Identity Politics

Question 1

Frederich Nietzsche

Answer 1

(1844-1900), German philosopher & atheist
Believed West overemphasized rationality and stifled passion and creativity, questioned all values.
Claimed Christianity glorified weakness, envy and mediocrity
Believed pillars of conventional morality needed to be replaced

Question 2

Meanings of the Death of God (5)

Answer 2

1. Religious god is dead
   - God has been killed by science and skepticism
2. Moral absolutes are dead
   - Philosophical notion that the moral ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ are erased (there is no absolute good (like plato believed)
3. Physical absolutes of science are dead
   - All of the absolutes that we have assumed are irrelevant, changes in sciences are not outside our constructed realities

4 .Human power and ambition is linked to the ‘will to power’

• Machiavellian notion of humans and their relationship to power = WOP
• Killing god is one of the applied forms of WOP

5. Challenges to scientific/philosophical method, language, and academia
   - Nietzsche does this by writing in parables to challenge scientific inquiry and rid himself of the ‘objective’ and ‘analytic’ voice

Question 3

The Modern Crisis

Answer 3

Is progress necessarily a good thing? e.g Hiroshima, Holocaust

With the death of god and the death of moral absolutes, individuals are left with no universal, fundamental values to which they can ‘belong’; we are all thus in a perpetual state of free fall.

Creating an incredible freedom but also a sense of debilitating responsibility

Question 4

Death God Conclusion

Answer 4

There are no Truths outside ourselves; no absolutes
- Truth is relative
- No point of origin
We are in free fall
- Ultimate freedom but also responsibility

Question 5

The ‘Madman’

Answer 5

Book written by Nietzsche
The madman in the parable is essentially Zarathustra (from Nietzsche’s later work, Thus Spoke Zarathustra) and a representation of Nietzsche himself.
He is a “madman” because he holds views and opinions that are far removed from those of common people (atheists included).

Question 6

Post-Materialism

Answer 6

Belief in the importance of policy goals beyond one’s immediate self interest as well as one’s prosperity and security

Value orientation that emphasizes self-expression and quality of life over economic and physical security

Question 7

Post-Modernism

Answer 7

Postmodernism is a way of thinking about culture, philosophy, art and many other things. Postmodernism says that there is no real truth. It says that knowledge is always made or invented and not discovered
- There is skepticism of modern age

Question 8

Link between Post-Modernism and Identity Politics

Answer 8

Constructed nature of identity which must be deconstructed at its most fundamental level

• identity politics recognize different ‘truths’ and deny metanarratives
• identity is at the very core of how we construct and deconstruct truths
• identity politics provide an answer to camus’ ‘where do i feel at home’

Question 9

Sex vs Gender

Answer 9

• Sex is a fixed biological given, based on the chromosomes and anatomy that you are given at birth
• Gender is a behaviour and socially constructed/fluid role; HOW masculinity or femininity is PERFORMED in different ways

Question 10

“One is not born but rather becomes a woman”

Answer 10

• Said by Simone de Beauvoir, the second sex, 1949
• The postmodern idea that our gender roles are constructed, esp. feminity
• Women are socialized into their specific role

Question 11

Simone Debeauvoir & The Second Sex (5)

Answer 11

French feminist thinker of 20th C
Author of : The Second Sex 1949 - tries to describe in what ways women are treated like second class citizens:
1. gender as constructed and socialized
2. the ‘otherness’ of women in all human bodies of thought, art, etc, whereby women are defined IN REFERENCE and IN RELATION to men
3. women are objects and not subjects, women are passive not active (working towards idea of ‘male gaze)
4. all of these processes lead to COGNITIVE DISSONANCE for women
5. women must thus be completely independent from femininity imposed on her, be independent from men, and transcend her feminine biology

Question 12

The Public/Private Divide

Answer 12

• Gendered roles of daily life
• Men = public, women = private
• Oikos vs polis
• Men make the social contract (Locke) of the public sphere which highlights political equality of citizens; women are subjugated to the ‘conjugal power’ of husband in private sphere
• Carole Pateman; sexual contract 1980, sexual contract underpins social contract
• JS Mill, argued for legal equality of women but private sphere still first duty

Question 13

First Wave of Feminism

Answer 13

Also referred to as Liberal Feminism
Tracing origins to feminist thought in the late 19th century and early 20th centuries; from 1860-1920s

Argues that women should have the same formal rights as men in the public sphere where equality is demanded in the world of politics & work (ex : voting rights)
- Lack of intersectionality: racist aspects of suffragettes dominated by white women

Question 14

Suffragettes

Answer 14

• Racist and lack of intersectionality despite successful efforts for the vote
• Win Canadian vote in 1918

Question 15

Betty Friedan

Answer 15

• The feminine mystique, 1963
• A journalist working for a women’s magazine; discovers that women were increasingly unhappy because of problems they could not articulate: ‘the problem that has no name’ and they thought they were alone; increase in self-medication, rise in alcoholism and drug addiction (valium)

Created the women’s organization - national organization for women

Question 16

The Femme Mystique

Answer 16

The central theme in Betty Friedan’s (1963) work is described the pervasive dissatisfaction among women in mainstream American society in the post-World War II period.
She coined the term feminine mystique to describe the societal assumption that women could find fulfillment through housework, marriage, sexual passivity, and child rearing alone and prevailing attitudes held that “truly feminine” women had no desire for higher education, careers, or a political voice; rather, they found complete fulfillment in the domestic sphere.
Friedan, however, noted that many housewives were unsatisfied with their lives but had difficulty articulating their feelings. Friedan deemed that unhappiness and inability to live up to the feminine mystique the “problem that has no name.”

Question 17

The “personal is political”

Answer 17

“the personal is political’: male power extends into private sphere and state needs to be aware of the fact

Question 18

Third Wave Feminism & Tenets (6)

Answer 18

Challenging second wave feminism; 1990-present
- Roots of 3WF: feminists of colour; lesbian/queer feminists and theory; post-modernism; cultural feminists ; new generation of feminists
Tenets:
1. Celebrate physical/perspective differences (men/women; amongst women;
2. Challenges notion of single universal view
3. Recognize contradictory identities (identity is fluid and multiple; contradictions of power: we oppress and are oppressed, it’s not us vs. them; women are not just victims)
4. Patriarchy is not necessarily most fundamental form of oppression; ‘belonging’ is complicated and intersectional
5. celebrate women’s bodies but recognize it is the the site of political struggles
6. Appreciate femininity as a connective force

Question 19

Second Wave Feminism & Characteristics (5)

Answer 19

1960s-1980s
Simone de Beauvoir and her thinking (second sex) marked the transition from first to second wave feminism
Characteristics:
1. equality is the goal, in rights and in treatment
2. challenge the public/private divide by challenging the patriarchal structure of society: women need to involve themselves in the private sphere, and men in the public sphere by deconstructing and reconstructing gender roles
3. Patriarchy is the most fundamental, most widespread form of oppression
4. “the personal is political’
5. Conscious raising: feminists need to talk about problems more and not consider them as simply ‘private’ issues

Question 20

Religious Fundamentalism

Answer 20

Religious fundamentalism = to believe that your doctrine alone is true and should be the guiding force in your society in all social, economic, and political aspects

• Seeks to organize politics along religious lines
• Fundamental religious groups become ideological once they seek to enter the political realm

Question 21

Clash of Civilizations

Answer 21

• Samuel Huntington’s study, ‘the clash of civilizations,” 90’s, argues that societies with western values were under attack from non-western civilizations (particularly islam)
• Of 7 civilizations he identifies, islam is the most prone to violence and Huntington holds it responsible for inter + intrastate conflict of modern era : controversial and dismissed as xenophobic but gaining popularity after 9/11

CRITICS: clash of civilization more clash of fundamentalist christians + fundamentalist muslims; clash is exaggerated and bears little resemblance to reality, approaching muslim world as a homogenous entity driven by a hatred for the west

Question 22

Michel Foucault (5)

Answer 22

Critique of Post-Modernism
Believed that it lacked by…
1. a) ‘Rational subject’ is neither rational nor coherent
1. b) ‘Fixed World’ questioned: even physical absolutes
are relative
2. Science/knowledge are inextricably linked to power
3. Universal theories/definitions are not possible
4. History is not Progress
5. Grand narratives are not universal.

Question 23

New Post-Modern Tenets (5)

Answer 23

1. Power structures the world
2. Language/Medium is critical.
3. Individual cannot exist outside of world observed.
4. All knowledge is situated.
5. Deconstruction is key tool