Lesson 4 Critical Perspectives in Political Theory: Feminist and Postmodern Important Notes

Lesson 4 Critical Perspectives in Political Theory: Feminist and Postmodern
 

Feminist Perspective

How many political theorists do you come across while reading your political science text books? Probably very less number or sometimes no female at all, may be that is the reason some feminist claimed that the history of political theory is the history of male theorist. Not only political theory but most of the fields are male dominated and male managed. The term feminism first came in use during the period of 1890s. But the origin of modern feminism can only be traced back to late seventeenth century surely not in its present form. She argued that women have the same potential for rationality that men have and thus there is no reason why women should not enjoy the same status that men enjoy. Nurture, not nature, argued Wollstonecraft, is the cause of gender distinctions.

 

Schools of Feminism

 

Feminist movement as a whole was concerned with the women rights and advocated for equality of sexes Vis a Vis challenged male dominance. But did not prescribed a universalized single path, different feminist have advocated different roots for women cause.

 

Liberal feminism emphasizes upon the equal worth of all individuals whether male and female. The main focus is on achieving gender equality through political and legal reforms within the liberal democratic framework. Liberal feminism has a great admiration and belief for the respective laws, the political institutions and the education. As they are among the most relevant factors of human development, the major source of inequality is the denial of equal legal and political rights.

Many feminists believe that liberalism is the source of the problem and not the solution. Liberal feminists initially wanted equal right as per men but treating men and women equally leads to two problems. This sameness approach denies the very particularities of male female difference. First while taking men as standard, it undermines the idea of femaleness. A female and male are two different categories; women’s identity cannot be compromised to attain an equality built on the male parameters. Secondly in the process of treating female and male as equals it fails to accept that women and men are actually different and so their problems.

 

Socialist feminism focuses upon the interconnection between capitalism and patriarchy as both capitalist system of production and a gendered biased institutionalized system of patriarchy is collectively responsible for the women’s condition. Between 1960s and 1970s this variant of feminism has spread widely. Socialist feminists believe that financial dependence over males is a major cause of women’s oppression and discrimination. In capitalist system of production unequal ownership of wealth between women and men further give a boost to male domination. In this sense subjugation of women to men is a result of economic dependence.

Though it did not repeat the mistake of liberal feminists who consider both men and women equal but they too were subject to certain criticism. Alexandra Kollontai criticized the feminists to neglect the poor working-class women at the expense of upper-class bourgeois women who were still oppressing the poor working women. So, feminist movement is actually a movement for the so cold upper class women’s dominance over the poor lower-class women.

 

Radical feminism as its name suggests is a perspective which advocates for radical reordering of a male dominated society. The male dominated society is characterized by the male supremacy in all social, economic and political sphere of life. Radical feminism advocated the elimination of male’s supremacy and women's experiences should also be count along with other divisions like race, class, and sexual orientation. They proposed that the society is basically patriarchal based upon the women oppression by men.

 

Three common points all feminist supporting are:

 

1. Entrenchment of Gender–Gender inequality is widespread in all societies in all times. All feminist are in one voice confirmed that the unequal bifurcation of individual roles on the bases of gender has been a major and common issue of concern as this gendered division lead to long term inequality in society. Assigning gender roles like private sphere for women (the household responsibility) and the public sphere to men (the breadwinner of household) is problematic to all feminists.

2. Existence of Patriarchy–Patriarchy literally means ‘rule of father’. Normally it signifies towards a condition where all necessary and relevant decisions in a family are taken by the male member. Feminists have consensus over the existence of patriarchy in society. Kate Millett who wrote the “Sexual Politics” (1970) portrays patriarchy as a ‘social constant’ running through all the political, social and economic structures. It according to her is grounded in and operates from the family which works as a fertile ground for patriarchy.

3. Need for Change–All feminists believe that there is a deep need of change in the attitude and the manner hitherto society is running. Different path can be adopted for the betterment of the women. It can be through revolution the idea advocated by the revolutionary feminist or the through strengthening laws as the liberal feminist wanted. This is more a kind of individual change she was talking about, but a collective change in the existing institutions, policies, values and practice is required.

 

Waves of Feminism

First wave This wave of feminism was emerged in the 1840s and 1850s and closely associated with the women’s suffrage movement. Feminists such as Mary Wollstonecraft Sylvia, John Stuart Mill, Emmeline, Christabel Pankhurst and Sojourner Truth have advocated for women rights in political and economic sphere. The major argument they presented to strengthen their claim over women rights was equality of sexes. So one group claimed that women were equal to men, other group argued that women were superior to the men. The major demand in this wave was women’s interest cannot be sacrificed and not subject to any reductionism.

 

Second wave came in 1960s with more radical and sometimes revolutionary vigor. Women’s Liberation Movement. It is associated with the resurgence of feminist activism, specifically the radical feminism, in 1960s and 1970s. Germaine Greer, Shulamith Firestone, Andrea Dworkin and Mar Daly are some key feminist in this wave. During this wave feminism, prime concern was male violence toward women particularly sexual violence. Major focus was on attacking this kind of violence, rejected the feminine norms like the sexual submissiveness and participation in beauty practices. Oppose those practices considered as common norm is society such as gendered distinction of work and do favor female solidarity and sisterhood.

 

Post Feminism

 

It is characterized by the resistance towards the themes of second wave feminism by feminists like Katie Roiphe, Camille Paglia, Natasha Walter and Pat Califia. Feminists during this wave demanded that women must not see themselves as victims, rather consider themselves as active agents. Sexuality should be thought as liberating and consensual sex should not be treated as a taboo. Feminism should focus on women’s material equality rather than symbolic aspect of gender.

 

Personal is Political

1. Power, a distinguishing feature of the political but private sphere is also a sphere of power. Power exists within the family, among the gender relations between husband and wife, sister and brother and so on. For example domestic violence is clear reflection of the use of power within family.

2. The domestic sphere itself is the result of the political decisions taken in other sphere. In that sense political sphere infiltrates private sphere. State interference in family matters and the institution of marriage reveals this infiltration. Marriages are sanction by the state; the state is the supreme authority to decide who can be marrying and whom you cannot marry. Every state has their own marriage criteria such as a particular age of marriage, guidelines about homosexual marriages and other such laws.

3. Domestic life is where most of individual’s early socialization takes place. Private sphere creates the psychological conditions that can govern public life. The social construction (gender division of labor) and patriarchal surrounding (where key decisions are taken by the mal member in family) work as an initial setup.

 4. The division of labor within majority of families raises psychological and practical barriers against women in all other spheres. The household responsibilities cause women’s underrepresentation in most relevant public institutions like government, judiciary and economy.

 

Sex and Gender

Feminists have confirmed the fact that gender and sex are two different things and gender distinctions are socially constructed. It means that it is the result of political arrangements and is acquiescent to social and political analysis. Since the seventeenth century, some feminist have argued that the women’s nature which is characterized as natural and universal is actually artificial and distorted, a product of constructed societal upbringing. In the words of the Simone de Beauvoir, a French writer, ‘One is not born but rather becomes a woman’. In the later period this statement starts formalized into the sex/gender distinction.

Sex/Gender difference became quite relevant because constructed gender division forced women to sacrifice their careers for parenthood, do the majority of unpaid domestic work and are made vulnerable through the institution of marriage. These differences between men and women do not stem from biological differences but from unequal power relations between male and female. All feminists are united in their concern for liberating women and adopt diverse theoretical positions for identifying these injustices. In accordance with their findings they present different prescriptions of what needs to be done to create a more equal society.

To be a political theory as a ‘feminist’ theory it should be emphasizes upon the eliminating of oppression of women by men and also by women in all forms. Feminism should not be misunderstood as against the men as it is not against by but the male dominance over the women or for that matter any such domination either by men or women. It is characterized by its political stance and the attempt to advance the social role of women. They have highlighted the problem of unequal political relationship between the sexes, the supremacy of men in every sphere and the subjection of women in most the societies.

 

Post Modernism

Post modernism is a product of modernism and modernist values, a late 20th-century movement outlined by broad level of skepticism, relativism and subjectivism against the prescribed and established set of knowledge. Other features include the suspicion towards the reason and a deep sensitivity for the role of ideology in avowing and nourishing political and economic power. It opposes the modernist statement that there is an objective reality. It believes that the explanatory statement of scientists and historians can be objectively true or false.

Post modernism is not a single unified perspective or a systematic universal philosophy. It includes a range of theoreticians like Francois Lyotard, Mikhail Bakhtin, Paul De Man, Michel Faucault, Roland Barthes, Jean Baudrillard, William E Connolly, Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan, Gaston Bachelard, Richard Rorty, Herbert Marcuse, Luce Irigaray and others.

 

Defining Postmodernism

 

According to Jane Bennett the term postmodernism can be understood in three ways.

First as a sociological designation for an epochal shift in the way collective life is organized (from centralized and hierarchal control towards a network structure). Second as an aesthetic genre (literature that experiments with non-linear narration, a playful architecture of mixed style, an appreciation of popular culture that complicates the distinction between high and low). Finally third as a set of philosophical critiques of teleological or rationalist conceptions of nature, history, power, freedom and subjectivity.

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Opposition of Modernity

The difference between modernism and postmodernism and emergence of post modernism in modernist antipathy is evident. Modernist political theorists like Machiavelli, Montesquieu, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Voltaire and others have contributed toward the idea of representative democracy, rational stature, formal equality and other relevant concepts. Immanuel Kant’s assertion about individual’s autonomy was further strengthened the emancipator quest of modernity.

Postmodernists attacked all such modernist projections and questioned existing established styles of understanding. It interrogates the universality, certainty and objectivity linked to modernism and any such mode of thinking. It also challenges all those system of knowledge that suggests that society’s up gradation towards any kind of development, progress or coherence.

Postmodernist roots are developed on the denial and opposition of the modernist land.

1. At the very first place it challenged the modernist claim that there is an objective natural reality. Postmodernists called this idea as a kind of void realist ideal.

2. Unlike modernist claim reason and logic are not universally valid like laws and domain of knowledge are the same for everyone or let’s say apply equally. Instead for postmodernists whether it is reason or logic they are merely conceptual constructs and only valid within the established set of intellectual traditions in which they often used.

 3. Modernist believes that the human nature is derived from the birth itself rather than learned or induced through social forces. Postmodernists rather insist that almost all aspects of human psychology are wholly socially determined.

4. The explanatory and descriptive statements of historians and scientists can be objectively true or false in the principle. But the post modernists have denied the possibility of any such truth.

 5. Modernists believe that human beings for the better are likely to change themselves and their societies through the use of reason and logic, and through more specialized scientific tools. For them it is reasonable to anticipate that subsequent societies will be more just full, more humane, more enlightened and more prosperous, in away somewhat better than from what they are now. But postmodernists have no such faith in science and technology as a tool of human progress and an enlightened society.

 6. It is possible for modernist to construct general theories that can explain several aspects of the natural and social world within a given realm of knowledge for example a general theory of human history in form of dialectical materialism. Postmodernists have denied any such possibility.

 7. Human beings are capable of acquiring knowledge about natural reality, and on the basis of evidence and certain founded principles, this knowledge can be ultimately justified. Postmodernists reject this kind of philosophical foundationalism.

 

Faucault and Derrida

Though Michel Foucault has declined, he is considered as one of the important postmodernists. He defined the post modernism through two guiding concepts: the power and the discourse. For example, the criminality discourse reflects the people’s view in a certain society about crime and this is the discourse through which the power works. Power as per him is knowledge; means in whole, discourses are ultimately shaped by knowledge.

Faucault seeks to uncover and denounce the ways and the process through which human beings are normalized. It is important to understand that this normalization is not forceful rather the state or society has trained people in a way that they became the willing subjects, who themselves participate in their own oppression. This willingness takes the form of legitimating state. In this sense modern liberal societies are still oppressive and exploitative but the domination is not as overt as in previous times. He severely challenged this legitimization of modern society as it increases the surveillance which is a result of progress and development in science and technology. This modern science and technological advancement are the major tools of modernization.

His idea of surveillance better reflected in the concept of panopticon that fulfils the desire of state and other institutions to monitor, control and do the surveillance over the subjects. So Foucault challenged the whole purpose and argument of modernism and was nearly demolished it

Derrida the other important figure in post modernism whose writings are full of skepticism, tries to challenge the argument and constructed character about the truth of knowledge by examining various oppositions and called it deconstruction. He argued that in attempt to establish a conclusion through logical means ultimately ‘deconstructs’ (logically erode) itself. As e believes that any text can be interpreted in numerous ways, it is despairing to search for a ‘correct’ interpretation hence objective truth is unfeasible. According to him all attempts to represent reality produce not knowledge or truth. But are different representation, none of which can be proven to be better/truer than any other. All social phenomenon and forms of human experience like revolutions, wars, relation between sexes and so on exist only through their representation.

Derrida’s idea of deconstruction signifies his approach of challenging the foundations and hierarchies on which the western political tradition and culture have been based. It questions the entire process of accreditation or assigning of meaning to any phenomenon or thing.

 

Critique of Postmodernism

Postmodernism established itself by critiquing modernism, further it also part to certain criticism. The drawback of the relativism and the anti-foundationalism advocated by postmodernists is that it completely undermines the possibility of a truth or ideas that may qualify as universal political values. But the real problem with this is the acceptance of this premise compels us to believe that the entire history of injustices and its opposition by the weak and marginalized is just absurd.

Secondly postmodernism lack the coherence and a common understanding that can be shared by all. The de-cantered understandings of all categories that make the world meaningful to us make postmodernist discourse appear as incomprehensive and ambiguous. Post modernism is routinely denounced as nihilistic, immoral or politically irresponsible.

 

Important Questions

What is feminism? Discuss different schools of feminism.

Discuss the idea of feminism. Explain the different waves of feminism?

Explain ‘the personal is political’ with reference to the understanding of Susan Molar Okin.

Differentiate between sex and gender. Define how gender plays role in society?

Define postmodernism. How it is different from modernism?

Discuss Faucault and Derrida’s postmodern approach.

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