Radical Feminism Flashcards
1
Q
Human Nature
A
- Difference feminists = celebrates the differences between males and females which are all-pervading and deep rooted. Agrees biology determines women’s status but it shouldn’t continue today (seeks equality).
- Women are oppressed in all fields - male dominance is political in nature because it involves the exercise of power, requires a cultural revolution.
- Women will triumph by removing their sexual relations and differences with men.
2
Q
Millet on HN
A
- Women are all capable of freeing themselves from male oppression.
- By engaging in lesbian relationships, completely separating themselves from men.
- BC all relationships are political in a patriarchal society as it involves men exercising power over women.
3
Q
Beauvoir on HN
A
- Developed the idea of women as ‘Other’.
- Men characterise women as different - declares that women are ‘made’ socially, not biologically, to serve their economic and physical ends.
4
Q
State
A
- Reluctant to work with the state because they welcome the reform and developments as but consider them superficial.
- Doesn’t address the systematic nature of discrimination and inequality as patriarchy is deeply rooted, so the state is powerless to combat them. Some have pushed for separationism.
- Required to intervene in the private sphere, for example by providing more extensive and affordable childcare.
5
Q
Millet on State
A
Merely an agent of patriarchy - part of the problem but not the solution.
6
Q
Beauvoir on State
A
- Reinforces a culture that prevents women from expressing their true identity.
- Must grant women the opportunity to make choices like men, escaping housework and their role in marriage as a sex slave by education, legalised abortion and contraception.
7
Q
Economy
A
Calls attention to the gendered nature of economic inequality.
- Women earn less than men.
- Face more obstacles in the labour market - for example, senior jobs tend to be reserved for men (glass ceiling).
- Used as a form of unpaid labour in the home.
8
Q
Millet on Economy
A
- Quasi-socialist - not fundamental to her feminism.
- Notes that the ‘toil of working class women makes cheap labour in factory,’ so it fails to threaten the patriarchy financially or psychologically.
9
Q
Beauvoir on economy
A
Men’s domination of economic life restricts the life choices open to women, for they often also decide a women’s role in society.
10
Q
Society
A
- Campaigns against the sexual oppression of women, and particularly saw pornography as symptomatic of men’s view of women as little more than sex objects.
Responses to patriarchy:
- Abolition of the nuclear family, replaced by communal forms of child rearing and living = to remove male-dominance of the family.
- Escaping the limitations of heterosexual relationships, women can liberate themselves and cease to hate themselves.
- Eliminating biological roles = celebrates the potential of modern biotechnology to free women from their biological enslavement - recommends androgyny with women not needing men to reproduce.
11
Q
Millet on Society
A
- Completely characterised by patriarchy - all pervasive and infests both the public and private spheres. Dual perception of patriarchy of - sees men’s dominance in terms of sexism and heterosexualism.
- Necessary to also achieve sexual liberation = freed by engaging in lesbian relationships and communal living, for all relationships are political in a patriarchal society.
- A revolutionary society would eliminate gender distinctions and embrace androgyny.
12
Q
Beauvoir on Society
A
- Rejects the notion that girls are born with any nurturing instinct; rather, she asserts that they learn it from their parents and schooling.
- Autonomy removed from birth as men determined their inferior role.
- Bevoiur stress ‘otherness’ in discussing of a woman’s place in society, placing women as the ‘second sex’.
