in different situations, Sandoval says, U.S. third world feminists have become practiced at shifting their ideologies and identities in response to different configurations of

There have been four United Nations World Conferences on Women in Mexico City (1975), Copenhagen (1980), Nairobi (1985), and Beijing (1995) that have revolutionized the feminist framework by allowing opportunities for women to converse about the challenge known as transnational feminist activism. Transnational feminist can be described as feminism, or a movement that unites women struggles from all over the globe to progress the fight for equality. Because the entire world is generally dominated by men whether it is in the workplace, politics, or at home, women are disadvantaged in society in comparison to men. Each one of these conferences was considered a “massive global consciousness-raising moment, even if a painful one, as women learned

Colonialism/Postcolonialism is a remarkably comprehensive yet accessible guide to the historical and theoretical dimensions of colonial and postcolonial studies. National fantasies are they colonial, anti-colonial or postcolonial also play upon the connection between woman, land or nation. Feminist theory and postcolonial theory are occupied with similar questions of representation, voice, marginalization, and the relation between politics and literature. Given that both critical projections employ multidisciplinary perspectives, they are each attentive, at least in principle, to historical context and the geopolitical co-ordinates the subject in question. The identification of women as national mother stems from a wider association of nation with the family. The topic of feminism and postcolonialism is integrally tied to the project of literary postcoloniality

This critique reflects on Mohanty’s “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses” and Moore’s “The Rise and Rise of Ecofeminism as a Development Fable: A Response to Melissa Leach’s ‘Earth Mothers and Other Ecofeminist Fables: How a Strategic Notion Rose and Fell.” Both articles raise questions of essentialism as a necessary element in feminism itself, and of naivety, validity and value of essentialized feminist works. This firstly challenges the biological and social definition of ‘woman,’ the homogenization of ‘woman’, and further, the implication of the role of women in nature. The second challenge that arises in reviewing these articles is the question of audience: whom are these (eco)feminists targeting, and for what purpose? The challenges of (eco)feminism, essentialist feminism, and the application of feminism in gender, development and environmental studies are apparent in both of the articles I am reviewing.